In 1948, Muddy Waters kick-started his career by recording one of his best-known songs, “I Can’t Be Satisfied.”

Don’t surprised if real blues fans and scholars of early rock ‘n’ roll are singing a similar tune — with real conviction — after seeing the new “Cadillac Records,” a biopic on the influential Chess record label that opens today. There are simply too many holes in the story line, too many liberties taken in regard to historical record, for music buffs to be satisfied with this Darnell Martin-directed film.

The most troubling decision was to remove label co-founder Phil Chess from the story — as if he never existed. Other problem areas include how the label got its start (the film never addresses its transition from Aristocrat Records), the absence of other significant Chess artists (notably Bo Diddley) and its overly dramatic conclusion (especially in regard to co-founder Leonard Chess).

Fortunately for Martin, the people who can point out the historical gaps in the plot constitute a very small percentage of the moviegoing public. Others might enjoy the film, which features fine performances by Adrien Brody as Leonard Chess, Cedric the Entertainer as blues songwriter-bassist Willie Dixon and Mos Def as rock icon Chuck Berry.

To be clear, the Chess Records story is worthy of being told — which is why it’s the subject of two new biopics, this one and the forthcoming “Who Do You Love,” which received some positive reviews at the most recent Toronto International Film Festival. The label was a pivotal force in introducing electric Chicago-style blues to a much broader audience and in helping turn early rock ‘n’ roll into a national sensation.

“Cadillac Records” opens in 1941 and immediately introduces the two central characters, Leonard Chess and Waters. At the time, Chess is running a junkyard in Chicago, and Waters (Jeffrey Wright) is working on a plantation in Mississippi. Both men dream of bigger things, which would quickly start to materialize after Waters picks up his guitar and moves to the Windy City.

The two meet, begin cutting tunes in the late ’40s and proceed to set the charts on fire. That was the start of a winning streak for the label, as Chess went on to experience notable success by recording such artists as Little Walter and Howlin’ Wolf, two legends convincingly portrayed by Columbus Short and Eamonn Walker, respectively.

The Chess era hit its commercial peak in the ’50s with Chuck Berry, who would deliver several chart-topping early rock standards while signed to the label. The company was reportedly so prosperous for a time that all of its artists drove Cadillacs, a point that is driven home countless times by the director, as if trying to justify the film’s title.

The acting is mostly top-notch. Brody comes across as a convincingly driven Chess, a man consumed by his musical mission, while Short’s Walker is appropriately edgy and unstable and Mos Def plays Berry’s stage shtick to perfection (even though his singing sounds nothing like Berry’s).

The weakest link, somewhat surprisingly, is the usually reliable Wright, who fails to command the screen in the fashion needed to sell Waters’ mystique.

The best vocal work comes from Beyoncé Knowles in the role of Etta James. Her versions of “At Last” and, especially, “I’d Rather Go Blind” are so much better than anything you’ll hear on her newly released solo CD.

In the end, though, Beyoncé’s captivating voice and the film’s other pluses can’t outweigh the glaring omissions from the story line for this critic.

Chess Records deserves, and will hopefully someday get, a better spin than the one delivered by “Cadillac Records.”