1947-1955: His Best

Product Details

Artist : Muddy Waters
Format : Best of
Binding : Audio CD
EAN : 0076732937020
Label : Universal Music Group
Number of Discs : 1
Product Group : Music
Release Date : 1997-03-25
UPC : 076732937020

ASIN : B000005KQH

Track Listings for

Disc-1
1. I Can't Be Satisfied
2. I Feel Like Going Home
3. Train Fare Blues
4. Rollin' and Tumblin', Pt. 1
5. Rollin' Stone
6. Louisiana Blues
7. Long Distance Call
8. Honey Bee
9. She Moves Me
10. Still a Fool
11. Standing Around Crying
12. Baby Please Don't Go
13. I Want You to Love Me
14. (I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man
15. I Just Want to Make Love to You
16. I'm Ready
17. Young Fashioned Ways
18. Mannish Boy
19. Sugar Sweet
20. Trouble No More

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Editorial Reviews

From Amazon.co.uk

One of the best recordings in Chess Records' 50th Anniverary series is the first of two bookend Muddy Waters collections, His Best 1947-55. Documenting Waters's most creatively and commercially successful years at Aristocrat/Chess, this collection begins with his formative years and ends with Waters at his peak. So you're in for a lot of terrific bottleneck slide guitar work as well as electric Chicago blues; what's to criticize? Superb remasterings of "I Can't Be Satisfied", "Rollin' and Tumblin'," "I'm Ready", and "Mannish Boy" are simply beyond reproach. With simple bass accompaniment from Ernest "Big" Crawford, Waters's bottleneck tracks are spare, haunting and, quite frankly, perfect country blues. And listening to Waters, Little Walter, Willie Dixon, and Jimmy Rogers piece together (and perfect very quickly) the classic Chicago sound is pure blues epiphany. At the very least, this collection shows you why Waters's rollicking stop-time classics like "Mannish Boy" and "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man" have sparked endless imitations over the years--and why nobody has played them better since. --Ken Hohman

Amazon.com essential recording

One of the best recordings in Chess Records' 50th Anniverary series is the first of two bookend Muddy Waters collections, His Best 1947-55. Documenting Waters's most creatively and commercially successful years at Aristocrat/Chess, this CD begins with his formative years and ends with Waters at his peak. So you're in for a lot of terrific bottleneck slide guitar work as well as electric Chicago blues. What's to criticize? Superb remasterings of "I Can't Be Satisfied," "Rollin' and Tumblin'," "I'm Ready," and "Mannish Boy" are simply beyond reproach. With simple bass accompaniment from Ernest "Big" Crawford, Waters's bottleneck tracks are spare, haunting and, quite frankly, perfect country blues. And listening to Waters, Little Walter, Willie Dixon, and Jimmy Rogers piece together (and perfect very quickly) the classic Chicago sound is pure blues epiphany. At the very least, this collection shows you why Waters's rollicking stop-time classics like "Mannish Boy" and "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man" have sparked endless imitations over the years--and why nobody has played them better since. --Ken Hohman

Chronique amazon.fr

Probablement l'un des musiciens les plus influents du siècle passé tous styles confondus, Muddy Waters est irrémédiablement lié à Chess, label de Chicago qui doit son succès à son style de blues électrique sidérant et premier label à lui faire confiance. Cette compilation de vingt titres est une excellente introduction à son début de période, reprenant sur une dizaine d'années ses morceaux les plus représentatifs comme "Trouble No More", "I Feel Like Going Home" qui parle de sa nostalgie pour son Mississippi natal, "Baby Please Don't Go", ou "Standing Around And Crying". Indispensable. --Florent Mazzoleni

Customer Reviews

Blues from heaven (2004-04-27)

This album blew my mind and is essential listening for any lover of blues, rock or any form of music(interested listeners are requested to also check out Howlin' Wolf 'His Best' CD issued simultaneously by Chess Records).

Nearly 50 odd years later the music sounds as fresh as yesterday. If this isn't where all the rock maestros of later years got their sonic ideas, it should have been.

Great Classic Music (2004-01-03)

These are the seminal years of the second, the electric wave of Chicago Blues. Muddy Water's collaborations, especially with Willie Dixon here, created the modern Chicago blues which replaced the older acoustic style represented best by Tampa Red and Big Maceo, and by Lil Hardin Armstrong and Lonnie Johnson collaboration. The older smaller tighter, more person (and it is hard to talk about anything more personal than even the least well prepared Muddy sides),blues. The performances are breathtaking in their strength. You know this man, and you know more about yourself after you hear this.

Excellent compilation (2003-12-08)

"Excellent compilation", eh? So why only four stars?Well, the track selection is really good, bringing together almost all the best of Muddy Waters' rough, muscular blues. Or rather, the best of 1947-55, which is why this is "only" a four star-compilation: It's not a career spanning retrospective, and it doesn't work all that well on its own.

But get this CD along with its companion volume, "His Best: 1956-1964", which also features 20 tracks, and you'll have a really fine career overview, second only to the three-disc "Chess Box" set (and perhaps the 50-track "The Anthology: 1947-1972").

This CD only has one significant flaw: A production error means than a sloppy alternate take of "Hoochie Coochie Man" is included instead of the master. Otherwise, it's just about as fine a compilation as you could wish for, including Muddy's first single, the slashing acoustic slide guitar blues "I Can't Be Satisfied", and tough, electric Chicago classics like "Honey Bee", "I'm Ready", "Trouble No More", and "I Just Want To Make Love To You".Just remember that this isn't the definitive word on Muddy Waters - he made superb songs after 1955 as well.

There is not a finer collection... (2003-08-06)

...of Muddy's earlier works out there to my knowledge. It features such essentials as "Can't Be Satisfied", "Hoochie Coochie Man", and "Mannish Boy", showing Muddy's transition from the raw Delta blues to Chicago blues style. An excellent album. Highly recommended.

5-stars ...OBVIOUSLY (2003-06-20)

B.B. King called Muddy Waters the greatest of the great and this CD demonstrates why. Rough. Raw. Filled with emotion. Performed by the greatest blues band ever assembled: Muddy, Jimmy Rogers, Otis Spann, Little Walter, Fred Below and on many cuts, Willie Dixon on bass. And some people thought that Cream was a supergroup! This is the Book of Revelation when it comes to the blues, but check out Muddy's "Folksinger" as well to get another side to this giant of American music, right up there with the Duke, Satchmo, Hank Williams, etc. An essential CD for anyone who considers him/herself to be a serious listener of music...and I don;t mean just the blues.

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