B.B. KING

Biography Throughout the 1990s as well as the 1980s, 1970s, 1960s and 1950s, there has been only one King of the Blues – Riley B. King, affectionately known as B.B. King. Since B.B. started recording in the late 1940s, he has released over 50 albums many of them considered blues classics, like 1965s definitive live blues album “Live At The Regal”, and 1976s collaboration with Bobby “Blue” Bland, “Together For The First Time”. Over the years, B.B. has had two number one R & B hits, 1951s “Three OClock Blues”, and 1952s “You Dont Know Me”, and four number two R & B hits, 1953s “Please Love Me”, and 1954s “You Upset Me Baby”, 1960s “Sweet Sixteen, Part I”, and 1966s “Dont Answer The Door, Part I”. B.B.s most popular crossover hit, 1970s “The Thrill Is Gone” went to #15 pop. But B.B. King, as well as the entire blues genre, is not radio oriented. His classic songs such as “Payin The Cost To Be The Boss”, “Caldonia”, ” How Blue Can You Get”, “Everyday I Have The Blues”, and “Why I Sing The Blues”, are concert (and fan) staples. Riley B. King was born on September 16, 1925, on a cotton plantation in Itta Bene, Mississippi, just outside the Mississippi delta town of Indianola. He used to play on the corner of Church and Second Street for dimes and would sometimes play in as many as four towns on a Saturday night. With his guitar and $2.50, he hitchhiked north to Memphis, Tennessee, in 1947 to pursue his musical career. Memphis was the city where every important musician of the South gravitated and which supported a large, competitive musical community where virtually every black musical style was heard. B.B. stayed with his cousin Bukka White, one of the most renowned rural blues performers of his time, who schooled B.B. further in the art of the blues. B.B.s first big break came in 1948 when he performed on Sonny Boy Williamsons radio program on KWEM out of West Memphis. This led to steady performance engagements at the Sixteenth Avenue Grill in West Memphis and later to a ten minute spot on black staffed and managed radio station WDIA. “Kings Spot”, sponsored by Pepticon, a health tonic, became so popular that it was increased in length and became the “Sepia Swing Club”. Soon, B.B. needed a catchy radio name. What started out as Beale Street Blues Boy was shortened to Blues Boy King, and eventually B.B. King. Incidentally, Kings middle initial “B” is just that, it is not an abbreviation. In the mid-1950s while B.B. was performing at a dance in Twist, Arkansas, a few fans became unruly. Two men got into a fight and knocked over a kerosene stove, setting fire to the hall. B.B. raced outdoors to safety with everyone else, but then realized that he left his $30 guitar inside, so he rushed back inside to retrieve it, narrowly escaping death. When he later found out that the fight had been over a woman named Lucille, he decided to give the name to his guitar. Each one of B.B.s guitars since that time have been called Lucille. Soon after his number one hit, “Three OClock Blues”, B.B. began touring nationally, and he has never stopped, performing an average of 275 concerts a year. in 1956 B.B. And his band played an astonishing 342 one night stands. From the chitlin circuit with its small town cafes, ghetto theaters, country dance halls, and roadside joints to jazz clubs, rock palaces, symphony concert halls, college concerts, resort hotels and prestigious concert halls nationally and internationally, B.B. has become the most renowned blues musician of the past 40 years. B.B.s technique is nonetheless complex, featuring delicate filigrees of single string runs punctuated by loud chords, subtle vibratos, and “bent” notes. The technique of rock guitar playing is to a large degree derived from B.B.s playing. In the army, B.B. was introduced to the music of such guitarists as Charlie Christian and T -Bone Walker. “I heard an electric guitar tha