Standard of the Week: 'Boom Boom'

John Lee Hooker's classic blues standard 'Boom Boom' entered the Billboard charts in the Pop and  R&B sections today in 1962. To celebrate it's 52 years of release, I thought I'd make in this weeks standard. 

The song's appeal is in the repeated riff in stop time, and the boogie jam in the middle. In live situations, the boogie jam would extend almost forever with each musician taking extensive solos and John Lee Hooker wailing with his raspy voice. 

What makes it also a bit unusual too is that unlike other bluesmen such as Muddy Waters or Albert King, is that Hooker is primarily known as a solo artist; with this song he is accompanied by a backup band and it led to great sounding jams. 

Here's the original studio recording:

And here's a live video version:

The song was inducted into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame's list "The Songs That Shaped Rock n' Roll" as well as the Blues Hall of Fame in the "Classic Blues Recording" section.

The song was covered was dozens of artists, including:

The Animals:

Bruce Springsteen: 

Eric Clapton:

ZZ Top (with John Lee Hooker)

and... there's a German Metal version: