B. B. King

This essential LP includes King’s sensational album, B.B. King Wails, originally issued by the Crown label in 1959. It marked his third budgetpriced LP on the Bihari brothers’ Crown label (a subsidiary of Modern Records). 1959 proved a year of recovery for King following a devastating accident with his band bus the previous year. King had just relocated from Memphis to California and on this album he is heard in peak form. He is backed here by a well-arranged horn section influenced by the big bands of Count Basie, Lionel Hampton and Duke Ellington. Stylistically, the compositions consist of mature, string-laden ballads alongside straight R&B shuffles. The more jazz-oriented numbers are the jump blues “I’ve Got Papers on You, Baby,” and the ballad “The Fool.” The songs “Sweet Thing,” “We Can’t Make It,” and “The Woman I Love” embrace the slow-burning, guitar-oriented blues for which King is best known. Shades of gospel are heard on “Come by Here,” while “I Love You So” fuses doo wop with urban blues. Despite the high quality of these songs, the only hit from this LP came nine years later, when the aforementioned “The Woman I Love” was remade with overdubs and climbed into the lower regions of both the R&B and pop charts.

The album sessions were recorded in California using the accompaniment of a small orchestra. Featuring Johnny Board (tenor saxophone), Lawrence Burdine (alto saxophone), Kenny Sands (trumpet), RalphHamilton (bass), Millard Lee (piano), and Ted Curry (drums), King’s stinging guitar and powerful voice come across beautifully.

In addition to the original masterpiece, this collector’s LP adds 2 bonus tracks from that same period: the fabulous “Mean Ole Frisco” and “Sugar Mama”.