Customer Reviews

The Very Best of Buddy Guy

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This is a very credible attempt to summarize Buddy Guy's entire (pre-Silvertone) career on a single disc.
"The Very Best Of Buddy Guy" encompasses Guy's 1957 demo "The Way You Been Treating Me," a couple of Cobra sides, four of his best Chess sides, a few recordings for Vanguard and Atlantic, and three numbers from Buddy Guy's days with the British JSP label.

Four Chess sides isn't really enough, but you can get the rest on MCA/Chess' "Buddy's Blues" once your appetite is whetted. The compilers have done a fine job considering they only had 80 minutes of disc space to work with (the CD clocks in at approximately 75 minutes), and the vast majority of these songs, such as "First Time I Met The Blues", "Sit and Cry (The Blues)", and "My Time After Awhile", rank among Guy's very best, showcasing his powerful, intense vocals and smouldering guitar playing.
A very good introduction to the reigning king of Chicago blues.

For someone on a budget who is interested in the music of this legendary artist, look no further than this single disc album. The sound and track selection here are excellent. Anyone interested in electric Chicago Blues needs to have at least one Buddy Guy album in their collection; and you can't go wrong here. There is some song overlap here with the "Chess 50th Collection" single disc compilation, but "Very Best Of" features 18 tracks over the 15 presented in the "Chess 50th Collection" cd. Plus, this disc has the great remastered sound the folks at Rhino are known for. For those of you have a few extra dollars around, I strongly suggest 2 disc set, "The Complete Chess Studio Sessions" which boasts 47 tracks!
It can be found here on zShops or eBay at a very reasonable cost.

Anyone familiar with blues Gitar' knows Buddy is the man. While I don't think that he's anymore talented than the other greatest living bluesman,Otis Rush, he seems to play like Otis with a whole lot more solos. What I wouldn't give to see one of their classic duels in the flesh. Buddy's chess recordings are of course top notch, but my favorite on this complition is the 7 minute extravaganza "Blues at My Baby's House", which in my opinion features some of Buddy's most soulful licks and vocals. If you can only afford one Buddy Guy record make it this or his 2-cd chess collection, that one really cooks.

There are too many great blues artists out there to spend a fortune on every artists complte recordings would cost tens of thousands of dollars, so getting comprehensive samplers of the artists earliest recordings in the best way to go. This cd have mostly the 50's & 60's sessions, his early stuff, and a bit towards the end of the cd his later works, but just a small sampling, the majority of the cd is his best work for Chess and other jump blues labels. This cd is exellent and is the difinitive sampler(though one should not overlook his duo albums with junior Wells), this cd will do a fine job of summing up Guy in his early prime and middle years. Guy has an incredibly piercing voice, similsr in texture and feeling as BB King, though less of a baritone, and his guitar solos, are creative, and even jazz and improvisation occur every so often. This cd is full of energetic performances, from shuffling jump blues to slow blues drags, it's all great stuff. Essential for any blues collection, to be complete.

This is a very good use of your time and money. It would be hard to do Buddy justice without a multivolume set , but this contains some of the best of both traditional and his contemporary efforts. Get it. Don't wait five long years.

The quality of the music itself is a little spotty, but this is a good overall historical look at Buddy Guy's career. Rhino did a lot of digging to include some obscure but decent material. From a '57 demo Buddy cut before moving to Chicago, to some live '70s gigs, to three burning songs from '81 that are only available as imports. Not everything is great, but Buddy's style of singing and playing is evident throughout. Three of the songs are from Buddy's days with Junior Wells. Liner notes talk about Buddy's early career and some stories about the songs on the disc. Casual fans might not like this as much as those seriously into Buddy or his career.

This is my first Buddy Guy CD and the one thing stands out on this recording is Guy's playing. It is fast and stinging. For blues fans of B.B. King, I think you will find Buddy Guy's guitar playing more intense and having a certain sting to it. The singing matches the guitar, but I wouldn't think of this as a vocal masterpiece, though

A wonderful collection from possibly one of the best guitarists there has ever been. Alot of older stuff, so the quality on CD is a bit less than sharp. But, that is what it was back then! A must have. This man should be on the finger tips of every blues guitarist...

I first saw Buddy Guy play in the mid-1980 at a bar in that small Midwestern university town where I went to grad school. In fact, prior to that time, I hadn't really been a blues fan at all. But Buddy Guy made me a blues fan. This is not a live album, but it's one of his best.

If you are looking for slow, stinging blues riffs, this is the compilation for you! There are no happy uptempo blues numbers here. The only cd I own in which I don't skip songs. You must own this!!