Blues & Ballads

Bobby "Blue" Bland | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 18, 1999)
• Original Release Date: May 18, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mca
• ASIN: B00000J2TA
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #175,614 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars He put the BLUE into the Blues, March 24, 2005

By 

James A. Holland (Las Vegas, NV USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Blues & Ballads (Audio CD)

This is by and far one of the best CD's I own, and I own over 400 CD's!

I've purchased the "Greatest Hit's Vol.1" some years ago after having heard some of his Malaco stuff but I wasn't too taken with it.
Sure the voice was there, but the songs didn't, and still don't, really catch my attention too much.

Anyhow, I sort of stumbled upon this CD while browsing Amazon for some Soul music and I was intrigued by the reviews and the idea of an entire CD of blues ballads by Bobby Bland, so I ordered it.

Am I ever glad I did. From the first to the last song, this CD is not so much Blues, but supper club SOUL at it's best!
The power and unadulterated passion in Bobby's voice incredible, as is his interpretation of the material.

Take his reading of the classic "If Loving You Is Wrong". While not as finessed and "pretty" as the original Luther Ingram version, Bobby infuses a sense of reality and urgency into the song that can not be found in the original.
The same goes for the old Country ballad "Share your love with me". There's is nothing Country per se about Bobby's take on the song; however, what we get is the Blues refined to it's most elegant, fagile, and tender in it's essence.

Bobby has often been called the "Sinatra of the Blues" and if ever an album was made that marries the late night sophisitcation of Sinatra with the controlled Soul of Sam Cooke, then this is it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great urban r & b., March 25, 2007

By 

fluffy, the human being. (forest lake, mn) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blues & Ballads (Audio CD)

a compilation of blues and ballads recorded between 1960 and 1983. nobody does this type of material any better than mr bland. his wonderful, sonorous voice is on heavenly display throughout this collection of elegant urban r & b. if you have no bobby bland recordings, you couldn't go wrong to start here. a fine and rewarding compilation, indeed.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bobby sounds better than ever., May 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Blues & Ballads (Audio CD)

I love Bobby Bland! His music brings back memories and I always remember my first B. Bland concert, it's like going back home. Bobby is the "blues," his sound transcends time.