Very Best of Albert King
Posted by admin | Under Albert King Tuesday Jul 22, 2008
There have been many compilations of Albert King’s classic Stax recordings over the years, including the wonderful double-disc set The Ultimate Collection, but Rhino’s The Very Best of Albert King is perhaps the best for curious listeners, since it offers 16 classics on one disc. There may be a few favorites missing, from “The Hunter” to “The Phone Booth,” but the disc does a wonderful job of summarizing the classic Stax years while adding some highlights from his latter-day recordings for Tomato. In the end, what matters is that the bare basics — “Let’s Have a Natural Ball,” “C.O.D.,” “Laundromat Blues,” “Oh Pretty Woman,” “Crosscut Saw,” “Born Under a Bad Sign,” “Personal Manager,” “Blues Power” — are all here, making this ideal for neophytes on a tight budget. (Of course, Born Under a Bad Sign remains an excellent introduction on its own terms, as well.)
- Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
Product Specification :
Release Date :04/20/1999
Format :Audio CD
UPC :081227570323
Label :Rhino / Wea
List Price :9.98
powered by Yahoo shopping
A darn near perfect greatest hits collection. Great for someone who says, “Yeah, I like blues, B.B.’s cool.” Because after hearing this, their life won’t be quite the same. I can guarantee they will never listen to B.B. the same way again. Where B.B. plays clean and dare I say, wimpy, Albert was hard, funky, soulful, and dirty. Combining his MS delta blues with the Memphis soul of Booker T. & the MGs, with the great Al Jackson on drums, King’s blues recordings simply have no equals. Even later, without the MGs, King used top notch musicians and cooley slid into the ’70s. There are a number of great tracks missing from here, including “Wrapped Up In Love Again”, “Drowning On Dry Land”, and the Mack Rice penned “Playin’ On Me”, but for the most part, it is like I said, darn near perfect.
Pro :
Con :