Live at the Regal

The recording of B.B.'s 1964 performance at the Regal was hailed as an instant classic upon its release, and it's still often named as the best live blues album ever . It's been remastered from the original tapes and includes both the original and updated liner notes. Songs include Please Love Me; You Upset Me Baby; Woke Up This Mornin'; Every Day I Have the Blues; It's My Own Fault , and more from the King of the Blues.

Heralded as one of the greatest live blues albums ever recorded, this set catches the singer-guitarist as his star was in ascent: in 1964 playing Chicago's answer to Harlem's Apollo Theater--the Regal. King's performance is visceral. He sings so hard that gravel flies even in his clearest high notes. And his trademark single-note guitar lines are sharp and steely, matching his voice with trembling vigor. He offers early hits like "How Blue Can You Get," "Worry, Worry," and "You Upset Me Baby" to what's essentially his adopted hometown crowd (by his own account, King had already played the theater hundreds of times). They give him a hero's welcome. In fact, the audience's screaming enthusiasm is distracting. But rarely has a love-fest of this magnitude between a performer and fans been documented. --Ted Drozdowski