I’m a Man

Bo Diddley recorded Im a Man in Chicago on March 2 1955 for Checker with Jerome Green on maracas, Lester Davenport on harmonica, Otis Spann on piano, Willie Dixon on bass, and Frank Kirkland on drums. The session paired Diddleys vocal and guitar with a stop-time blues arrangement related to Muddy Waters Im Your Hoochie Coochie Man. Released by Checker in 1955 as the B-side of Bo Diddley, Im a Man reached number 1 on the Billboard R&B chart with its A-side. The record helped establish Diddleys Chess-era sound and became one of his defining early recordings. Im a Man became a rock and blues standard and was later recorded by artists including the Yardbirds, the Who, the Spencer Davis Group, and Black Strobe. Its riff, swaggering vocal, and rhythmic feel became central to later garage rock, British R&B, and blues-rock performance.