Leave My Wife Alone

John Lee Hooker recorded Leave My Wife Alone in Chicago in 1954 for Vee-Jay, singing and playing guitar in a stripped-down electric setting. The session placed Hookers driving vocal and guitar figure at the centre of the record with minimal accompaniment. Released by Vee-Jay in 1955, Leave My Wife Alone became one of Hookers important mid-1950s singles and reached the Billboard R&B chart. The record showed how his Detroit boogie style could translate into the Chicago independent-label market. Leave My Wife Alone became a durable John Lee Hooker standard and was later recorded by artists including Buddy Guy and Stevie Ray Vaughan. The song remains one of the clearest examples of Hookers terse lyric style and propulsive electric guitar approach.