B.B. King: Singin' The Blues (3 bonus tracks) [BLUES JOINT]

Why you'll love it

This Blues Joint edition adds three bonus sides, "My Sometime Baby," "You've Been an Angel" and "Why Does Everything Happen to Me," to the original twelve. Most of the album's songs reached the Top 10 of Billboard's R&B singles chart between 1951 and 1956.

This edition

• 3 bonus tracks
• Stereo mix

About the album

Long before he was the elder statesman of the blues, B.B. King was a young Memphis disc jockey cutting singles for the Bihari brothers' RPM label. They sold so well that in 1957 the Biharis gathered the best of them onto a budget LP for their Crown imprint, and B.B. King had his first album.

It's a hits collection in all but name. "3 O'Clock Blues" was his breakthrough, "Every Day I Have the Blues" and "Sweet Little Angel" became songs he played for the rest of his career, and "You Upset Me Baby," "Woke Up This Morning" and "Ten Long Years" show off his swinging horn-section side. Through all of it you can hear the stinging single-note guitar style that rewired electric blues, alongside that big, pleading gospel voice.

AllMusic's Bill Dahl called it absolutely seminal material, and the Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings called it a near-faultless album. Billboard's 1957 review pointed out that the price was a big part of the attraction, and some seventy years on we're pleased to report that the music has rather outgrown the budget bin.

Also at Kops: more B.B. King on vinyl · browse Blues

Tracklist

Listen

On Blues Joint (cat# 8015), a reissue of the 1957 compilation.