Singin' the Blues

Singin' the Blues is the 1956 compilation album of blues performer B.B. King on the Bihari brothers' Crown label.^[2] Among its tracks, the album gathered together five charting singles. "Bad Luck" was the highest charting single, reaching #3 on Billboard's "Black Singles" chart.^[3] Other charting singles include "Every Day I Have the Blues" (#8), "Ten Long Years" (#9), "Crying Won't Help You" (#15) and "Sweet Little Angel" (#6). The album was originally released on the Crown subsidiary of Modern Records and has been reissued several times, as part of a two-album combined CD alongside King's second release The Blues^[4] and with bonus tracks by Japanese label P-Vine Records and U.K. label Ace Records (UK).^[5][6] On "Please Love Me", King combines T-Bone Walker's hard-picking, distorted guitar style with his own mournful singing.^[7]

Track listing

Except where otherwise noted, all songs by B.B. King and Jules Taub.^[8]

Side one

1. "Please Love Me" – 2:51
2. "You Upset Me Baby" – 3:04
3. "Every Day I Have the Blues" (Memphis Slim) – 2:49
4. "Bad Luck" (Ivory Joe Hunter) – 2:54
5. "3 O'Clock Blues" (Lowell Fulson) – 3:03
6. "Blind Love" – 3:06

Side two

1. "Woke Up This Morning" – 2:59
2. "You Know I Love You" – 3:06
3. "Sweet Little Angel" (Lucille Bogan, ? Smith) – 3:00
4. "Ten Long Years" – 2:49
5. "Did You Ever Love a Woman" (Dwight Moore) – 2:34
6. "Crying Won't Help You" (Hudson Whittaker) – 3:00

CD re-release bonus tracks

Bonus tracks on both the re-releases by P-Vine and Ace. Except where otherwise noted, all songs by King and Taub.

1. "Whole Lotta Meat" (King) – 2:32
2. "I'm Cracking Up Over You" – 3:23
3. "I Stay in the Mood" (Joe Josea, King) – 2:55
4. "When My Heart Beats Like a Hammer 'Million Years Blues'" (John Williamson) – 2:58
5. "Jump with You Baby" – 2:14
6. "Lonely and Blue" (John Costa Jr., John Erby) – 2:58
7. "Dark is the Night, Pt. 'the Blues Has Got Me'" (Maxwell Davis, King, Taub) – 2:41
8. "Ruby Lee" – 3:01

Personnel

Performance

• Red Callender – bass^[9]
• Maxwell Davis – sax (tenor)
• Jewell L. Grant – sax (alto)
• Billy Hadnot – bass
• Ralph Hamilton – bass
• Lorenzo Holden – sax (tenor)
• B. B. King – guitar, vocals
• Willard McDaniel – piano
• Jack McVea – sax (tenor)
• Bumps Myers – sax (tenor)
• Jake "Vernon" Porter – trumpet
• Jesse Price – drums
• Jesse Sailes – drums
• Maurice Simon – sax (tenor)
• Floyd Turnham – sax (alto), sax (baritone)
• Charles Waller – sax (tenor)

Production

• Roger Armstrong – tape archivist
• Jon Broven – compilation, annotation
• Brian Burrows – package design
• Duncan Cowell – mastering, mixing, restoration
• Cy Schneider – liner notes

References