Vee Jay Singles Collection

A good, inexpensive set of Hooker's tunes from the Vee Jay label, mostly from the 1950's, with a few from the early 1960's. There's 40 tracks of some of Hooker's best music when he recorded for the Vee Jay label in Chicago, beginning in 1955. This is the period when Hooker altered his style and began using a small band on a regular basis. But his hypnotic style was still intact, using a rhythm section to bolster his sound and effect.The first track, "Mambo Chillun", from 1955 had the great Jimmy Reed on harp and Eddie Taylor on guitar, plus bass and drums, and along with "Dimples", "I'm So Excited", "Maudie", "Boogie Chillun", "Crawlin' Kingsnake", "I'm Mad Again", and "Boom Boom" (among others), Hooker recorded some of his best music. The later songs from 1961 used more refined players (James Jamerson-bass, Hank Crosby-sax, etc.) which contrasted with Hooker's earlier sound.Nonetheless, this inexpensive set contains some very fine sides from Hooker, and if all you want is a good taste of his music from this period, this is the one collection to buy. The overall sound is good/very good, but (as usual) there's no notes to speak of--only a short essay of skimpy background information. But any info you want to know can be easily found elsewhere.As I've written before concerning all the good/great music the Not Now Music label is releasing, when the copyright laws in Europe fall in line closer to U.S. laws, I wonder what will happen to collections like this. Will they disappear? Who knows. But even if they're still available in 2014, why wait. A good, concise, and inexpensive way to purchase some prime Hooker.

Never an easy bluesman to accompany, John Lee Hooker at Vee-Jay discovered recording accompanists who could and did follow his idiosyncratic style deftly, from Jimmy Reed (harmonica) and Eddie Taylor (guitar) to even the legendary anchors-to-be at Motown (bassist James Jamerson, drummer Benny Benjamin). They hung with the Hook whether he was laying down one of his patented boogies or going slow, down, and dirty---and Hooker going slow, down, and dirty is as haunting as the blues gets. You get a few remakes ("Boogie Chillen," "I'm in the Mood," "Crawling King Snake") and several legendary sides ("Dimples," "Solid Sender," "Time is Marching," and especially "Boom Boom"), and if the remakes won't make you forget his first versions from his preceding Modern period, you'll find they hold very well in their own right here.Most of Hooker's Vee-Jay albums worth seeking out, but if you want a compact idea of just how significant that period of his career was to him---especially given the influence these sides would wield among the British blues kids who drew from him almost as often as they drew from the Chicago bluesmen congregated around Chess and Cobra/Chief---this is the set to get. It's as good as it gets for an early showing that, even working with and challenging a band setting, Hooker was a far deeper bluesman than the endless-boogie image ever suggested.

This encompasses a great period for Hooker where he had some big successes (Dimples) and a lot of singles that probably didn't do a lot commercially. But the entire collection is great, grooving stuff with backing by Eddie Taylor (guitar) and some cameos from Jimmy Reed (on harp). If you want the roots of the Animals' sound from the 60s, here is a great place to start. They lifted "Maudie", "Boom Boom", etc right from the source. I own a couple other Hooker anthologies but this is THEE one in my opinion. If you want more info on this period of Hooker's life, I'd highly recommend "Boogie Man" by Charles Shaar Murray, a definitive biography of the Hook.

This collection is worth every penny I paid. If you own this you don't ever have to buy another Hooker CD. Not that I take my own advice.

These sides show why the man,John Lee Hooker, was and is the world's greatest blues singer as well as an ace guitarist and song writer

I play this a lot at my workplace. Keeps me boogieing happy. Pretty even songs-no stinkers.

やーえがっだ、えがっだ！今聞きましたよー！やっぱ シングル ベストやね！どブルースとはjlフッカーのことですね！ 、ブーンブーンが最高にかっこいいっす！ブルース聞いたことない人はしんどいかな？

I hit the jackpot buying this! Great sound, not over-produced and real rockin' blues.

シングル盤しか買えない当時の黒人向けの盤だけを集めたアルバム。うまいだけでない本当の良さを感じてほしい！

Personally I think JLH's recordings for VeeJay were by far his best.His VeeJay period also coincided with the upswing in the popularity of blues music in the UK during the sixties and 'Dimples' together with 'Boom,Boom' were among the most copied songs during this UK blues period .Jimmy Reed plays harp on a couple of numbers( word has it that he simply 'just turned up'during recording session) .My own personal favorite is' I'm so Excited' ,where the drums are more prominent in what is a high quality,well balanced recording.