Smokestack Lightning
1956 song by Howlin' Wolf
title: "Smokestack Lightning" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1956-songs", "blues-songs", "1956-singles", "howlin'-wolf-songs", "the-yardbirds-songs", "grammy-hall-of-fame-award-recipients", "united-states-national-recording-registry-recordings", "chess-records-singles", "songs-about-trains"] description: "1956 song by Howlin' Wolf" topic_path: "arts/music" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokestack_Lightning" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary 1956 song by Howlin' Wolf ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox song"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Smoke Stack Lightning |
| cover | Smoke Stack Lightning single cover.jpg |
| type | single |
| artist | Howlin' Wolf |
| B-side | You Can't Be Beat |
| released | |
| recorded | January 1956 |
| studio | Chess, Chicago |
| genre | Blues |
| length | |
| label | Chess |
| writer | Chester Burnett Howlin' Wolf |
| producer | Leonard Chess, Phil Chess, Willie Dixon |
| prev_title | Come to Me, Baby |
| prev_year | 1955 |
| next_title | I Asked for Water |
| next_year | 1956 |
| :: |
::callout[type=note] the Howlin' Wolf song ::
| name = Smoke Stack Lightning | cover = Smoke Stack Lightning single cover.jpg | alt = | type = single | artist = Howlin' Wolf | B-side = You Can't Be Beat | released = | recorded = January 1956 | studio = Chess, Chicago | genre = Blues | length = | label = Chess | writer = Chester Burnett Howlin' Wolf | producer = Leonard Chess, Phil Chess, Willie Dixon | prev_title = Come to Me, Baby | prev_year = 1955 | next_title = I Asked for Water | next_year = 1956 "Smokestack Lightning" (also "Smoke Stack Lightning" or "'''Smokestack Lightnin''''") is a blues song recorded by Howlin' Wolf in 1956. It became one of his most popular and influential songs. It is based on earlier blues songs, and numerous artists later interpreted it.
Background
Wolf had performed "Smokestack Lightning" in one form or another at least by the early 1930s, | last1 = Segrest | first1 = James | last2 = Hoffman | first2 = Mark | title = Moanin' at Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin' Wolf | location = New York City | publisher = Pantheon Books | year = 2004 | isbn = 0-375-42246-3 | pages = 20, 126 | url = https://archive.org/details/moaninatmidnight00segr/page/20 | last = Palmer | first = Robert | author-link = Robert Palmer (American writer) | title = Deep Blues | year = 1982 | location = New York City | publisher = Penguin Books | isbn = 0-14006-223-8 | page = 231 | url = https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/231 | last = Evans | first = David | author-link = David Evans (musicologist) | title = Big Road Blues: Tradition and Creativity in the Folk Blues | location = Boston, Massachusetts | publisher = Da Capo Press | year = 1987 | isbn = 978-0-306-80300-0 | page = 274 | url = https://archive.org/details/bigroadbluestrad0000evan/page/274
Original song
At Chess' studio in Chicago in January 1956, Howlin' Wolf recorded "Smokestack Lightning". The song takes the form of "a propulsive, one-chord vamp, nominally in E major but with the flatted blue notes that make it sound like E minor", and lyrically it is "a pastiche of ancient blues lines and train references, timeless and evocative". Longtime Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumlin is credited with the distinctive guitar line. Howlin' Wolf sang and played harmonica, backed by pianist Hosea Lee Kennard, guitarists Willie Johnson and Hubert Sumlin, bassist Willie Dixon, and drummer Earl Phillips.
In 1956, "Smokestack Lightning" reached number 11 on the Billboard R&B chart. As the UK experienced an R&B boom in the early 1960s, British R&B groups regularly covered "Smokestack Lightning" in their live acts. Due to the song's renewed popularity, Pye International Records issued it in the UK on a moderately successful EP in late1963 and then on a single the following year, It was later included on the albums Moanin' in the Moonlight and The Howlin' Wolf Album.
Recognition
In a song review for AllMusic, Bill Janovitz described "Smokestack Lightning" as "almost like a distillation of the essence of the blues... a pleasingly primitive and raw representation of the blues, pure and chant-like. Wolf truly sounds like a man in otherwise inexpressible agony, flailing for words." In 1999, the song received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award, honoring its lasting historical significance. | url = http://www.grammy.org/recording-academy/awards/hall-of-fame#s | title = Grammy Hall of Fame Awards – Past Recipients | website = Grammy.org | year = 1999 | access-date = March 20, 2011 | author = Rolling Stone | date = December 9, 2004 | title = The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time | magazine = Rolling Stone | issue = 963 | url = https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-500-greatest-songs-of-all-time-20110407/howlin-wolf-smokestack-lightning-20110526 | access-date = September 3, 2013 | url = http://www.rockhall.com/exhibithighlights/500-songs-gj | title = 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll | website = Rock and Roll Hall of Fame | year = 1995 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070502032502/http://www.rockhall.com/exhibithighlights/500-songs-gj | archive-date = 2007-05-02 | access-date = March 20, 2011 | url-status = dead | url = https://blues.org/blues_hof_inductee/smoke-stack-lightning-smokestack-lightnin-howlin-wolf-chess-1956/ | author = Blues Foundation | title = 1985 Hall of Fame Inductees: Smoke Stack Lightning (Smokestack Lightnin') – Howlin' Wolf (Chess, 1956) | website = The Blues Foundation | date = November 10, 2016 | access-date = February 9, 2017}} and, in 2009, it was selected for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry of the U.S. Library of Congress. | url = https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/recording-registry/complete-national-recording-registry-listing/ | title = Complete National Recording Registry Listing | website = U.S. Library of Congress | access-date = August 3, 2014
Janovitz also identifies "Smokestack Lightning" as a blues standard "open to varied interpretation, covered by artists ranging from the Yardbirds to Soundgarden, all stamping their personal imprint on the song". Clapton identifies the Yardbirds' performances of the song as the group's most popular live number. | last = Clapton | first = Eric | author-link = Eric Clapton | title = Clapton: The Autobiography | year = 2007 | location = New York City | publisher = Broadway Books | isbn = 978-0-7679-2536-5 | page = 47 | first1 = Cub | last1 = Koda | author-link1 = Cub Koda | first2 = Gregg | last2 = Russo | title = Ultimate! | others = The Yardbirds | type = Boxed set booklet | year = 2001 | location = Los Angeles | publisher = Rhino Records | id = R2 79825 | OCLC = 781357622 | page = 26
References
References
- 1928, Victor No. 21279
- 1930, OKeh 8807
- 1930, Paramount 13014
- Janovitz, Bill. "Howlin' Wolf: 'Smokestack Lightning' – Review".
- Willie Johnson or [[Pat Hare]] played on the earlier "Crying at Daybreak".
- Herzhaft, Gerard. (1992). "Smokestack Lightning". [[University of Arkansas Press]].
- (2003). "The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society". [[Bloomsbury Academic]].
- "Howlin' Wolf – Singles".
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::