Artist · chart history · #163 in indie & aaa artist polls
John Lee Hooker
Solo artist Coahoma County United States US blues singer, songwriter & guitarist
John Lee Hooker is an artist from Coahoma County. John Lee Hooker has 9 chart appearances on 8 radio countdowns from 4 stations on RockLists, spanning 2001–2023. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Boom Boom”, which appears on 6 lists with a best position of #184. The station that charted John Lee Hooker most often is WXPN (Philadelphia, PA), with 3 appearances.
John Lee Hooker, a sharecropper's son out of Coahoma County, took the Delta blues up to Detroit and plugged it in, and what came out was his own: a driving, hypnotic boogie that owed nothing to the piano-based boogie-woogie that came before it. He folded in talking blues and early North Mississippi hill country blues, growled over the top, and the grooves sound as primal as anything ever recorded.
The songs run like a history of the form: "Boogie Chillen'" in 1948, "Crawling King Snake" in 1949, "Dimples" in 1956, "Boom Boom", and "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" in 1966, with records out on labels including Modern, Chess and Flair. Then came a late-career run. The Healer in 1989, Mr. Lucky in 1991, Chill Out in 1995 and Don't Look Back in 1997 all sold on both sides of the Atlantic, and they brought him Grammys: for "I'm in the Mood" from The Healer, for Chill Out, and a double for Don't Look Back, one of them for his team-up with Van Morrison.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him in 1991, he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000, and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He died in 2001.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by John Lee Hooker on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boom Boom | 6 | #184 | – | – | |
| 2 | I'm in the Mood | 1 | #1462 | – | – | |
| 3 | The Motor City Is Burning | 1 | #667 | – | – |
Every countdown appearance
| Year | # | Song | Countdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 303 | Boom Boom | WYEP Countdown to Fall 2023 |
| 2023 | 667 | The Motor City Is Burning | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places |
| 2020 | 1705 | Boom Boom | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2012 | 184 | Boom Boom | WYEP Top 500 Songs Countdown |
| 2009 | 690 | Boom Boom | WYEP 913 Essential Songs |
| 2006 | 166 | Artist ranking | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Artists (2006) |
| 2004 | 830 | Boom Boom | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2004) |
| 2001 | 1462 | I'm in the Mood | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2001 | 1526 | Boom Boom | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time |
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