Little Red Rooster

Willie Dixon's "The Red Rooster"/"Little Red Rooster" uses elements from several earlier blues songs. The theme reflects early twentieth century folk beliefs in the American South that a rooster contributes to peace in the barnyard. The image of the rooster appears in several blues songs from the 1920s and 1930s, with two particular songs identified as precursors. Influential Delta blues musician Charlie Patton's 1929 "Banty Rooster Blues" contains the verses "What you want with a rooster, he won't crow 'fore day" and "I know my dog anywhere I hear him bark", which are analogous to Dixon's "I have a little red rooster, too lazy to crow 'fore day" and "Oh the dogs begin to bark". Some of the lyrics to Memphis Minnie's 1936 acoustic combo blues "If You See My Rooster (Please Run Him Home)" are also similar. For example, she sings "If you see my rooster, please run 'im on back home", while Dixon uses "If you see my little red rooster, please drive 'im home". Additionally, similar melody lines are found in both songs. For her recording, Memphis Minnie does a full-throated imitation of a rooster's crow. Mimicking animal sounds later became a feature of several recordings of "Little Red Rooster". Day's song reached number five on ''Billboard's'' Best Selling Retail Rhythm & Blues Records chart in 1951. ==Howlin' Wolf song==

Delta blues musician Charlie Patton influenced Howlin' Wolf's early musical development. Wolf later recorded adaptations of several Patton songs, including "Spoonful", "Smokestack Lightning", and "Saddle My Pony". Relatives and early friends recall Howlin' Wolf playing a song similar to "The Red Rooster" in the 1930s. Evelyn Sumlin, who was the wife of long-time Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumlin, felt that several of the songs that were later arranged by and credited to Willie Dixon had already been developed by Howlin' Wolf. Howlin' Wolf recorded "The Red Rooster" in Chicago in June 1961. The song is performed as a slow blues in the key of A. Although Dixon biographer Mitsutoshi Inaba notes it as a twelve-bar blues, the changes in the first section vary due to extra beats. Lyrically, it follows the classic AAB blues pattern, where two repeated lines are followed by a second. The opening verse echoes Patton's second verse in "Banty Rooster Blues", which borrows from "The Crowing Rooster", an earlier song by Walter Rhodes: As with many blues songs, Dixon's lyrics are ambiguous and may be seen on several levels. Interpretations of his verses range from the "most overtly phallic song since Blind Lemon Jefferson's [1927] 'Black Snake Moan to an innocuous farm ditty. Although Dixon described it in the latter terms, he added, "I wrote it as a barnyard song really, and some people even take it that way!" The lyrics are delivered in Howlin' Wolf's distinctive vocal style; music writer Bill Janovitz describes it as displaying a "master singer's attention to phrasing and note choice, milking out maximum emotion and nuance from the melody". A key element of the song is the distinctive slide guitar, played by Howlin' Wolf, with backing by long-time accompanist Hubert Sumlin on electric guitar. Both were included on his acclaimed 1962 album ''Howlin' Wolf, often called the Rockin' Chair'' album. "The Red Rooster" also appears on many Howlin' Wolf compilations, including ''Howlin' Wolf: The Chess Box and Howlin' Wolf: His Best – The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection''. Despite their efforts to get it right, according to Wyman, "the Chess people ended up using the old 'backwards' take anyway". ==Sam Cooke rendition==

On February 23, 1963, American soul singer Sam Cooke recorded his interpretation of Willie Dixon's song, calling it "Little Red Rooster". The song was first proposed for Cooke's brother, L.C., who was recording some new material at the time. However, L.C. felt the song was not suitable for him. "I said, 'I'm not a blues singer.' So Sam said, 'Well, I'm gonna do it then, L.C. recalled. Sam Cooke chose to forgo Howlin' Wolf's gutbucket approach and came up with an arrangement that music writer Charles Keil describes as "somewhat more relaxed and respectable". Dixon's lyrics are delivered in Cooke's articulate vocal style, but with an additional verse: Cooke's musical arrangement follows a typical twelve-bar blues structure and is performed at a faster tempo than Howlin' Wolf's. It has been notated as a moderate blues (92 beats per minute) in time in the key of A. The recording took place in Los Angeles with a small group of session musicians. A young Billy Preston uses "playful organ vocalizing" or organ lines to imitate the sounds of a rooster crowing and, following the lyrics, dogs barking and hounds howling. Also backing Cooke are Ray Johnson on piano and Hal Blaine on drums (Barney Kessel has also been mentioned as the guitarist). The song reached number seven on ''Billboard's Hot R&B singles chart. It was also a crossover hit and appeared at number eleven on the broader Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. "Little Red Rooster" is included on Cooke's 1963 album Night Beat, which reached number 62 on the Billboard 200 album chart. It also appears on several Cooke compilation albums, including Portrait of a Legend: 1951–1964, which was released in 2003. == Rolling Stones version==

