"Evil", sometimes listed as "Evil (Is Going On)", is a

Chicago blues Chicago blues is a form of blues music developed in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on earlier blues idioms, such as Delta blues, but performed in an urban style. It developed alongside the Great Migration of the first half of the twentieth cen ...

song written by Willie Dixon.

Howlin' Wolf Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910January 10, 1976), better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was an American blues singer and guitarist. He is regarded as one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. Over a four-decade car ...

recorded the song in Chicago for

Chess Records Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock and r ...

in 1954. It was included on the 1959 compilation album '' Moanin' in the Moonlight''. When he re-recorded it for '' The Howlin' Wolf Album'' in 1969, "Evil" became Wolf's last charting single, reaching number 43 Billboard R&B chart. Howlin' Wolf first recorded the song at Chess' studio in Chicago on May 25, 1954, with sidemen Hubert Sumlin and

Jody Williams Jody Williams (born October 9, 1950) is an American political activist known for her work in banning anti-personnel landmines, her defense of human rights (especially those of women), and her efforts to promote new understandings of securit ...

on guitars, Otis Spann on piano, Willie Dixon on double-bass, and Earl Phillips on drums. Wolf achieves a coarse, emotional performance with his strained singing, lapsing into

falsetto ''Falsetto'' (, ; Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentou ...

. The song, a

twelve-bar blues The 12-bar blues (or blues changes) is one of the most prominent chord progressions in popular music. The blues progression has a distinctive form in lyrics, phrase, chord structure, and duration. In its basic form, it is predominantly based on ...

, is punctuated with a

syncopated In music, syncopation is a variety of rhythms played together to make a piece of music, making part or all of a tune or piece of music off-beat. More simply, syncopation is "a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of rhythm": a "plac ...

backbeat, brief instrumental improvisations, upper-end piano figures, and intermittent

blues harp The Richter-tuned harmonica, or 10-hole harmonica (in Asia) or blues harp (in America), is the most widely known type of harmonica. It is a variety of diatonic harmonica, with ten holes which offer the player 19 notes (10 holes times a draw a ...

provided by Wolf. The lyrics caution about the "evil" that takes place in a man's home when he is away, concluding with "you better watch your happy home".

References

{{authority control 1954 songs Songs written by Willie Dixon Blues songs 1954 singles Howlin' Wolf songs Monster Magnet songs Chess Records singles 1969 singles