Search - Albert King :: Very Best of Albert King

A Very Good Overview of Albert King's Recorded Music.

Perry Celestino | Tahmoor, NSW Australia | 11/04/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Well compilation albums are always hard to assess. Everyone has their favourites or all time classics. I personally like the Rhino issues of most blues artists. The remastering is good and their liner notes are always well presented. This CD is great as an introduction or a sampling of Albert King's style of playing urban blues. He was heavily influenced by swing music, Louis Jordan, Robert Nighthawk and Tampa Red. But he couldn't play a slide. He created a style based on bending the strings to get to the notes you want and make them sing with vibrato.



This disc takes you on a tour of Albert's recording career from the beginning at King Records with "Let's Have A Natural Ball", a great Jump Blues he used to use as a warm up tune, then on to "COD" from his very rare Coun-tree sessions (these were not re-released until after his death). From here the set progresses into seven of his early Stax classics from "Born Under" a Bad Sign and "King of the Blues Guitar". Then on to the later Stax stuff with "I'll Play the Blues For You", from his most creative period. The CD ends with "Cadillac Assembly Line" which was a Stax tune, but released under the Tomato label.



This is a well presented and compiled disc. It has great live moments in the famous Filmore West classic:"Blues Power", some rare items and a good cross section of King's recorded work. This was culled from a larger set "The Ultimate Collection" which was issued just after his death. This set has two discs and a great booklet as well. It even has a cut from his last recording sessions at Fantasy Records. It would be nice to include an early Chess release such as "Wild Woman" and something from his rare out of print album (and his last) "Red House". I love "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight". This is a great disc for the blues beginner, casual fan, or as an inclusion in a blues collection. I think it covers most of King's great and innovative blues, funk, R&B and soul style. When he became popular in the 60's he was the leading exponent of using blues as a medium to instigate musical change. Afterall, blues is the roots of all American Pop Music. It is much like in the Scorsese series "The Blues" (on DVD) the film on "Godfathers and Sons" is about Hip-Hop artists doing a blues inspired modern tune. This is much like Albert did at Stax in the 1960s and it is well developed in this CD compilation. Also, what a great cover photo!!!"

Incredible Blues. This is what the blues is meant to be

Perry Celestino | 11/20/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is as good as it gets, the blues at its best. I cannot stop playing this disk, C.O.D. over and over again. My fiancee has threatened to leave me if I do not put a new disk in the CD player. I helped her pack her bags to "Don't Throw Your Love on Me so Strong." Buy this CD and "Break Up Somebody's home."Chris Riedel and GD Mason Blues Beer Company, St. clair, Michigan"

Best single disc career overview

Petri | Slovakia, Middle Europe | 05/09/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Albert King was a great urban blues singera and one of the best guitarists that played the blues. This CD has 16 of his best tunes. It doesn't cover his entire work, but it is better than "King of the blues guitar" in this aspect, as that one featured just 1966 - 1968 material and this one spans nearly 20 years , from about the late fifties to mid seventies.

However, the track list isn't stellar: I have nothing against the three pre 1966 selections, but the some of the seven tracks from his most famous period between 1966 - 1968 are odd. Why there is Cold feet, which is pretty good, but no As the years go Passing by which is more of a classic and one of his trademark tunes. It is inexcxusable to have a Best of without it. That's why I put 1 star off. The latter tracks are well chosen, so I hink you should pick this one up if you want to have just one Albert King CD. Just add As the years go passing by and you'll have ***** stars as far a single disc collection can go"