| His Best | |
| Type: | greatest |
| Artist: | Little Walter |
| Cover: | His Best Little Walter.jpg |
| Alt: | Blues musician Little Walter playing a chromatic harmonica. |
| Released: | [1] |
| Recorded: | May 12, 1952 – December 1960 in Chicago, Illinois[2] |
| Genre: | Chicago blues |
| Label: | Chess/MCA |
| Producer: | Leonard Chess, Phil Chess, Willie Dixon, Andy McKaie |
| Compiler: | Andy McKaie, Billy Altman |
| Prev Title: | Confessin' the Blues |
| Prev Year: | 1996 |
| Next Title: | Little Walter & Otis Rush |
| Next Year: | 2000 |
His Best is a greatest hits album by Chicago blues harmonica player Little Walter, released on June 17, 1997 by MCA and Chess Records as a part of The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection (see 1997 in music). The album is seen as the CD successor to the 1958 The Best of Little Walter and features ten of the songs from that album.
"Juke" was Little Walter's first solo recording for Leonard Chess[3] and reached #1 on the R&B Singles chart. A harmonica instrumental, it is Walter's most famous composition.
Adapted from a 1942 T-Bone Walker song, "Mean Old World" became a #6 R&B chart success for Walter.
Walter's rendition reached #2 on the R&B Single chart[4] and made the song a harmonica-blues standard. "Blues with a Feeling" was originally recorded by Rabon Tarrant with Jack McVea and His All Stars in 1947.
Written by Willie Dixon, "My Babe" was Walter's second #1 on the R&B Charts.[4] It is perhaps Walter's best-known vocal performance.
The song "Roller Coaster" is an instrumental version of the 1955 Bo Diddley song "You Don't Love Me (You Don't Care)".[5] The song reached #6 on the R&B charts.[4]
Although "It Ain't Right" did not chart, it was later adapted by other musicians, including John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, who recorded it as the closing track to their debut album Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (Clapton has identified Little Walter as his favorite harmonica player).[6]
Walter's rendition of "Key to the Highway" reached #6 and was his second to last charting single.[4] His rendition became a blues standard, performed and recorded by a variety of artists. It was originally recorded by Charlie Segar in 1940.
One of Walter's later recordings, it was released in 1962. Buddy Johnson originally recorded the song as "I'm Just Your Fool" in 1953; in 2010, "Just Your Fool" became a popular single by Cyndi Lauper.
According to liner notes: