Muddy Waters - Mannish Boy/Young Fashioned Ways

7-inch vinyl

Jack White's Third Man Records is reviving some old blues classics, reissuing staples from the Chess Records catalog in partnership with Universal Records. This endeavor will be the third label-based 7" reissue series that Third Man is embarking on, following Sun Records and Tamla Records pressings.

First up is Chicago blues icon Muddy Waters, whose signature first hit on Chess "Rollin' Stone" b/w "Walkin' Blues," originally released in 1950, was reissued, along with "She's All Right" b/w "Sad, Sad Day" and "Mannish Boy" b/w "Young Fashioned Ways," released in 1953 and 1955, respectively.

Originally recorded as the sequel to Muddy Waters' and Willie Dixon's 1954 hit "Hootchie Cootchie Man" and simultaneously as the response to Bo Diddley's 1955 groover "I'm A Man," the A-side "Mannish Boy" itself has since become a blues standard, covered by anyone from Erykah Badu to The Band. This song is a staple in the Chicago blues subgenre and also served as a particularly important inspiration for loads of young British musicians, leading up to what would become the British Invasion of the 1960s.

Notably, this is the only recording not featuring frequent collaborator Little Walter on harmonica (but was one of the few recordings with Junior Wells) during what was arguably Waters' most fruitful creative period for single blues hits. The swelling, adoring screams of women during the chorus makes this the ideal version. The B-side "Young Fashioned Ways" was written by friend and bandmate Willie Dixon and is another essential collaboration between the two pillars of the Chicago blues scene. Great title, too!

"With recordings this iconic, the Third Man Records pressings are not the first time these songs have been given new life, but we are the only label to reissue them as 7" singles, a label priority we are proud of," the label stated.