Chess Blues Classics: 1947 to 1956 (1997)

About this title: Part of a two-volume set as part of MCA's Chess 50th Anniversary collection, this offers a 16-track thumbnail sketch of the sounds that made the label the tops in the blues field. Beginning with two Aristocrat sides (the label's original moniker) from 1948 and 1949 featuring Muddy Waters ("I Can't Be Satisfied") and Little Johnny Jones ("Big Town Playboy" with Muddy on backup guitar), the collection rolls through its treasures chronologically, virtually cherry-picking the hits from the innumerable classics stored in the Chess vaults. With Jimmy Rogers' "That's All Right," Eddie Boyd's "Twenty ... read more

Tracks:

1. I Can't Be Satisfied [Morganfield]
2. Big Town Playboy [Taylor]
3. That's All Right [Rogers]
4. Long Distance Call [Morganfield]
5. Sugar Mama [Hooker]
6. Twenty-Four Hours [Boyd]
7. Blues With a Feeling [Little Walter]
8. I Just Want to Make Love to You [Dixon]
9. Reconsider Baby [Fulson]
10. Eisenhower Blues [Lenoir]
11. My Babe [Dixon]
12. I'm a Man [Diddley]
13. Don't Start Me to Talkin' [Williamson]
14. Smokestack Lightning [Howlin' Wolf]
15. Twenty-Nine Ways to My Baby's Door [Dixon]
16. Rock Me [Morganfield]

Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is further described below.