The Chess Box

Disc 1
1	Moanin' At Midnight 2:55
2	How Many More Years 2:42
3	Howlin' Wolf Boogie 2:38
4	The Wolf Is At Your Door 2:58
5	Mr. Highway Man 2:48
6	Howlin' Wolf Talks, No.1 1:57
7	Bluebird 2:50
8	Saddle My Pony 2:34
9	Well That's All Right 3:03
10	My Last Affair 2:58
11	Just My Kind 3:02
12	Work For Your Money 2:20
13	Mama Died And Left Me 3:14
14	All Night Boogie (All Night Long) 2:14
15	Streamline Woman 2:45
16	Crazy About You Baby 2:22
17	You Gonna Wreck My Life (No Place to Go) Alternate Take 2:35
18	Neighbors 2:46
19	Howlin' Wolf Talks, No. 2 1:47
20	I'm The Wolf 2:52
21	Rockin' Daddy 3:03
22	Baby How Long 2:54
23	Evil 2:53
24	I'll Be Around 3:13
25	Forty-Four 2:50
26	Who Will Be Next? 2:34
Disc 2
1	Don't Mess With My Baby 4:04
2	Smokestack Lightning 2:56
3	You Can't Be Beat 3:06
4	Howlin' Wolf Talks, No. 3 0:56
5	I Asked for Water (She Gave Me Gasoline) 2:47
6	The Natchez Burning 2:09
7	Who's Been Talking? 2:23
8	Tell Me 2:58
9	Sitting on Top of the World 2:35
10	I Didn't Know 2:36
11	Moanin' for My Baby 2:48
12	Change My Way 3:32
13	I Better Go Now 2:43
14	Howlin' for My Darlin' 2:32
15	I've Been Abused 2:38
16	Mr. Airplane Man previously unreleased / Alternate Take 3:21
17	Wang Dang Doodle 2:23
18	Back Door Man 2:48
19	Howlin' Wolf Talks, No. 4 0:26
20	Spoonful 2:44
21	Down In The Bottom 2:35
22	Shake For Me 2:15
23	The Red Rooster 2:29
24	You'll Be Mine 2:27
25	Just Like I Treat You 2:57
26	I Ain't Superstitious 2:54
27	Goin' Down Slow
28	Tail Dragger
Disc 3
1	Hidden Charms 2:22
2	Three Hundred Pounds Of Joy 3:05
3	Built For Comfort 2:39
4	Love Me Darlin' 2:52
5	Killing Floor 2:51
6	My Country Sugar Mama 2:37
7	Louise 2:44
8	I Walked From Dallas 3:15
9	Tell Me What I've Done 2:49
10	Don't Laugh At Me 3:15
11	Ooh Baby (Hold Me) 2:38
12	New Crawlin' King Snake 2:56
13	My Mind Is Ramblin' 2:51
14	Commit A Crime 3:07
15	Dust My Broom 2:55
16	I'm The Wolf previously unreleased / Version 5:08
17	Ain't Goin' Down That Dirt Road previously unreleased / Version 5:51
18	Mary Sue 3:04
19	Hard Luck 3:13
20	The Red Rooster With False Start and Dialogue 5:56
21	Moving 2:44

Barnes & Noble

"I'm three hundred pounds of heavenly joy," Howlin' Wolf sings in that unbelievably guttural wail of his and, well, who's going to argue with him? Wolf, and Muddy Waters were the two most influential bluesmen of the postwar era, and Wolf's work connected whatever dots needed connecting between the electric Chicago blues and rock 'n' roll. If there's one word that describes Wolf's material and his approach to it, it's fierce. Whatever emotion he's trying to express -- rage, ecstasy, lust, the threat of violence -- he always has the knobs cranked all the way to 11. THE CHESS BOX collects all of Wolf's best-known material on three discs. There's "Moanin' at Midnight," "Evil," "Sitting on Top of the World," "Spoonful," "Smokestack Lightnin', "Little Red Rooster", "Back Door Man," "How Many More Years," "Killing Floor," "I Ain't Superstitious," and many others, all of them performed in a feral, almost out-of-control manner that was Wolf's stock in trade. When he sings, you absolutely must pay attention. Many of these songs went on to influence a number of rock 'n' rollers, most notably such English groups as the Yardbirds, Cream, and the Jeff Beck Group, all of whom performed his songs even though they couldn't hope to top the originals. Material from Wolf's 1968 sessions with some of these musicians -- which he loathed -- is featured only on a take of "Red Rooster," during which you can hear Wolf giving instructions to the young upstarts. But everything else is pure, uncut Wolf -- beautiful, but positively scary. Daniel Durchholz

All Music Guide

This three-CD box set currently rates as the best -- and most digestible -- overview of Howlin' Wolf's career. Disc one starts with the Memphis sides that eventually brought him to the label, including hits like "How Many More Years," but also compiling unissued sides that had previously only been available on vinyl bootlegs of dubious origin and fidelity. The disc finishes with an excellent cross section of early Chicago sessions, including classic Wolf tracks like "Evil," "Forty Four," "I'll Be Around," and "Who Will Be Next?" Disc two picks it up from there, guiding listeners from mid- to late-'50s barnburners like "The Natchez Burning" and "I Better Go Now" to the bulk of the Willie Dixon classics. The final disc runs out the last of the Dixon sessions into mid-'60s classics like "Killing Floor," taking the listener to a nice selection of his final recordings. A really nice bonus on this box set is the inclusion on the first two discs of snippets from a 1968 Howlin' Wolf interview and two performances of Wolf playing solo acoustic. If you've heard the sound of the Wolf, here's where you go to get a lot of it in one place. Definitely not the place to start (unless you have money to burn), but maybe just the perfect place to end up. Cub Koda