Do The Boogie! : B. B. King's Early '50s Classics

B.B. King

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 14, 1994)
• Original Release Date: 1988
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Virgin Records Us
• ASIN: B000000W6C
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #142,829 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Early B.B. Overview, November 29, 1998

By	political idiot (california) - See all my reviews

This is perhaps the best single disc overview of B.B.s early 50's material, which also happens to be when B.B. King was at his very best.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fine compilation of tracks from King's best period, February 13, 2004

By	Docendo Discimus (Vita scholae) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

"Do The Boogie" collects 20 songs from Riley "Blues Boy" King's 1950s heyday, which was arguably his best period, and certainly his grittiest.

There are plenty of classics here, including "I Got To Find My Baby", "Why I Sing The Blues", "Woke Up This Morning", "When My Heart Beats Like A Hammer", and King's take on "Crying Won't Help You", and his guitar playing is as gritty as it ever was. His style was always more urban than that of, say, Howlin' Wolf or even Muddy Waters, but there are certainly no overly slick blues ballads here, or hideous covers of contemporary pop songs.

This is great West side blues, and there are also a couple of alternate takes here, and a few tough-to-locate items ("Bye Bye Baby", "Dark Is The Night" parts 1 and 2, "Jump With You Baby"), and compiler Ray Topping has gone out of his way to include a number of songs which aren't usually found on B.B. King-compilations.

This album would make a fine companion to one of the many compilations that focuse on King's post-1960 recordings (like "Anthology 1962-98"), and if you add "Live At The Regal" to the mix, you'll have pretty much all you'll ever need from Riley B. "Beale Street Blues Boy" King.
4 1/2 stars - highly recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Early B.B. King, November 4, 2006

By	Steven C. Printup (People's Republic of California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a great CD! I had several of these songs on old 45 RPM records that I found in an ancient record shop in New Orleans many years ago. It is wonderful to hear this material with great audio from master tapes. I especially love the primitive distorted guitar sound as opposed to the slicker sound of B's later albums.