Howlin’ Wolf first recorded “Smokestack Lightnin'” at Chess Studios in Chicago in January 1956.

The song featured Howlin’ Wolf on vocals and harmonica, Hubert Sumlin and Willie Johnson on guitars, Hosea Le Kennard on piano, Willie Dixon on double bass, and Earl Phillips on drums.

Wolf has said that the song was inspired by watching steam trains pass through the Mississippi countryside at night. The “lightning” refers to the sparks blowing out of the locomotive’s smokestack in the dark

“When I heard Howlin’ Wolf, I said, ‘This is for me. This is where the soul of man never dies.”
– Sun Records’ Sam Phillips

This was one of Howlin’ Wolf’s earliest songs, he’d been performing it as far back as the 1930s with blues originator Charley Patton.

The song is played in the key of E, and unlike traditional twelve bar blues, the whole song is built on one chord.

“The “Smokestack Lightnin’ hit #8 on the Billboard R&B chart, and years later, had a surprise chart at #42 in the UK in 1964.

Smokestack Lightnin has been covered by The Yardbirds in 1968, Soundgarden in 1988, The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan in ’61, and a thirteen minute version on Creedence Clearwater Revival’s debut album. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, and is included in the Library of Congress National Recording Registry.

Whoa, smokestack lightnin’
Shinin’ just like gold
Why don’t you hear me cryin’?
A-whoo-hoo, a-whoo-hoo, whoo

Whoa-oh, tell me, baby
What’s the matter here?
Why don’t you hear me cryin’?
Whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo, whoo

Whoa-oh, tell me, baby
Where did you stay last night?
Why don’t you hear me cryin’?
Whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo, whoo

Whoa-oh, stop your train
Let a poor boy ride
Why don’t you hear me cryin’?
Whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo, whoo

Whoa-oh, fare-you-well
Never see a you no more
Why don’t you hear me cryin’?
Whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo, whoo

Whoa-oh, who been here baby since
I, I been gone a little bitty boy?
Girl, be on
A-whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo, whoo