Search - B.B. King :: The Vintage Years

106 tracks digitally re-mastered from the original acetates for the best sound ever! Compiled by John Broven, this brings together King's seminal recordings of the 50s & 60s for the Modern group. There are no less than 27 chart recordings, including four #1 R&B hits, seventeen top 10 R&B hits, & four top 100 hits. This Vintage Years box was put together with great care, and was not a rush job. Managing Director Roger Armstrong spent many months analyzing the Ace archive of over 2,000 B.B. King tapes to select the best (and correct) masters. Duncan Cowell at Sound Mastering Ltd did the crucial post-production work. The sound is sparkling. Never before has the original studio 'room' ambience of classic numbers such as "3 O'Clock Blues" and "Please Love Me" been heard with such clarity and zest. The individual CDs here can be summarized as follows: CD1, "The Great B.B." contains many of the big hits readily associated with B.B. that he still plays to this day. CD2, "Memphis Blues'n'Boogie" is a look at the rare recordings of the early 1950s engineered by Sam Phillips in Memphis, followed by those directed by Bill Harvey in Houston. Session-by-session, you can see B.B. finding his own style. CD3, "Take A Swing With Me" covers the mid-late 1950s when B.B. was touring constantly, and Maxwell Davis became the music director. By this time, the blues market had started to dip, leading B.B. to record in a variety of styles from R&B, rock'n'roll, pop and doo wop to jazz and gospel. CD4, "King Of The Blues" is where B.B. establishes his blues mastery as his association with Modern Records draws to an end. The set consists of four jewel cased CDs and a 74-page book housed in a beautiful 12" x 6" x 1-1/2" box. Ace Records/UK. 2002.