Search - B.B. King :: Rpm Hits 1951-57

Solid top quality blues

Laurence Upton | Wilts, UK | 03/20/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Those good people at Ace are still making available more and more gems from BB King's extensive back catalogue, and continually finding better quality masters and using more sophisticated techniques for improving the sound. Inevitably this means some duplication between compilations; for example some of the titles here also appear on other Ace compilations such as My Sweet Little Angel and He's Dynamite.



The title of this collection is self-explanatory, with 20 A-sides and 6 B-sides or AA-sides, some of which made the US R&B charts in their own right, from a period in BB King's lengthy career when he was at a creative peak, continually touring and recording along the way, in Memphis, Houston, Little Rock, Cincinnati, Los Angeles and Chicago. Record-keeping of these sessions was lax, but the sleeve notes show that every effort has been made to track down whatever information still exists.



It is possible that this collection has now been superceded by bigger and better more recent releases and so new converts are advised to peruse Ace's latest catalogues, but at the right price this is a collection of superb performances in perfectly good re-masters from the best available sources of the time"