Editorial Review:

Album Description:
106 tracks digitally re-mastered from the original acetates for the best sound ever! Compiled by John Broven, this brings together King's seminal recordings of the 50s & 60s for the Modern group. There are no less than 27 chart recordings, including four #1 R&B hits, seventeen top 10 R&B hits, & four top 100 hits. This Vintage Years box was put together with great care, and was not a rush job. Managing Director Roger Armstrong spent many months analyzing the Ace archive of over 2,000 B.B. King tapes to select the best (and correct) masters. Duncan Cowell at Sound Mastering Ltd did the crucial post-production work. The sound is sparkling. Never before has the original studio 'room' ambience of classic numbers such as '3 O'Clock Blues' and 'Please Love Me' been heard with such clarity and zest.

The individual CDs here can be summarized as follows:

CD1, 'The Great B.B.' contains many of the big hits readily associated with B.B. that he still plays to this day.

CD2, 'Memphis Blues'n'Boogie' is a look at the rare recordings of the early 1950s engineered by Sam Phillips in Memphis, followed by those directed by Bill Harvey in Houston. Session-by-session, you can see B.B. finding his own style.

CD3, 'Take A Swing With Me' covers the mid-late 1950s when B.B. was touring constantly, and Maxwell Davis became the music director. By this time, the blues market had started to dip, leading B.B. to record in a variety of styles from R&B, rock'n'roll, pop and doo wop to jazz and gospel.

CD4, 'King Of The Blues' is where B.B. establishes his blues mastery as his association with Modern Records draws to an end.

The set consists of four jewel cased CDs and a 74-page book housed in a beautiful 12' x 6' x 1-1/2' box. Ace Records/UK. 2002.









Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

---

Related Items:
     see more

Related Items:

• One Kind Favor
• Together for the First Time...Live
• Skin Deep
• Can't Quit the Blues
• The Complete Blind Willie Johnson
• see more

---

Disc 1:

1. 3 O'Clock Blues
2. You Know I Love You
3. Woke up This Morning (My Baby's Gone)
4. Please Love Me
5. Blind Love
6. You Upset Me Baby
7. Every Day I Have the Blues - B.B. King, Memphis Slim
8. Ten Long Years
9. Crying Won't Help You - B.B. King, Ling, Sam
10. Did You Ever Love a Woman
11. Bad Luck
12. Sweet Little Angel
13. Why I Sing the Blues - B.B. King, Clark, Dave [Saxoph
14. Worry, Worry - B.B. King, Davis, Pluma
15. Sweet Sixteen, Pts. 1 & 2 - B.B. King, Josea, Joe
16. It's My Own Fault
17. Good Man Gone Bad
18. I'll Survive
19. Walking Dr. Bill - B.B. King, Clayton, Peter
20. You're Breaking My Heart - B.B. King, Bihari, Jules
21. Gonna Miss You Around Here
22. Downhearted (How Blue Can You Get?) - B.B. King, Feather, Leonard
23. Ain't Nobody's Business - B.B. King, Grainger, Porter
24. Rock Me Baby - B.B. King, Josea, Joe

Disc 2:

1. B.B. Boogie
2. Mistreated Woman
3. The Other Night Blues - B.B. King, Bihari, Jules
4. Walkin' and Cryin'
5. My Baby's Gone
6. Don't You Want a Man Like Me - B.B. King, Taub, Jules
7. She's Dynamite - B.B. King, Whittaker, Hudson
8. B.B. Blues
9. A New Way of Driving - B.B. King, Bihari, Jules
10. Questionnaire Blues - B.B. King, Josea, Joe
11. Hard Workin' Woman
12. She's a Mean Woman
13. Pray for You
14. That Ain't the Way to Do It
15. She Don't Move Me No More
16. Fine Lookin' Woman
17. It's My Own Fault
18. Shake It Up and Go
19. Gotta Find My Baby - B.B. King, Clayton, Peter
20. Someday, Somewhere
21. You Didn't Want Me
22. Story from My Heart and Soul
23. Boogie Woogie Woman
24. Highway Bound
25. Neighborhood Affair - B.B. King, Bihari, Jules
26. Why Did You Leave Me
27. Praying to the Lord
28. Please Help Me

