Released in early 1960, the LP
The Great B.B. King was actually a budget-priced compilation of songs he'd recorded for the
Modern label over the past five or so years. This CD reissue nearly doubles the length of the original album with eight mostly previously unreleased bonus cuts, as well as adding historical liner notes. Of the ten songs found on the original
The Great B.B. King, four (
"Sweet Sixteen," "Ten Long Years," "Sneakin' Around," and
"Whole Lotta' Love") had been big
R&B hits, with
"Sweet Sixteen" getting all the way up to number two; a fifth track,
"Be Careful with a Fool," had made the bottom of the
pop listings without showing up on the
R&B charts at all. The emotional
ballad "Sweet Sixteen" (actually a cover of a
Big Joe Turner song) is presented here in all its six-minute, two-part glory. While the most of the rest of the LP doesn't scale the same heights, it's a respectable mix of brassy shuffles and slow tunes with more than a tinge of
doo wop,
King's guitar work on
"Whole Lotta' Love" ranking among his most stinging. Of the eight bonus tracks, only
"Bim Bam" (an anomalous 1956
rock & roll novelty single) and the
Lightnin' Hopkins number
"Shotgun Blues" (which showed up on a 1969 compilation LP) were previously released. The other six tracks are also not always typical of
King's most celebrated style, including as they do the violin-drenched
"Young Dreamers" and the much-covered
ballad "Trouble in Mind," though the rest are in his more standard
electric blues approach. ~ Richie Unterberger