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B.B. King

Born Riley B. King, 16 September 1925, Indianola, Mississippis. By the age of 16 he was playing blues guitar and singing on street corners. After leaving farming, he returned to Memphis, determined to become a star. He secured work with radio station KWEM, and then with WDIA, fronting a show sponsored by the health-tonic Pepticon, which led to disc jockeying on the Sepia Swing Show. Here he was billed as "The Beale Street Blues Boy", later amended to "Blues Boy King", and then to "B.B. King". Radio exposure promoted King's live career, and he performed with a band whose personnel varied according to availability. At this stage, he was still musically untutored, and liable to play against his backing musicians, but it was evident from his first recordings made for Bullet Records in 1949, that his talent was striking. The Bullet recordings brought King to the attention of Modern Records, with whom he recorded for the next 10 years. As he began to tour beyond the area around Memphis. By this time, he was a national figure, having held the number 1 spot in the Billboard R&B chart for 15 weeks with "Three O'Clock Blues". He had embarked on the gruelling trail of one-nighters that has continued ever since. Through the 50s, King toured with a 13-piece band, adopting a patriarchal... Next

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