"Spoonful" is a

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

song written by

Willie Dixon William James Dixon (July 1, 1915January 29, 1992) was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was proficient in playing both the upright bass and the guitar, and sang with a distinctive voice, but he ...

and first recorded in 1960 by

Howlin' Wolf Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910January 10, 1976), better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was an American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player. He was at the forefront of transforming acoustic Delta blues into electric Chica ...

. Called "a stark and haunting work", it’s one of Dixon's best known and most interpreted songs.

Etta James Jamesetta Hawkins (January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012), known professionally as Etta James, was an American singer and songwriter. Starting her career in 1954, James frequently performed in Nashville's R&B clubs, collectively known as the Ch ...

and

Harvey Fuqua Harvey Fuqua ( ; July 27, 1929 – July 6, 2010) was an American R&B singer, songwriter, record producer, and record label executive. Fuqua founded the seminal R&B/doo-wop group the Moonglows in the 1950s. He is notable as one of the k ...

had a pop and R&B record chart hit with their duet cover of "Spoonful" in 1961 and it was popularized in the late 1960s by the British rock group

Cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this proces ...

Background and lyrics

Dixon's "Spoonful" is loosely based on "A Spoonful Blues", a song recorded in 1929 by

Charley Patton Charlie Patton (April 1891 (probable) – April 28, 1934), more often spelled Charley Patton, was an American Delta blues musician and songwriter. Considered by many to be the "Father of the Delta Blues", he created an enduring body of America ...

. Earlier related songs include "All I Want Is a Spoonful" by

Papa Charlie Jackson William Henry "Papa Charlie" Jackson (November 10, 1887 – May 7, 1938) was an early African American bluesman and songster who accompanied himself with a banjo guitar, a guitar, or a ukulele. His recording career began in 1924. Much of his l ...

(1925) and " Cocaine Blues" by Luke Jordan (1927). The lyrics relate men's sometimes violent search to satisfy their cravings, with "a spoonful" used mostly as a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...

for pleasures, which have been interpreted as sex, love, and drugs:

Composition and recording

"Spoonful" has a one-chord, modal blues structure found in other songs Dixon wrote for Howlin' Wolf, such as " Wang Dang Doodle" and " Back Door Man", and in Wolf's own " Smokestack Lightning". It uses eight-bar vocal sections with twelve-bar choruses and is performed at a medium blues tempo in the key of E. Music critic Bill Janovitz describes it as "brutal, powerful Wolf bellowing in his raspy style. There are few recordings that equal the powerful force of 'Spoonful,' or, for that matter, any other Wolf/Dixon Chess side." Backing Wolf on vocals are longtime accompanist Hubert Sumlin on guitar, relative newcomer Freddie Robinson on second guitar, and Chess recording veterans

Otis Spann Otis Spann (March 21, 1924, or 1930April 24, 1970) was an American blues musician many consider the leading postwar Chicago blues pianist. Early life Sources differ over Spann's early years. Some state that he was born in Jackson, Mississippi, ...

on piano, Fred Below on drums, and Dixon on double-bass. It has been suggested that

Freddie King Freddie King (born Fred Christian; September 3, 1934December 28, 1976), also billed as Freddy King, was an American blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with Albert King a ...

contributed the second guitar on "Spoonful", but both Sumlin and Robinson insist it was Robinson. In 1962, the song was included on Wolf's second compilation album for Chess, ''

''. In 1968, Wolf reluctantly re-recorded "Spoonful", along with several of his blues classics in Marshall Chess's attempt at updating Wolf's sound for the burgeoning rock market. Unlike his 1971 '' The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions'' (Chess LP-60008), on which he was backed by several rock stars, including

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English Rock music, rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s l ...

Steve Winwood Stephen Lawrence Winwood (born 12 May 1948) is an English musician and songwriter whose genres include blue-eyed soul, rhythm and blues, blues rock, and pop rock. Though primarily a guitarist, keyboard player, and vocalist prominent for his dis ...

Bill Wyman William George Wyman ( né Perks; born 24 October 1936) is an English musician who was the bass guitarist with the rock band the Rolling Stones from 1962 to 1993. Wyman was part of the band's first stable lineup and performed on their first 19 ...

, and

Charlie Watts Charles Robert Watts (2 June 1941 – 24 August 2021) was an English musician who was the drummer of the Rolling Stones from 1963 until his death in 2021. Originally trained as a Graphic designer, graphic artist, Watts developed an interest i ...

, here he was backed by relatively unknown studio session players. The resulting album, '' The Howlin' Wolf Album'', with its "comically bombastic" arrangements and instrumentation, was a musical and commercial failure. Wolf offered his assessment in an interview with ''Rolling Stone'' magazine: "Man ... that stuff's dogshit".

Recognition

The

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the ...

listed Howlin' Wolf's "Spoonful" as one of the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll". It is ranked number 154 on ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' magazine's 2021 list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time", up from number 221 on its 2004 list. In 2010, the song was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame "Classics of Blues Recordings" category. In a statement by the foundation, it was noted that " Otis Rush has stated that Dixon presented 'Spoonful' to him, but the song didn't suit Rush's tastes and so it ended up with Wolf, and soon thereafter with

". James' recording with

as "Etta & Harvey" reached number 12 on ''Billboard'' magazine's Hot R&B Sides chart and number 78 on its

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...

singles chart. However, Wolf’s original "was the one that inspired so many blues and rock bands in the years to come".

Cream renditions

The British rock group Cream recorded "Spoonful" for their 1966 UK debut album, '' Fresh Cream''. They were part of a trend in the mid-1960s by rock artists to record a Willie Dixon song for their debut albums. In an album review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and former senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of multiple artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance ...

described Cream's rendition as "where the swirling instrumental interplay, echo, fuzz tones and overwhelming volume constitute true psychedelic music and also points strongly toward the guitar worship of heavy metal." For the American release of ''Fresh Cream'', " I Feel Free" was substituted for "Spoonful".

Atco Records ATCO Records is an American record label founded in 1955. It is owned by Warner Music Group and operates as an imprint of Atlantic Records. After several decades of dormancy and infrequent activity under alternating Warner Music labels, the com ...

released the song in the US later in 1967 as a two-sided single (with some pressings misspelled as "Spoonfull") but it failed to reach the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 record chart. To fit the 6:30 album track on a 45 rpm record, side one fades out at the beginning of the instrumental break (at 2:25) and side two begins just before the third verse (lasting 2:28).This makes the total running time of both sides 4:53, while the album version is 6:30. The unedited studio version made its US album debut on the '' Best of Cream'' compilation in 1969. Cream frequently played "Spoonful" in concert and the song evolved beyond the blues-rock form of the 1966 recording into a vehicle for extended improvised soloing influenced by the San Francisco music scene of the late 1960s. One such rendering, lasting nearly seventeen minutes, is included on their 1968 album '' Wheels of Fire''. Although the album notes indicate "Live at the Fillmore", "Spoonful" was actually recorded at the Winterland Ballroom.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{Authority control 1960 songs Songs written by Willie Dixon Blues songs 1961 singles Chess Records singles Howlin' Wolf songs Etta James songs Cream (band) songs 1967 singles Song recordings produced by Felix Pappalardi