Editing Little Walter (section)

===Success===
Jacobs made his first released recordings in 1947 for Bernard Abrams' tiny Ora-Nelle label,<ref>{{Cite book| last = Palmer| first = Robert| author-link = Robert Palmer (American writer)| year = 1982| title = Deep Blues| location = New York City| publisher = [[Penguin Books]]| isbn = 0-14006-223-8| page = 159}}</ref> which operated out of the back room of [https://chicagodetours.com/musicians-maxwell-street-market/ Abrams' Maxwell Radio] and Records store in the heart of the [[Maxwell Street]] district in Chicago.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://campber.people.clemson.edu/parkway.html |title=The Legendary Parkway Label |first1=Robert |last1=Pruter |first2=Robert L. |last2=Campbell |publisher=[[Clemson University]] |location=Clemson, South Carolina |access-date=March 26, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Staff |first=Detours |date=2019-06-05 |title=Three Chicago Musicians of Maxwell Street |url=https://chicagodetours.com/musicians-maxwell-street-market/ |access-date=2024-05-08 |website=Chicago Detours |language=en-US}}</ref> These and several other of his early recordings, like many blues harp recordings of the era, owed a strong stylistic debt to the pioneering blues harmonica player [[Sonny Boy Williamson I]] (John Lee Williamson). Walter joined [[Muddy Waters]]' band in 1948, and by 1950 he was playing acoustic (unamplified) harmonica on Waters's recordings for [[Chess Records]]. The first appearance on record of Little Walter's amplified harmonica was on Waters' "Country Boy" (Chess 1952), recorded on July 11, 1951. For years after his departure from Waters' band in 1952, Chess continued to hire him to play on Waters' recording sessions, and as a result his harmonica is featured on most of Waters' classic recordings of the 1950s.<ref>{{cite magazine| last1 = Wight| first1 = Phil| last2 = Rothwell| first2 = Fred| title = The Complete Muddy Waters Discography| magazine = [[Blues & Rhythm]]| issue = 200| year = 1991| url = http://www.bluesandrhythm.co.uk/documents/200.pdf}}</ref> As a guitarist, Little Walter recorded three songs for the small Parkway label with Waters and [[Leroy Foster (musician)|Baby Face Leroy Foster]] (reissued on CD by [[Delmark Records]] as ''The Blues World of Little Walter'' in 1993) and on a session for Chess backing pianist Eddie Ware. His guitar playing was also occasionally featured  on early Chess sessions with Waters and [[Jimmy Rogers]].<ref name="Glover"/>  In January 1952, talent scout [[Ike Turner]] tried to get Jacobs to record for [[Modern Records]] while in [[Helena, Arkansas|Helena]], but Jacobs was on his way to Mississippi. They played together in [[Clarksdale, Mississippi|Clarksdale]].<ref>{{Cite book| last1 = O'Neal| first1 = Jim| author-link1 = Jim O'Neal| last2 = van Singel| first2 = Amy| title = The Voice of the Blues: Classic Interviews from Living Blues Magazine| publisher = [[Routledge]]| year = 2002| isbn = 978-0-415-93654-5| page = 131| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jfa3AAAAQBAJ&q=ike+turner&pg=PA163}}</ref>

Jacobs had put his career as a bandleader on hold when he joined Waters' band, but he stepped out front again when he recorded under his own name for Chess' subsidiary label [[Checker Records]] on May 12, 1952. The first completed take of the first song attempted at his debut session became his first number one hit, spending eight weeks at the top of the [[Billboard R&B chart|''Billboard'' R&B chart]]. The song was "[[Juke (song)|Juke]]", and it is still the only harmonica instrumental ever to be a number one hit on the ''Billboard'' R&B chart. The original title of the track file was "Your Cat Will Play", but was renamed at Leonard Chess' suggestion. (Three of his other harmonica instrumentals also made the Billboard R&B top 10 while "Juke" was still on the charts.: "Off the Wall" reached number eight, "Roller Coaster" reached number six, and "Sad Hours" reached number two.) "Juke" was the biggest hit to date for any artist on Chess and its affiliated labels and one of the biggest national R&B hits of 1952 securing Walter's position on the Chess artist roster for the next decade.<ref name="Glover"/>

