Little Walter 'Fun facts'
Things you may not have known about Little Walter
May 12th, 1952 was a very significant date in the history of Chicago blues, and
probably the most important day of Little Walter's career. It was the day that
Little Walter recorded his first session as a leader for Leonard Chess, a session
that produced his groundbreaking instrumental "Juke", which of course the song
that has come to be known as "the national anthem of blues harmonica". After the
release and subsequent success of "Juke", according to Jimmy Rogers and others
who were on the scene at the time, if a blues band didn't feature a harp, they
couldn't get a gig in Chicago, and if the harp player couldn't play Juke, he wasn't
considered a real harp player. "Juke" was the song that launched Little Walter
out of sideman status with Muddy's band, and into very successful career as a
solo artist that ultimately eclipsed that of his former employer.
Some 'fun facts' about "Juke":
The recording of "Juke" that was released as a single in 1952 was the very first
take completed of the very first song attempted on the very first session Little
Walter did as a bandleader for the Chess brothers.
For years it was believed that Juke was recorded in the time left over at the
end of a Muddy Waters session; this is incorrect. Little Walter was recording with Muddy's band that day (as he didn't have a band of his own yet),
but the first song recorded at the session was "Juke", followed by multiple takes
of "Can't Hold On Much Longer". It was only after LW had laid down satisfactory
takes of both sides of his first single that Muddy recorded his only song that
day, "Please Have Mercy". So in fact, Muddy was recorded at the end of Little
Walter's session, not the other way around.
"Juke" was recorded at Universal Recorders studio in Chicago by the same recording engineer, Bill Putnam, who had recorded The Harmonicats million selling hit "Peg O' My Heart" a few years earlier.
"Juke" was not only one of the biggest R&B hits of 1952/53, it was also the
biggest hit record released by Chess/Checker up to that date. Only two other Chess
releases had reached the #1 position on the Billboard R&B charts up to that
point: Jackie Brentson's "Rocket 88" (for five weeks in 1951) and Roscoe Gordon's
"Booted" (for one week in 1952). "Juke"was on the Billboard charts for 20 weeks
beginning in September of '52, including an amazing eight weeks at #1. To put this into perspective, consider that all of Muddy Waters' releases
up to that point in his career had spent a combined total of 10 weeks on the Billboard
charts - and Muddy never had a record reach the number #1 position in his entire
career.
On the success of "Juke", Little Walter became the first Chicago blues artist
to play New York's famed Apollo Theater.
"Juke" was the first harmonica instrumental ever to make it onto the Billboard
R&B charts. As far as I know, the only other blues harp instrumentals to ever
make it onto the Billboard charts were "Sad Hours" (which amazingly reached #2
while "Juke" was still on the charts!), "Off The Wall" which reached #8, and "Roller
Coaster" which reached #6, all of which of course are also by Little Walter. One
non-blues harmonica instrumental made the Billboard charts: Stevie Wonder's "Fingertips,
Pt. 2" in 1963, which peaked at #1 for six weeks, and spent a total of 15 weeks
on the charts - which still falls short of the chart success of "Juke".