Skip to main content

The Thrill is Gone: BB King Dead at 89

The Thrill is Gone: B.B. King Dead at 89

 
 
 
 

Blues Icon and one heck of a guitarist, BB King dies in Las Vegas on Thursday, May 14, 2015.
 
 
 

The 89-year-old was a 15-time Grammy Award winner and was a member of the Rock and Roll and Blues Hall of Fames.


Accompanied by his long-time partner, Lucille; he achieved so many more accolades, which included: a Lifetime Achievement Award,  Presidential Medal of the Arts; President Medal of Freedom; the international Polar Music Prize; and honorary doctorates from Yale and Brown.

King influenced Thousands of musicians in many genre's. Everyone from musical greats Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page,Mike Bloomfield, Stevie Ray Vaughan as well as  Keith Richards, Jeff Beck, Carlos Santana, Bono and Jimi Hendrix. Among the numerous acts he performed or recorded with were Hendrix, Clapton, U2, Bobby "Blue'' Bland, Ronnie Wood, Derek Trucks and Sheryl Crow.



Born, Riley B. King on Sept. 16, 1925 on a cotton plantation in the Mississippi Delta just outside Berclair; he grew up picking cotton.  He was educated in a one-room schoolhouse and had to overcome a stuttering problem. His parents separated when he was 4 and his mother died when he was 10.
 
 
Overcoming many challenges in his childhood, Riley began his musical career playing on street corners for dimes in his youth, sometimes playing in various towns a night. He hitchhiked to Memphis, Tennessee to pursue a
career in the business in 1947.
 
 King got his big break on Sonny Boy Williamson's radio show. He became popular enough to get his own sponsored radio show on station WDIA and later went on to play for Presidents, Kings and Queens, but always remained a humble soul.


How did he get the name B.B. King? Originally called the "Beale Street Blues Boy,'' which later became "Blues Boy King" and eventually shortened to B.B. King.
 
 
He cut several records starting in 1949 for the Nashville-based Bullet label and some for Sam Phillips' RPM label. It was there that he did Three O'Clock Blues, which stayed atop the R&B charts for 15 weeks in 1951.
 
 
 Some of King's classics were: How Blue Can You Get; Everyday I Have the Blues; Sweet Sixteen, Part 1; Please Love Me; Sweet Little Angel; and You Upset Me Baby. His biggest pop hit and signature tune was 1970's The Thrill Is Gone, which earned him his first Grammy and was given a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998.


In recent years, his albums continue to win the hearts of Blues lovers all across the globe . His most recent studio work,  One Kind Favor (2008), was produced by T Bone Burnett and won a Grammy for best traditional blues album.

 
King is also known for his chain of entertainment venues, called B.B. King’s Blues Club, which he first opened in Memphis in 1994. He later opened seven more, with locations in Orlando, Florida, Las Vegas, NV, New York City, Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut and Boston, MA. [Many performers from all different genre's perform at his venues across the country.]
 
B.B. King left a legacy that let the world know that the "Blues was Alright".  Those that may not have ever listening to a single Blues song still have been touched by this man's presence here on this earth.


Blues Boy King, we love you, you're music was called the blues, but brought so much happiness to us all. Rock the Heavens B.B. King, you will be truly missed...


Let you're music forever ring out in our hearts and bring joy to our souls!
 





 Rest in Eternal Peace.
 
 

Soul in the City honors this musical legend with this video where he performed live at

The Royal Albert Hall in 2011.

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Get to Know George Tandy, Jr.

Get to Know George Tandy, Jr. George Tandy, Jr is marching in civil soulity and is a leader in the Righteous Music Movement. This Virginia native moved to Ft. Lauderdale a few years back to pursue a music career and he found it in a place you wouldn't normally expect to find a Billboard chart topper...at Starbucks! This smooth, clean-cut gentleman is a musical genius that not only can sing someone out of their panties, [as many Luther fans would say], but he also plays several instruments which include the keyboard and piano to compliment this crooner's vocals. Coming from deep musical roots, his father, George Tandy, Sr is a jazz musician and his step-mother, Candi was a vocal coach and artist developer. Tandy, Jr. was known as a hip hop dancer privy to getting his "John Legend" on. His first release, "March" is consistently hitting the airwaves across the country and peaked at #3 on the Billboard R&B charts in March 2014. Tandy'

Serving Jeff Bradshaw À la carte...Bone Appétit!

World Renown, Trombonist, Jeff Bradshaw is back with his second release titled, Bone Appétit For those who don't know Jeff Bradshaw and if you haven't heard this jazz musician do his thing, you have been living under a rock for the last 10 years or so....and you definitely need a dose of what real smooth, unadulterated jazz music sounds, feels and tastes like. This soulful musician has made the trombone the instrument of choice and has laid down some beautiful sounds that this world  has experienced in a very long time. So, it is my pleasure to present to some and introduce to others, Mr. Trombone himself,  Jeff Bradshaw!!! This North Philly dude got his start with Jill Scott (Hidden Beach Recordings) and has collaborated with such artists as N'Dambi (Total Eclipse Magazine's premier cover Indie Soul artist), Glenn Lewis and Darrius Rucker. He recalls when he got his first break. "In 1994, I began to meet the who’s-who of what is now the hiera

Comedian Gerald Kelly Gives the Gift of Laughter and So Much More...

Many know actor, comedian Gerald Kelly for various reasons, but the one that he holds the highest acclaim for is being a stand-up comic with the gift to help people through their life's challenges. The gift that he has isn't just to make people laugh, but to make them cry; cry tears of joy, releasing frustrations of hurt, pain and sometimes defeat. He holds this to be the true purpose for his career as a comedian. If you haven’t heard of this comedic genius in the arena of Comedy, you haven’t heard from one of the greatest that ever did it. The joke about not being the homework parent, but trying to do his son’s homework for him is classic. His son ends up coming home crying about his grade that he received from that assignment, which was not one, but two zeros. When asked by his dad, why did get ‘two’ zeros, the boy explained, “One is for me and one is for you”… and that is just one joke of many that helped build a great career in Stand-Up Comedy.   Ger