John Lee Hooker

About This Site

The reason that this site exists is that I was pretty bewildered by the amount of John Lee Hooker product that is available.  Go to any decent record store and look at the Muddy Waters section.  Now look at the John Lee Hooker section.  The latter should be at least twice as big.

If you ever bought a Jimi Hendrix record, and were confused by the fact that he only released four albums in his lifetime, yet there are probably twenty-odd in most record shops, take that confusion and multiply it by seven hundred for John Lee Hooker's work on CD.

Much of the sheer volume available can be accounted to the fact that not only has the man been recording prolifically since 1948, in his early years, when signed to Modern Records he cut even more records unofficially for other labels, often under different names.

At first, I assembled a five page chronological (or as near as I could get) list of his work, with track listings and cover scans (where available) from online stores and the Much Music discography.  Using that list as reference, I managed to pick some more John Lee Hooker CD's that I wanted to buy (mainly the sixties and seventies stuff).  Then I started wanting to experiment with some of his earlier, more acclaimed work, and found my discography somewhat lacking.

Les Fancourt's Boogie Chillen: A guide to John Lee Hooker on disc convinced me that the releases of John Lee's work COULD be traced and made sense of, but it still didn't really hit the spot, as I was interested in buying CD's, and couldn't be bothered standing in music stores, flicking back and forth through this book trying to figure out more about the CD I was holding in my hand.  I had to get the information into a form that was useful to me.

This is it, people, and I'm figuring it out as I go along.  It's starting to make a bit more sense, too.  A bit.   Hopefully, if you're in the same boat as me, this site will help you find your way to a happier, more enlightened boat, without all the rowing that I had to do.

Property

I don't lay claim to any of the information on this site being 'my information'.  I have done a fair bit of work collating and presenting it all, but it's just facts (fingers crossed!), so if you want to use any of it elsewhere...  Likewise, I'm not precious about people 'borrowing' any cover scans I've done.  If there's no alt. text crediting someone when you hover over a particular cover, then that's one of mine (you'll just see the album name).  You might want to try to get permission from the record company who owns the image if you're going to use it, though.  Any images with a credit ain't mine to permit usage of.

Publishing

Regarding songwriting and publishing credits, I'd dearly have liked to have been accurate here, but after searching various databases which all claimed to be correct, yet all had different answers, I decided that it was a near hopeless venture, and just listed them as they appear on the CD's etc.  If you want to try to figure it out, check the links section for publishing sites.

Help!

If you come across any malfunctioning links, please let me know about 'em (e-mail me).  It's gonna be hard to keep 'em all in check.  Likewise, if you see any mistakes, or have any info that I'm missing (even just the duration of a disc), I'd love to hear about it.

The following information is still required to complete the entries that are there:

Vinyl entries with details required:

• Alone (Tomato 2696601) double album original issue date
• Solo (Labor 4) album original issue date
• Alone (Live in New York) Volume Two (MMG 64005, Germany) album original issue date
• Blues for Big Town (Chess PLP 6061, Various Artists) album original issue date
• The Great (Crown CLP 5353) album original issue date
• New Traditional Guitar Vol. 3 (Negro Art 368, Various Artists) album original issue date
• Blues Guitar Blasters (Ace CHA 232, Various Artists) album original issue date
• Hooker 'n' Heat (Rhino 71105) album original issue date
• House of The Blues (Vogue/Chess 515026, France) album original issue date
• Johnny Lee (Greene Bottle GBS 3130) album original issue date
• If You Miss 'Im...I Got 'Im (MCA 1365) album original issue date
• The Blues (Crown CLP 5157) album original issue date
• Sings The Blues (Crown CLP 5232) album original issue date
• Folk Blues (Crown CLP 5295) album original issue date
• Original Bluesway Sessions (Charly CDX-33, 1989?) album original issue date
• ??? (Kent LP 525) album original issue date, and title
• (Kent 332) I assume this is a single, but I want to be sure
• ...and Seven Nights (Verve Folkways 3003) original issue date
• (On) The Waterfront (Wand LP 689) original issue date
• ??? (Claves LP 82871) original issue date and title
• Shake It Baby (Brunswick EP 10644, Germany, France) original issue date
• Brunswick LP 9012/10912 The Original American Folk Blues Festival (Germany) original issue date
• Polydor LP 46.397 (Germany) original issue date and title
• Decca LP 7/4392 The Original American Folk Blues Festival (U.S) original issue date
• Excello LP 8029 The Original American Folk Blues Festival (Excello EX 8029) original issue date
• ??? (Top Rank EP 136, France) any details
• ??? (Vee-Jay LP 8502) any details
• Best of John Lee Hooker (Vee-Jay LP 1049) original issue date
• The Newport Folk Festival 1960 Vol. 1 (Vanguard 2087) original issue date
• The Newport Folk Festival 1960 Vol. 1 (Vanguard 9083) original issue date
• ??? (Vee-Jay LP 1100) any details
• Blues at Newport (Vanguard LP (7)9145) original issue date
• Ace LP 287 Live at Sugar Hill (CH287) original issue date
• Ace LP 289 Live at Sugar Hill #2 (CH289) original issue date
• Guest Star LP 1902 Teachin' The Blues (Guest Star 1902 - Various Artists) original issue date