Walter had fourteen top ten hits on the ''Billboard'' R&B charts between 1952 and 1958, including two number one hits (the second being "[[My Babe]]" in 1955), a level of commercial success never achieved by Waters or by his fellow Chess blues artists [[Howlin' Wolf]] and Sonny Boy Williamson II.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Whitburn| first = Joel| authorlink = Joel Whitburn| year = 1988| entry = Artists| title = Top R&B Singles 1942–1988| location = Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin| publisher = [[Record Research]]| isbn = 0-89820-068-7| pages = 261, 197–198, 447}}</ref> Following the pattern of "Juke", most of Little Walter's singles released in the 1950s featured a vocal performance on one side and a harmonica instrumental on the other. Walter or Chess A&R man [[Willie Dixon]] wrote many of his vocal numbers or they adapted them from earlier blues themes. In general, his sound was more modern and up tempo than the popular Chicago blues of the day.  He based it on [[Louis Jordan]]'s saxophone playing which was jazzier and swinging and rhythmically less rigid than that of other, contemporary blues harmonica players.<ref name="Glover"/> 

Jacobs left Waters' band in 1952 and recruited his own backing band, the [[The Aces (blues band)|Aces]], a group that was already working steadily in Chicago backing [[Junior Wells]]. The Aces, the brothers David and Louis Myers on guitars and [[Fred Below]] on drums, were credited as the Jukes on most of the Little Walter records on which they played. By 1955, the members of the Aces had each separately left Walter to pursue other opportunities and were initially replaced by the guitarists [[Robert "Junior" Lockwood]] and [[Luther Tucker]] and drummer [[Odie Payne]]. Among others who worked in Little Walter's recording and touring bands in the 1950s were the guitarists [[Jimmie Lee Robinson]] and [[Freddie Robinson]], and drummer George Hunter. Little Walter also occasionally included saxophone players in his touring bands during this period, among them the young [[Albert Ayler]], and [[Ray Charles]] on one early tour. By the late 1950s, Little Walter no longer employed a regular full-time band, instead hiring various players as needed from the large pool of blues musicians in Chicago.<ref name="Glover"/>

Jacobs often played the harmonica on records by others in the Chess stable of artists, including [[Jimmy Rogers]], [[John Brim]], [[Louisiana Red|Rocky Fuller]], [[Memphis Minnie]], the Coronets, [[Johnny Shines]], Floyd Jones, [[Bo Diddley]], and [[Shel Silverstein]]. He also played on recordings for other labels, backing [[Otis Rush]], [[Johnny "Man" Young]], and [[Robert Nighthawk]].<ref name="Glover"/>

Jacobs suffered from [[alcoholism]] and had a notoriously short temper, which in the late 1950s led to violent altercations, minor scrapes with the law, and increasingly irresponsible behavior. This led to a decline in his fame and fortunes, beginning in the late 1950s. Nonetheless, he toured Europe twice, in 1964 and 1967, (the long-circulated story that he toured the United Kingdom with the [[The Rolling Stones|Rolling Stones]] in 1964 has been refuted by [[Keith Richards]]). The 1967 European tour, as part of the [[American Folk Blues Festival]], resulted in the only known film footage of Little Walter performing. Footage of him backing [[Hound Dog Taylor]] and [[Koko Taylor]] was shown on a television program in Copenhagen, Denmark, on October 11, 1967, and was released on DVD in 2004. Further video of another recently discovered television appearance in Germany during this same tour, showing Jacobs performing his songs "My Babe," "[[Mean Old World]]," and others, was released on DVD in Europe in January 2009; it is the only known footage of him singing. Other television appearances in the UK (in 1964) and the Netherlands (in 1967) have been documented, but no footage of these has yet been uncovered. Jacobs recorded and toured infrequently in the 1960s, playing mainly in and around Chicago.<ref name="Glover"/>