Track Listing

1. Early in the Morning - B.B. King, Van Morrison
2. Tired of Your Jive - Billy Gibbons, , B.B. King
3. Thrill Is Gone - Eric Clapton, B.B. King
4. Need Your Love So Bad - Sheryl Crow, B.B. King
5. Ain't Nobody Home - Daryl Hall, B.B. King
6. Hummingbird - B.B. King, John Mayer
7. All Over Again - B.B. King, Mark Knopfler
8. Drivin' Wheel - Glenn Frey, B.B. King
9. There Must Be a Better World Somewhere - Gloria Estefan, B.B. King
10. Never Make Your Move Too Soon - Roger Daltrey, B.B. King
11. Funny How Time Slips Away - Bobby "Blue" Bland, B.B. King
12. Rock This House [Live] - Elton John, B.B. King

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #180093 in Music
• Released on: 2005-09-13
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

Customer Reviews

Self indulgent
1 star for an exercise in exploitation. All the tracks have been covered elsewhere to better effect & the "novelty factor" therefore is how the "guests" add to the versions on this cd. Not too well, I'm afraid.

Alot of the tracks sound....well,.. old.... & don't add any new vitality or any significant point of difference.

The benchmark for me is Never Make Your Move Too Soon having seen live footage of BB & his band perofrm it at the Montreux Jazz Festival in the late 70's. I'm sorry to say that the version on this CD with Roger Daltrey sounds like two old men trying to recapture their spent youth which is sad.

Similarly, neither Gloria Estefan & John Mayer add anything like a positive contribution; other tracks pretty much deliver an average performance.

Leave in the clearance bin & look for stuff by another artist as this is almost cynical in its regurgitation of old material.

Best left well alone

Happy 80th B.B. And BRAVO!!
Known as the "King of the Blues," guitarist B.B. King, (short for "Blues Boy King"), who has been performing for well over half a century now, turned eighty in September of 2005. His album "80" was released just in time for the birthday party. King is known for his distinctive sound - especially his use of the sliding "bent" note, and for calling his electric Gibson guitar "Lucille." And he sure loves making love to Lucille!

A star studded cast of musicians join King for this celebratory album, including: Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Bobby Bland, Billy Gibbons, Mark Knopfler, Elton John, Sheryl Crow, John Mayer, Daryl Hall, and Gloria Estefan. This is far from my favorite King album. The great man's booming voice and uncluttered guitar style, liberal use of bends, his signature tremelo, tend to overpower those he performs with. His talent casts a huge shadow, making it difficult for others to shine as he does. The commanding performances here, and the enjoyment, are provided by Mr. B.B., and the much younger artists have to strive to keep up with him.

"Early in the Morning," with Van Morrison is one of my favorite cuts and sets the bar high for those that follow. "The Thrill Is Gone," with Eric Clapton's fabulous guitar solos and B.B. playing his vocal chords, is an outstanding track, as is "Funny How Time Slips Away," with blues veteran Bobby "Blue" Bland. Mark Knopfler ("All Over Again'') and Billy Gibbons ("Tired of Your Jive'') are also CD pluses.

I am not at all thrilled with Gloria Estefan's "There Must Be a Better World Somewhere," nor with John Mayer's treacley ballad "Hummingbird." King's strong presence manages to salvage these pieces, however. And although I occasionally like Elton John, he cannot pull off "Rock This House," even with help.

King grew up sharecropping in the Mississippi Delta and learned to play gospel music on the guitar when he was a teenager. In the late 1940's he turned to playing blues and moved to Memphis, Tennessee to start a music career. He and his band toured almost non-stop, performing hundreds of shows a year. The birth of Rock & Roll music made stars of many black performers such as Little Richard, Fats Domino, James Brown and Chuck Berry. Unfortunately for B.B., "black" music, the blues, remained isolated from mainstream white America. He finally had a breakthrough success in the late 1960s, when white audiences began to discover the blues. Guitarists like Eric Clapton and Keith Richards sang his praises. B.B. King has recorded more than 50 albums, won 13 Grammys and received dozens of awards and honors over the years. Rolling Stone magazine recently named King as the third-greatest guitarist of all time, with Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band taking first and second positions. The technique of rock guitar playing is, to a large degree, derived from B.B,'s playing. Many great guitarists, like Bono, Clapton, and Richards pay tribute to him by dittoing that statement.

I love the blues, have since I was a little kid. My Dad did too, so maybe I have "blues" genes. B.B. King is so special to me because he's the reason blues hit the mainstream. During a recent interview, King commented about his lack of interest in retiring, even at 80 years-old, afflicted, as he is, with diabetes and aching joints. "I couldn't afford to do it,' King laughed. 'I have days off, but we don't get airplay like other styles of music, so I learned at an early age that unless I go out and carry music to the people, it sure don't come to them by air.'"
JANA

Where is the 10 star rating!
This arrived in the post today - loved it from the moment it started to spin.
The Man is and guest stars are in fine form although some are perhaps past the official sell-by dates they've developed character. Maturity suits the genre very well. A bit of croaking doesn't hurt it at all and some humour, mixes well. Mind you there is nothing too different about this album it treads a well worn B.B King path - and all the better for it in my opinion.

Sweet sweet music - enjoyable kick ass blues. Just buy it, and turn it up.