Compact Disc entries with details required:

• Alone (Rhino 2CD) need (accurate) track durations, and overall disc duration
• Alone - The Second Concert (Blues Alliance) need confirmation if this has the same liner notes and cover artist as Alone - The First Concert (Blues Alliance)
• Blues for Big Town (Charly) original issue info/date (i.e. was the Charly CD BM 38 the first time this compilation had appeared, or was it out on vinyl, then transferred to CD?), track and disc durations, are the tracks mono or stereo?, is it digitally remastered?
• Coast to Coast Blues Band (BGO) does this have liner notes by Bernard Besman, and if so, are they from the original 1971 album release?
• The Cream (Rhino) does anyone know why the CD release lost three tracks during the transfer from vinyl?, need accurate track durations for the lost tracks, is the Tomato CD deleted?
• Endless Boogie (BGO) original issue date
• Everybody's Blues (Ace) original release date, is it digitally remastered?
• Graveyard Blues (Ace) original release date
• Hooker 'n' Heat (EMI/MoFi) accurate track and disc durations
   - Infinite Boogie (Rhino) any details?   date?  cat. no?  tracks?
   - Turn Up the Heat! (CEMA) has this been deleted?
   - Hooker 'n' Heat the best of.....plus (See For Miles) has this been deleted?
• House of The Blues (Charly) any info?  what's on it?  deleted?
• If You Miss 'Im...I Got 'Im (MCA, Germany) issue date
• It Serve You Right to Suffer (MCA/Impulse) issue date, details on PCD3127 (Jap)
• The Legendary Modern Recordings (Ace) was the Ace CD the first time this set appeared?, what's the catalogue number for the emd/virgin/flair issue?
• Cold Chills (Official) issue date
• Urban Blues (MCA) accurate track durations
• Original Folk Blues of John Lee Hooker (Ace CDCHM 530) date of issue
• Shake It Baby (Charly CDBM 45) original issue date, durations of first two tracks
• 1965 London Sessions (Sequel NEBCD657) original issue date
• ??? (RL CD 0093, U.K.) original issue date and title
• L+R LP/CD 42.017 (Germany) original issue date and title
• Evidence 5CD 26100 original issue date and title
• ??? (Vee-Jay CD 713) title and original issue date
• ??? (Charly CD 176,Ger) any details
• The Hook (Chameleon 74794) original issue date
• Great Bluesman Newport (Vanguard CD 115) original issue date
• ??? (Vanguard CD 77005) any details
• ??? (Vanguard LP/CD 77) any details
• Fantasy CD 24756 ??? (Fantasy 24756) original issue date and title
• Ace CD 938 Live at Sugar Hill #1&2 (CDCHD938) original issue date
• Ace/Original Blues Classics CD 555 Burning Hell (OBCCD 555) original issue date