BB King’s favourite blues singer of all time: “We’ll never see another like him”
As one of the most celebrated guitarists of all time, BB King is responsible for bringing blues to a broader mainstream audience and transcending genre boundaries. Famed for his electrifying playing style, his decades-spanning career saw him revolutionise traditional guitar playing techniques to bring in intelligent new ways of producing a raucous, rock and roll sound.
King became one of the earliest inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a result of his exploits, receiving the accolade in 1987 to sit alongside other legends of his era such as Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Bo Diddley, and his innovations are still omnipotent in today’s musical landscape, whether or not they’re ever used in the context of blues or rock and roll music.
Given that King was also an exceptional singer, known for his instantly recognisable rasping tones, he rarely ever collaborated with other singers from his own era, and simply stayed in his own lane as a totemic figure that blues players looked up to and admired. However, that doesn’t mean that he never had an appreciation for what was happening contemporaneously at the height of his career in the 1950s and ‘60s.
When he was asked in 2004 to submit his ballot for Rolling Stone’s rundown of the greatest vocalists of all time, his selections were broad in that they spanned several decades and included names from a variety of genres, including pop, soul and jazz. However, there was one name sitting towards the top of his list that stood out for how dramatically different his style was, and is arguably one of the rawest blues vocalists to have ever graced the earth.
Far raspier than King ever was, Howlin’ Wolf is arguably the voice that all blues musicians would kill to have. Loaded with a gravelly tone and an ability to project like no other, Howlin’ Wolf’s vocals are the sort of thing that could make the most sedate life stir emphatically from miles away. There’s so much emotion in his deep baritone that it’s almost impossible not to feel affected by his performances, and this is why King rated him as not only the best blues vocalist of all time, but one of the greatest vocalists in any genre.
Sure, he’s not on the same technical level as those above him on King’s ballot, with Sammy Davis Jr occupying the top spot and the likes of Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald also sitting above him, but the amount of character that was poured into every Howlin’ Wolf performance is indicative of just how talented and passionate he was for his craft. You only need to find footage of him at work to see the pained expressions and beads of sweat cascading down his face to be able to understand the level of commitment he had to his craft.
Howlin’ Wolf and King shared a stage on many occasions during their career, and Wolf’s final ever live performance was alongside his greatest admirer in 1975 at the Chicago Amphitheatre. In the biography, Moanin’ at Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin’ Wolf, King described his blues idol in the most effusive way he possibly could. “He was one of a kind,” King declared. “Nobody I heard before him or after him has had that fantastic delivery – that certain something in his voice that seemed like a sword that’d pierce your soul when he’d sing.”
Concluding, “Wolf was already a great singer and musician when I first met him. To my mind, he’s one of the greatest ever. We’ll never see another like him.”
