The blues harmonica participant who was named by Mick Jagger as his favourite, and was a lot beloved by all of the Rolling Stones, was scorching on the charts of early autumn in 1952. Little Walter, a key signing to Chess Information’ Checker label who later turned greatest recognized for his seminal 1955 recording of Willie Dixon’s “My Babe,” was sitting at No. 1 on Billboard’s Rhythm & Blues charts for October 4 that 12 months with the landmark instrumental “Juke.”
Credited to Little Walter & his Night time Cats, the tune was the primary chart entry by the singer and distinctive harmonica man born Marion Walter Jacobs in Marksville, Louisiana. Nonetheless solely 22, he’d been enjoying on Muddy Waters’ Chess singles as a member of his band for a few years, however “Juke” was his huge solo breakthrough.
After coming into the listings in early September, the one was now beginning the second of what can be eight non-consecutive weeks atop the survey referred to as Most Performed Juke Field Rhythm & Blues Information. It began a vastly profitable sequence of releases for Walter that prolonged to 13 extra High 10 R&B hits in a row, additionally together with “Sad Hours,” “Blues With A Feeling,” and “You’re So Fine,” in addition to “My Babe.”
That very same week, Billboard’s Rhythm & Blues Notes column famous that Walter had signed a brand new take care of Shaw Artists and was enjoying a residency on the Hollywood Rendezvous Membership in Chicago, with a band that includes Freddy Bellow on drums and Louis and David Miles on guitars. Walter’s days as a sideman have been behind him.
In late 2018, Walter’s excellent contribution to blues historical past was additional acknowledged with the inclusion of 4 of his tracks on Confessin’ The Blues, a double album compilation of style landmarks hand-picked and curated in affiliation with the Stones themselves. The notes for that set detailed Walter’s struggles with what we’d now name a bipolar character, which steadily landed him in fights together with, successfully, the one which ended his life, in 1968 on the age of simply 37.
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