Background Chess Records Chicago artists, including Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters, influenced the Rolling Stones, with the band taking their name from a Muddy Waters tune and playing from a repertoire of blues songs at the beginning of their career. In 1962, before they had recorded as a group, Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, and Keith Richards attended the first American Folk Blues Festival, whose performers included Howlin' Wolf. Willie Dixon, another Festival player, later recalled "When the Rolling Stones came to Chess studios, they had already met me and doing my songs, especially 'Little Red Rooster. When Dixon and Howlin' Wolf were in London, they met several local rock musicians. Early Stones manager Giorgio Gomelsky described such a meeting: Dixon added, "I left lots of tapes when I was over there [in London ... I told] them anybody who wanted to could go and make a blues song. That's how the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds got their songs". Stones biographer Sean Egan noted, "In many ways, this is Brian Jones' record. [He was] always the biggest blues purist in the band". Although they had already recorded several Chess songs, according to bassist Bill Wyman, "Little Red Rooster" was "a slow, intense blues song ... [that producer Andrew Loog Oldham argued was] totally uncommercial and wrong for our new-found fame ... the tempo made the track virtually undanceable". Jagger commented: Composition and recording Although Wyman noted some early criticism of their rendition, Janovitz described it as "a fairly faithful version [of the original]". While AllMusic reviewer Matthew Greenwald describes their arrangement as having a straight I-IV-V twelve-bar blues progression, they sometimes vary the changes, but not in the same manner as Howlin' Wolf. Jagger uses the lyrics from the original (omitting Cooke's extra verse), but makes one important change—instead of "I got a little red rooster", he sings "I am the little red rooster", although the later verse reverts to "If you see my little red rooster". Instrumentally, Wyman generally follows Dixon's bass lines. Although often reported that the Stones would only agree to appear if Howlin' Wolf (or Muddy Waters) also performed, Keith Richards later explained that the show's producer, Jack Good, was in on the idea to present an original blues artist on prime time network television. During the group's concerts in 1965, Charlie Watts, who did not normally address the audiences, was often brought from behind the drum kit to the front of the stage to introduce "Little Red Rooster" from Jagger's microphone. Wyman recalled particularly enthusiastic responses to the song in Sydney (at the Agricultural Hall in January 1965), Paris (Olympia in April 1965), and Long Beach, California (Long Beach Auditorium on May 16, 1965). "Little Red Rooster" is included on their third American album, The Rolling Stones, Now!, released in February 1965. to February 5, 1965. Radio personality Bob Eubanks wrote in his weekly Record Review column for January 1, 1965, Little Red Rooster', by the Stones, is still KRLA's exclusive ... Don't fret, though, it may still be released in this country". "Mona (I Need You Baby)" from the Rolling Stones' first UK album was also being aired and considered for their next single, but with "Time Is on My Side", "Heart of Stone", and "The Last Time" on the US charts during this same period, neither "Little Red Rooster" or "Mona" were released as singles. However, they were included on Rolling Stones, Now! (by contrast, only "Little Red Rooster" and "The Last Time" were released as singles in the UK during this period). Although it appeared at the top of the British chart for one week, Jagger later commented, "I still dig 'Little Red Rooster', but it didn't sell". Egan believes that actual sales of the record may have fallen short of previous Stones' singles. ==Recognition and influence==

Howlin' Wolf's original "The Red Rooster" is included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of the "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll". As well as being a blues standard, Janovitz calls "Little Red Rooster" a "classic song [that] has been recorded countless times, a warhorse for most late-'60s and 1970s classic rock acts". ==Notes==