“Little Red Rooster” is a blues standard credited to arranger and songwriter Willie Dixon. The song was first recorded in 1961 by American blues musician Howlin’ Wolf in the Chicago blues style. His vocal and slide guitar playing are key elements of the song. It is rooted in the Delta blues tradition and the theme is derived from folklore. Musical antecedents to “Little Red Rooster” appear in earlier songs by blues artists Charlie Patton and Memphis Minnie.
Delta blues musician Charlie Patton influenced Howlin’ Wolf’s early musical development. Wolf later recorded adaptations of several Patton songs, including “Spoonful” and “Smokestack Lightning”. 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. He 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 12 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.
In February 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. 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.
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'”.
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”. In 1993, a version by the Jesus and Mary Chain was included on their Sound of Speed EP. A review by Tim Sendra for AllMusic called it “a ferocious cover of the Howlin’ Wolf classic dripping with noise and menace”.
