John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer and guitarist who recorded from 1948 to 2001. His discography includes recordings issued by various record companies in different formats.
Hooker's music blended elements of Delta blues, talking blues and early North Mississippi hill country blues. His early recordings, like "Boogie Chillen'" (1948) and "Crawling King Snake" (1949), featured Hooker alone on electric guitar.
In February 2022, it was announced that BMG had acquired Hooker's music interests from his estate. The agreement included his entire publishing catalog in addition to his recorded and performance royalty income, as well as a selection of Hooker's recorded catalog spanning Alone, Vol. 1 (1980) through to Black Night Is Falling (2019).
In the 1950s, Hooker often recorded variations of his songs for different studios for an up-front fee. To evade his recording contract with Modern Records, he used various pseudonyms, including John Lee Booker (for Chess Records and Chance Records in 1951âÂÂ1952), Johnny Lee (for De Luxe Records in 1953âÂÂ1954), John Lee, John Lee Cooker, Texas Slim, Delta John, Birmingham Sam and his Magic Guitar, Johnny Williams, and the Boogie Man.