"Chicken Shack Boogie" | ||||
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Single by Amos Milburn | ||||
B-side | "It Took a Long, Long Time" | |||
Released | September 1948 | |||
Recorded | November 19, 1947 | |||
Studio | Universal, Los Angeles | |||
Genre | Blues, jump blues | |||
Length | 2:48 | |||
Label | Aladdin | |||
Songwriter(s) | Amos Milburn, Lola Cullum (Anne Cullum) | |||
Amos Milburn singles chronology | ||||
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"Chicken Shack Boogie" is a 1948 jump-boogie song by the West Coast blues artist Amos Milburn. [1] It was the first of four number-one hits on the R&B chart by Milburn. It was the B-side of a 78-RPM single, the A-side of which, "It Took a Long, Long Time", reached number nine on the same chart. [2]
In 1956, Milburn released "Chicken Shack", a faster rock-and-roll version (subsequently included on his 1957 album Let's Have a Party). This version runs about 2:30 and is sometimes titled "Chicken Shack Boogie" on later compilation albums. Earl Palmer was the drummer on this version. [3]
John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often incorporated other elements, including talking blues and early North Mississippi Hill country blues. He developed his own driving-rhythm boogie style, distinct from the 1930s–1940s piano-derived boogie-woogie. Hooker was ranked 35 in Rolling Stone's 2015 list of 100 greatest guitarists.
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a heavy, insistent beat" was becoming more popular. In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, the bands usually consisted of piano, one or two guitars, bass, drums, one or more saxophones, and sometimes background vocalists. R&B lyrical themes often encapsulate the African-American experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy, as well as triumphs and failures in terms of relationships, economics, and aspirations.
Earl Cyril Palmer was an American drummer and one of the inventors of Rock and Roll. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Joseph Amos Milburn was an American rhythm-and-blues singer and pianist, popular in the 1940s and 1950s. He was born in Houston, Texas, and died there 52 years later. One commentator noted, "Milburn excelled at good-natured, upbeat romps about booze and partying, imbued with a vibrant sense of humour and double entendre, as well as vivid, down-home imagery in his lyrics."
Stanley Frederick Webb is the frontman and lead guitarist with the blues band Chicken Shack.
Savoy Brown are an English blues rock band formed in Battersea, south west London, in 1965. Part of the late 1960s blues rock movement, Savoy Brown primarily achieved success in the United States, where they promoted their albums with non-stop touring.
"Boogie Chillen'" or "Boogie Chillun" is a blues song first recorded by John Lee Hooker in 1948. It is a solo performance featuring Hooker's vocal, electric guitar, and rhythmic foot stomps. The lyrics are partly autobiographical and alternate between spoken and sung verses. The song was his debut record release and in 1949, it became the first "down-home" electric blues song to reach number one in the R&B records chart.
"I Put a Spell on You" is a 1956 song written and composed by Jalacy "Screamin' Jay" Hawkins, whose own recording of it was selected as one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. It was also included in Robert Christgau's "Basic Record Library" of 1950s and 1960s recordings—published in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981)—and ranked No. 313 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The selection became a classic cult song covered by a variety of artists and was his greatest commercial success, reportedly surpassing a million copies in sales, even though it failed to make the Billboard pop or R&B charts.
Huey Pierce Smith, known as Huey "Piano" Smith, is an American rhythm-and-blues pianist whose sound was influential in the development of rock and roll.
Chicken Shack are a British blues band, founded in the mid-1960s by Stan Webb, Andy Silvester, and Alan Morley (drums), who were later joined by Christine Perfect in 1967. Chicken Shack has performed with various line-ups, Stan Webb being the only constant member.
Willie Littlefield, Jr., billed as Little Willie Littlefield, was an American R&B and boogie-woogie pianist and singer whose early recordings "formed a vital link between boogie-woogie and rock and roll". Littlefield was regarded as a teenage wonder and overnight sensation when in 1949, at the age of 18, he popularized the triplet piano style on his Modern Records debut single, "It's Midnight". He also recorded the first version of the song "Kansas City", in 1952.
"Dust My Broom" is a blues song originally recorded as "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom" by American blues artist Robert Johnson in 1936. It is a solo performance in the Delta blues-style with Johnson's vocal accompanied by his acoustic guitar. As with many of his songs, it is based on earlier blues songs, the earliest of which has been identified as "I Believe I'll Make a Change", recorded by the Sparks brothers as "Pinetop and Lindberg" in 1932. Johnson's guitar work features an early use of a boogie rhythm pattern, which is seen as a major innovation, as well as a repeating triplets figure.
George Thorogood and the Destroyers is the self-titled debut album by American blues rock band George Thorogood and the Destroyers, released in 1977. Consisting mostly of covers of blues hits, it includes a medley of John Lee Hooker's "House Rent Boogie" and "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer", the latter a song written by Rudy Toombs for Amos Milburn, and later covered by Hooker.
Don Wilkerson was an American soul jazz / R&B tenor saxophonist born in Moreauville, Louisiana, probably better known for his Blue Note Records recordings in the 1960s as bandleader with guitarist Grant Green. Prior to signing with the label, he worked frequently with Cannonball Adderley. Some of his earliest recordings were done in the 1950s as a sideman for Amos Milburn and Ray Charles.
"The Honeydripper " is an R&B song by Joe Liggins and his Honeydrippers which topped the US Billboard R&B chart for 18 weeks, from September 1945 to January 1946.
Jessie Mae Robinson was an American musician and songwriter, whose compositions included many R&B and pop hits of the 1940s and 1950s, including "Black Night", "I Went To Your Wedding", and "Let's Have a Party".
"One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" is a blues song written by Rudy Toombs and recorded by Amos Milburn in 1953. It is one of several drinking songs recorded by Milburn in the early 1950s that placed in the top ten of the Billboard R&B chart. Other artists released popular recordings of the song, including John Lee Hooker in 1966 and George Thorogood in 1977.
"I Wonder" is a 1944 song written and originally performed by Pvt. Cecil Gant. The original version was released on the Bronze label, before Gant re-recorded it for the Gilt-Edge label in Los Angeles. The record made it to number one on the Juke Box Race Records chart and was Pvt. Gant's most successful release. In February 1945, pianist, Roosevelt Sykes hit number one with his version of the song. Roosevelt Sykes version is notable in that it replaced Pvt. Gant's version, at number one on the Juke Box Race Records chart.