Chess Records was one of the premier blues labels of the 1950s and 60s, also releasing R&B, soul, jazz, gospel and rock. Chess released records by every major blues artist in Chicago, including John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Bo Diddley, Jimmy Reed, Chuck Berry and many others.

Brothers Leonard and Phil Chess emigrated from Poland to the United States in 1928. In the 1940s they owned the upscale Macomba nightclub in Chicago's Southside neighborhood and several other bars. Blues artists performed regularly at The Macomba, and the Chess brothers realized they were not being recorded. They bought in to the small R&B label Aristocrat Records in 1947, then bought out the remaining partners in 1949 and changed the name to Chess in 1950. In 1969 they sold the label to General Recorded Tape (GRT) for $6.5 million.

Labelcode: LC 0156