Disc 3:

1. Love You Baby
2. When My Heart Beats Like a Hammer
3. Woman I Love - B.B. King, Josea, Joe
4. Everything I Do Is Wrong
5. Whole Lotta' Love - B.B. King, Davis, Pluma
6. Boogie Rock (House Rocker)
7. Dark Is the Night, Pt. 1
8. Dark Is the Night, Pt. 2
9. Let's Do the Boogie
10. Sweet Little Angel
11. Confessin' the Blues - B.B. King, Brown, Walter
12. Baby, Look at You
13. You Don't Know
14. Be Careful With a Fool - B.B. King, Josea, Joe
15. Recession Blues
16. Days of Old - B.B. King, Bihari, Jules
17. You Know I Go for You
18. Don't Look Now But I've Got the Blues - B.B. King, Hazlewood, Lee
19. Sweet Thing
20. I've Got Papers on You, Baby
21. Tomorrow Is Another Day
22. Sneakin' Around - B.B. King, Robinson, Jessie Ma
23. Please Accept My Love
24. Early in the Morning - B.B. King, Bartley, Dallas
25. On My Word of Honor - B.B. King, Harrison, Katherine
26. Don't Get Around Much Anymore - B.B. King, Ellington, Duke
27. Why Not
28. Precious Lord - B.B. King, Dorsey, Thomas A.

Disc 4:

1. I'm a King
2. Baby Please Don't Go - B.B. King, Williams, Big Joe
3. Mean Old Frisco - B.B. King, Crudup, Arthur
4. I've Got a Right to Love My Baby
5. Fishin' After Me (Catfish Blues) - B.B. King, Petway, Robert
6. Partin' Time
7. Bad Luck Soul
8. You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now
9. Get Out of Here
10. Hold That Train - B.B. King, Clayton, Peter
11. Bad Case of Love
12. Let Me Love You
13. Mashed Potato Twist
14. Got 'Em Bad
15. Christmas Celebration - B.B. King, Glenn, Lloyd
16. Down Now
17. Beautician Blues
18. The Worst Thing in My Life
19. Blue Shadows - B.B. King, Glenn, Lloyd
20. It's a Mean World - B.B. King, Walker, T-Bone
21. Five Long Years - B.B. King, Boyd, Eddie
22. Make Me Blue
23. Blues Stay Away from Me - B.B. King, Delmore, Alton
24. Long Gone Baby
25. The Jungle
26. That Evil Child - B.B. King, Josea, Joe

Rating: - Very impressive. And too much for most listeners
This handsomely packaged 4-disc box set brings together the vast majority of B.B. King's 50s and 60s recordings for the various labels in the Modern family.

King's many excellent 50s singles are often overlooked by compilers, which means that those who "only" own, say "The Anthology" or MCA/Chess's "Greatest Hits" will find that 95% of this material is new to them.
The large 76-page booklet is thoroughly researched and well-written, and each individual CD focuses on a theme of sort: Disc one concentrates on hits like "Sweet Little Angel", "Sweet Sixteen", "How Blue Can You Get" "3 O'Clock Blues", "Did You Ever Love A Woman" etc, and it is the best and most varied, with numerous highlights and only a couple of clunkers (two boring, saccharine ballads).
The disc titled "Memphis Blues 'n' Boogie" is probably the least exciting...the material is consistent but unvaried with very few real highlights. The third disc is devoted to King's more or less succesful forays into soul, gospel, doo wop, and rock & roll, and the final one, "King Of The Blues", focuses on King's urbane 60s recordings.

Serious B.B. King fans will want to add this set to their collection right away, but more casual fans will probably find that five hours of B.B. King is just too much. You can get the best of these 106 recordings on "Do The Boogie: B.B. King's Early 50s Classics" and the twofer CD reissue of his first to LPs, "Singing' The Blues/The Blues", and most people will be happy with that, especially since much of King's output in the 50s and 60s (and 70s, 80s, and 90s output for that matter) was more consistent than varied.