Blues Masters: The Very Best Of Elmore James

Elmore James | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 14, 2000)
• Original Release Date: March 14, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Rhino / Wea
• ASIN: B00004R5ZT
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #199,461 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Dust My Broom

2. Hawaiian Boogie

3. Please Find My Baby

4. Sho' Nuff I Do

5. Wild About You Baby

6. The 12 Year Old Boy

7. It Hurts Me Too

8. Cry for Me Baby

9. Coming Home

10. The Sky Is Crying

11. The Sun Is Shining

12. Madison Blues

13. I Can't Hold Out

14. Standing at the Crossroads

15. Done Somebody Wrong

16. Shake Your Moneymaker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ****1/2. A fine Elmore compilation, but not quite the best, March 9, 2003

By 

Docendo Discimus (Vita scholae) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blues Masters: The Very Best Of Elmore James (Audio CD)

This Blues Masters release from Rhino Records is probably the second best available Elmore James compilation - at least if you want to stick to the single disc overviews.
It includes sixteen of James' best songs, including the fiery blues n' boogie of "Dust My Broom" and "Shake Your Moneymaker", and the smouldering slow blues "The Sky Is Crying" and "It Hurts Me Too". A few of these selections may be debatable...I would have preferred "Standing At The Crossroads" and the funky "No Love In My Heart" to a couple of the songs on this album, but that's a minor complaint.

All of the songs included here are really good, and most of them are great. Elmore James and his band, the Broomdusters, played an incredibly tough, hard-rocking brand of blues, dominated by his fierce slide playing and huge voice, and spiced up by the addition of saxist J.T. Brown, pianist Little Johnny Johnson, and Elmore's cousin "Homesick" James Williamson on second guitar.
The reason I say that this is only the second best available single-disc Elmore collection is that Rhino's other Elmore James compilation, "The Sky Is Crying: The History of Elmore James", features 21 supremely well-chosen songs from every one of James' record labels, and thus gets the nod over this one.
There's nothing bad about this CD, the music is great and so are the liner notes. The Rhino disc is just that little bit better.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Retrospective., June 21, 2004

By 

Mad Dog "maddog6969" (TimbuckThree, Tennessee) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blues Masters: The Very Best Of Elmore James (Audio CD)

I was a little kid when Elmore James cut most of these tunes and I heard them way back then from a variety of friends and family that picked up the 45 rpm singles. After a while, I moved on and only occasionally was reminded of what a great catalog of rockin' blues Elmore compiled. Then, in the late 60's, I kept hearing more and more bands covering Elmore's tunes. Jimi Hendrix on Bleeding Heart, for example. Then in the 70's the Allman Brothers on Done Somebody Wrong. A few years later, it was George Thorogood on It Hurts Me Too, then Stevie Ray on The Sky Is Crying. This is plenty of proof of just how enduring Elmore's influence is. Each time I heard a cover, it took me back to those old records. Now Rhino has this compilation with most but not all of my favorites and in pretty decent sound - excellent considering the vintage of these recordings. Great stuff.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Founding Fathers of Rock & Roll & Boogie Music, August 10, 2001

By 

Rev KM Williams "revkmwilliams" (dallas, tx United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blues Masters: The Very Best Of Elmore James (Audio CD)

This album is all the classic Elmore James cuts;starting with the ORIGINAL version of "Dust My Broom" with Sonny Boy Williamson on Harmonica. If you really want to hear one of the founding fathers of Rock & Roll & Boogie Music;you got to get this CD!!!