The Story of Chess Records

In late 1948, Muddy Waters burst upon the Chicago music scene with his first record on the Aristocrat label. In 1950, Leonard and Phil Chess became sole owners of the label and changed its name to Chess Records.

The Chess story evolved because Chicago was the chosen destination of two distinct migrations, of rural blacks from the South and European Jews. This relatively small record label had, within ten years, irrevocably altered the course of twentieth-century popular music, introducing black music to white America and to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and every rock musician since. The Story of Chess Records is the first book to be devoted to the label.