Chess Blues-Rock Songbook: The Classic Originals (CD)

While Chess Records' legacy as a dominating and shaping force on rock and roll is well chronicled, you don't really the company's signiificance until you're confronted with the music itself. This 2-disc, 36-track compilation drives that point home.

Whether they're blues tunes that have been covered so many times they now are staples of everyone's set list (Muddy Water's "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man," "I Just Want to Make Love to You"; Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man"; or Howlin' Wolf's "Back Door Man"), classics waiting to be covered ("More and More," "Bring It On Home," "Ice Cream Man"), or early rock classics themselves ("Rock and Roll Music," "Johnny B. Goode," "Susie-Q," "See You Later Alligator"), Chess seems to have laid the first set of musical footprints in the snow. This is an essential piece of rock history and a great primer for ground-floor roots music enthusiasts.

Track Listing
Disc 1:
1.(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man - 2:53 (Waters, Muddy)
2.Mother Earth - 2:44 (Memphis Slim)
3.I Don't Know - 3:11 (Mabon, Willie)
4.Sugar Mama - 3:18 (Hooker, John Lee)
5.24 Hours - 3:29 (Boyd, Eddie)
6.Ice Cream Man - 2:47 (Brim, John)
7.Jock-A-Mo - 2:28 (Crawford, Sugar Boy)
8.Wang Dang Doodle - 2:47 (Dixon, Willie)
9.I Just Want to Make Love to You - 2:53 (Waters, Muddy)
10.Reconsider Baby - 3:13 (Fulson, Lowell)
11.Eisenhower Blues - 2:55 (Lenoir, J.B.)
12.My Babe - 2:43 (Little Walter)
13.I'm a Man - 3:03 (Diddley, Bo)
14.The Seventh Son - 2:55 (Mabon, Willie)
15.See You Later, Alligator - 2:51 (Charles, Bobby)
16.Trouble No More - 2:44 (Waters, Muddy)
17.Roll over Beethoven - 2:26 (Berry, Chuck)
18.Who Do You Love? - 2:28 (Diddley, Bo)

Disc 2:
1.Rock & Roll Music - 2:36 (Berry, Chuck)
2.Walking by Myself - 2:49 (Rogers, Jimmy)
3.Mona - 2:23 (Diddley, Bo)
4.Johnny B. Goode - 2:43 (Berry, Chuck)
5.Susie-Q - 2:20 (Hawkins, Dale)
6.Memphis - 2:16 (Berry, Chuck)
7.Back in the U.S.A. - 2:31 (Berry, Chuck)
8.Back Door Man - 2:52 (Howlin' Wolf)
9.Madison Blues - 2:26 (James, Elmore)
10.Spoonful - 2:46 (Howlin' Wolf)
11.You Shook Me - 2:45 (Waters, Muddy)
12.The Red Rooster - 2:30 (Howlin' Wolf)
13.Bring It on Home - 2:40 (Williamson, Sonny Boy)
14.Help Me - 3:11 (Williamson, Sonny Boy)
15.Hi-Heel Sneakers - 2:53 (Tucker, Tommy [Rock])
16.Killing Floor - 2:53 (Howlin' Wolf)
17.More and More - 2:48 (Little Milton)
18.Tell Mama - 2:21 (James, Etta)