Slim Harpo: Sings Raining In My Heart (8 bonus tracks) [BLUES JOINT]

Why you'll love it

This edition adds 8 bonus tracks to the complete album for 20 songs in all. The title song reached No. 17 on the US R&B chart and No. 34 on the pop chart in 1961.

This edition

• 8 bonus tracks
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

Louisiana blues has a sound all of its own, slow, swampy and a little bit sly, and Slim Harpo was its finest ambassador. Born James Moore, he played harmonica in a rack and sang in a laid-back, nasal drawl that could make a threat sound like a lullaby.

He cut these songs in Crowley, Louisiana, with producer J.D. (Jay) Miller, who co-wrote "Rainin' In My Heart" with him under the alias Jerry West. "I'm A King Bee" buzzes with menace, "Buzz Me Baby" and "Snoopin' Around" swing, and "Blues Hangover" is a wry spoken shuffle. The bonus tracks round out the era with "Moody Blues," "Strange Love" and "Something Inside Me." Miller's echo-drenched production gives every track that lazy, humid feel the swamp blues sound is famous for.

"Rainin' In My Heart" has since been covered by The Pretty Things, Tom Jones, Neil Young with the Shocking Pinks, and Hank Williams Jr., whose version went to No. 2 on the Canadian country chart. The Rolling Stones covered "I'm A King Bee" too, and they've done reasonably well for themselves since.

Also at Kops: more Slim Harpo on vinyl · browse Blues

Tracklist

Listen

On Blues Joint (cat# 8014), a reissue of the 1961 album.