Vee-Jay Records will release Whiskey & Wimmen: John Lee Hooker's Finest on March 31. The multi-label compilation features songs from Hooker’s Vee-Jay, Specialty, Riverside and Stax Records releases and includes many of his most iconic songs.
Born near Clarksdale, Mississippi, in 1917, the man who would become known as the “King of the Boogie” was destined for blues royalty.
Hooker’s 1948 single, “Boogie Chillun,” sold a million copies and set Hooker on his unstoppable path. Countless recordings followed, not to mention a winding road through different labels and audiences. He was a huge influence on the British Invasion in the early Sixties and was welcomed with open arms by rock audiences around the world.
Hooker is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Blues Hall of Fame and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame; he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and has won four Grammys.
Whiskey & Wimmen: John Lee Hooker's Finest includes many of Hooker’s most exciting and time-honored recordings, showing how an artist who started with literally nothing but his inspiration and talent was able to make a lasting impact on music.
In the proud history of American music there have been a handful of blues artists who really did shape what the music became. They took the primal forces of Mississippi country blues and twisted and turned it into their very own creation.
To hear how Hooker did that over the course of these 16 songs is a blood-rushing history lesson of all that he created. And to have them all on a single disc is as convincing a collection as has ever been assembled that, indeed, John Lee Hooker will remain the “King of the Boogie” forever.
“When so much music of great importance exists, it’s thrilling to continually find ways to share that history with collections like this,” says Concord Bicycle Music’s Chief Catalog Officer Sig Sigworth. “It literally sounds like America at its most exciting, and honors someone who changed the way we hear and feel forever.”
Track Listing: 1. Boom Boom 2. Boogie Chillun 3. Dimples 4. I’m in the Mood 5. I Love You Honey 6. Whiskey and Wimmen 7. I Need Some Money 8. Grinder Man 9. I’m Going Upstairs 10. Big Legs, Tight Skirt 11. No More Doggin’ 12. No Shoes 13. Crawlin’ Kingsnake 14. Frisco Blues 15. It Serve Me Right to Suffer 16. Time Is Marching
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