The credit for that bending, hypnotic riff goes to guitarist Hubert Sumlin, who told journalist Ted Drozdowski, “Wolf made my ass come up with that come up with that part.”Ĭhuck Berry’s popular song about a country boy who can play the guitar “just like ringing a bell” sizzles from the opening note, and it is no surprise that it has been played on Spotify almost 100 million times. Although Wolf’s growling, howling vocals are a key to the song’s popularity, it also contained one of the finest riffs in blues.
When he recorded for Chess Records in 1956, he returned to “Smokestack Lightnin’” – it was listed as “Smoke Stack Lightning” on the original pressing – a song Wolf used to sing as a boy watching the trains go by in the Mississippi town, White Station, where he was born in 1910. Howlin’ Wolf: Smokestack Lightnin’ (1956)Ĭhester Arthur Burnett (named after the 21st President of the United States) took the name Howlin’ Wolf when he became a professional singer. It had that beat, and I just kept that beat up and I called it “Boogie Chillen’.” The song had a powerful influence on BB King as he was starting out in his career as a radio DJ. When I was a little kid I heard my stepfather Will Moore do it years and years before. John Lee Hooker, the blues master whose introduction and hook on 1962’s “Boom Boom” is so mesmerizing, had 13 years earlier come up with the ringing amplified guitar riff for “Boogie Chillen’.” He later said: “I wrote that song in Detroit when I was sitting around strumming my guitar. Elvis Presley loved Tharpe’s singing, and particularly admired her guitar playing. Arkansas-born Tharpe is often referred to as “the godmother of rock and roll” for her pioneering guitar technique and her ability to write a searing guitar hook. Sister Rosetta Tharpe was a cultural trailblazer and her 1947 Decca Records hit “Above My Head (I Hear Music In The Air)” contains all the elements that made her so popular: inspired gospel singing and rousing guitar playing. Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Above My Head (I Hear Music In The Air) (1947) While you’re reading, listen to our Best Bass Guitar Riffs playlist here.Īnd now, here are 40 of the best guitar riffs of all time.
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