Moanin' in the Moonlight

CTL-E-5852 · Work · album · 1959

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07106 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-5852.

Moanin' in the Moonlight is the first album by blues singer and harmonica player Howlin' Wolf, released by Chess Records in 1959 as a compilation of singles he had recorded between 1951 and 1959. Its earliest tracks, 'Moanin' at Midnight' and 'How Many More Years,' were cut at Sam Phillips's Memphis Recording Service in Memphis in 1951 and sold to Leonard and Phil Chess; the remaining songs were recorded in Chicago, produced by the Chess brothers and Willie Dixon, with guitarists including Willie Johnson and Hubert Sumlin and Otis Spann on piano. The album gathers signature Wolf performances including 'Smokestack Lightning,' 'Evil,' 'Forty-Four,' and 'I Asked for Water (She Gave Me Gasoline),' and its cover artwork was created by Don Bronstein. Rolling Stone ranked the album No. 477 on its 2020 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and it remains the foundational long-playing document of Wolf's Chess years.

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Scan Tail Wave 1 — 747 Program, Wave 8; first Scan Tail packet at the founder's 40-record size). Gate A (2026-10-16): no Moanin' in the Moonlight entity in the live graph at 3,523 entities (exact / normalized / alias + token containment); ID CTL-E-5852 free. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger, Tier 4 — corpus scan sample, readiness rank 2118 (corpus-gap-candidates-2026-10-15.json ranked clean survivor #169). The scan supplied the NAME STRING ONLY; no fact in this record is sourced to it (CTL-GOV-004). SCOPE GATE: PASS — debut album by graph-homed Chicago blues artist Howlin' Wolf (CTL-E-0002) on Chicago's Chess Records; core Black music canon scope. Vital status: n/a (Work). STATISTICS (sourced, dated): Chess LP-1434 (1959), a compilation of singles recorded 1951–1959; Rolling Stone ranked it No. 477 on its 2020 500 Greatest Albums list. CONFLICT SHOWN: one retailer summary consulted cites a No. 154 Rolling Stone ranking without a list year; the dated 2020 figure (No. 477) is the one asserted here (CTL-GOV-004). MEDIA: photo HELD (original Moanin' in the Moonlight Chess LP-1434 cover artwork by Don Bronstein named as candidate; no file-page verification in this pass); chart FILLED (charts/chart-ctl-e-5852-moanin-in-the-moonlight.svg); video HELD (no matching CTL Short or verified-rights archival video staged); audio HELD (recording is third-party copyrighted material with no CTL rights basis). MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Non-place record; no map attaches at the entity layer.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (CTL-created SVG (black / deep red / gold) built only from this record's sourced facts) | video = HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map catalog (checked by name and variants), and no official/em) | audio = HELD (The recording itself is third-party copyrighted material with no CTL rights basis; no audio is staged in this )

Relationships

• Chess Records — released by
  Moanin' in the Moonlight was released by Chess Records in 1959 (Chess LP-1434).
• Howlin' Wolf — authored by
  Moanin' in the Moonlight (Chess, 1959) is the first album by Howlin' Wolf, compiling his 1951–1959 singles.

Sources

• Wikipedia, "Moanin' in the Moonlight" (accessed 2026-10-16) — 1959 Chess compilation and first Howlin' Wolf album, recordings from 1951–1959, producers, 'Smokestack Lightning,' and the No. 477 ranking on Rolling Stone's 2020 list — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moanin%27_in_the_Moonlight (build store)
• Acoustic Sounds (Chess Records 75 Series), "Howlin' Wolf — Moanin' In The Moonlight" (accessed 2026-10-16) — 1959 Chess debut album, Memphis-to-Chicago recording history, and the No. 477 Rolling Stone ranking — https://store.acousticsounds.com/detail.cfm?n=Howlin_Wolf-Moanin_In_The_Moonlight-180_Gram_Vinyl_Record&print=t&title_id=195379 (build store)
• Music Direct, "Howlin' Wolf — Moanin' in the Moonlight (Vinyl LP)" (accessed 2026-10-16) — 1959 Chess release collecting 1951–59 singles, personnel including Willie Johnson, Hubert Sumlin, Otis Spann, and Willie Dixon, and cover artwork by Don Bronstein — https://www.musicdirect.com/music/vinyl/howlin-wolf-moanin-in-the-moonlight-vinyl-lp/ (build store)
• Discogs, "Howlin' Wolf — Moanin' In The Moonlight" release record (accessed 2026-10-16) — Chess LP-1434 catalog number and recording-session dates in Memphis and Chicago — https://www.discogs.com/release/8677922-Howlin-Wolf-Moanin-In-The-Moonlight (build store)

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Record CTL-E-5852 · Combined Graph record U-07106 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 4 sources · 2 mapped relationships.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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