Search - B.B. King :: Do Boogie

A fine compilation of tracks from King's best period

Docendo Discimus | Vita scholae | 02/13/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Do The Boogie" collects 20 songs from Riley "Blues Boy" King's 1950s heyday, which was arguably his best period, and certainly his grittiest.There are plenty of classics here, including "I Got To Find My Baby", "Why I Sing The Blues", "Woke Up This Morning", "When My Heart Beats Like A Hammer", and King's take on "Crying Won't Help You", and his guitar playing is as gritty as it ever was. His style was always more urban than that of, say, Howlin' Wolf or even Muddy Waters, but there are certainly no overly slick blues ballads here, or hideous covers of contemporary pop songs.This is great West side blues, and there are also a couple of alternate takes here, and a few tough-to-locate items ("Bye Bye Baby", "Dark Is The Night" parts 1 and 2, "Jump With You Baby"), and compiler Ray Topping has gone out of his way to include a number of songs which aren't usually found on B.B. King-compilations.This album would make a fine companion to one of the many compilations that focuse on King's post-1960 recordings (like "Anthology 1962-98"), and if you add "Live At The Regal" to the mix, you'll have pretty much all you'll ever need from Riley B. "Beale Street Blues Boy" King.
4 1/2 stars - highly recommended."

Early B.B. King

Steven C. Printup | People's Republic of California | 11/04/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a great CD! I had several of these songs on old 45 RPM records that I found in an ancient record shop in New Orleans many years ago. It is wonderful to hear this material with great audio from master tapes. I especially love the primitive distorted guitar sound as opposed to the slicker sound of B's later albums."

Pre-lucille days.

tim gooding | utopia | 08/19/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"what a great album if you like early blues ,bb had not found his love "lucille" it is such a distinctive sounding guitar, and boy can he play this guitar as good as,you know it is bb as soon as the first guitar note but nicely different,and sound quality early 50's ?superb.worth every penny."