Howlin' Wolf — East McLamore Avenue, Chicago (Chess Records Sessions)

Howlin' Wolf — Chester Arthur Burnett — recorded his greatest work at Chess Records at 2120 South Michigan Avenue in Chicago, producing a body of electric blues that is among the most powerful and viscerally intense music ever made. 'Smokestack Lightning,' 'Spoonful,' 'Back Door Man,' 'Evil,' 'How Many More Years,' 'Killing Floor,' and 'Little Red Rooster' were all Chess recordings, made with Willie Dixon's compositions and arrangements and a band — including the guitarist Hubert Sumlin — capable of matching Wolf's ferocious vocal and physical presence. The Rolling Stones named 'Little Red Rooster' as the record that made them want to play.

Wolf was born in White Station, Mississippi, in 1910 and learned guitar from Charlie Patton at Dockery Farms, giving him a direct lineage from the first generation of Delta blues. He moved to Chicago in 1952 after Sam Phillips had recorded him in Memphis for Chess — Phillips later said Wolf was the greatest talent he ever recorded. His rivalry with Muddy Waters for dominance of the Chicago blues scene was one of music's great competitions, and both men were elevated by it.

Chess Records' 2120 South Michigan Avenue building has been preserved as the Blues Heaven Foundation, a museum dedicated to Willie Dixon and the Chess legacy. The Rolling Stones referenced the address in '2120 South Michigan Ave,' an instrumental recorded at the studio in 1964. Tours of the building are available.