Howlin' Wolf

Howlin' Wolf (1910-1976) was a U.S. blues musician.

Born Chester Arthur Burnett on 10th June 1910 in White Station near West Point, Mississippi, he was nicknamed "Big Foot Chester" and "Bull Cow" in his early years, and he explained the origin of the name "Howlin' Wolf" thus: "I got that from my grandfather. He used to tell me stories about the wolves in that part of the country."

He survived a grim childhood and youth as a sharecropper in Mississippi. He began his career by playing and singing with the first Delta blues stars for two decades in juke joints. The How Many More Years Songfacts reports that by 1948, Howlin' Wolf had established himself within the Memphis community as something of a local celebrity. The Chicago bluesman had a 15-minute radio show to help advertise his local appearances and he started recording in 1951, after Sun Studio founder, Sam Phillips, heard him on his radio show. The first two songs that Wolf laid down were this track, along with "Moanin' At Midnight," on August 15, 1951.

He was present at the birth of rock ‘n’ roll in Memphis, where Sam Phillips - who also discovered Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis - called Wolf his “greatest discovery”. Wolf helped define the sound of electric blues and vied with rival Muddy Waters as the king of Chicago blues. He ended his career performing and recording with the world’s most famous rock stars. His passion for music kept him performing - despite devastating physical problems - right up to his death on 10th January 1976.

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