King of the Delta Blues Singers
| King of the Delta Blues Singers | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Compilation album by Robert Johnson | ||||
| Released | 1961 | |||
| Recorded | November 1936 in San Antonio, Texas June 1937 in Dallas, Texas |
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| Genre | Blues | |||
| Length | 43:08 | |||
| Label |
Columbia CL 1654 |
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| Producer |
Don Law (original recordings), Frank Driggs (Reissue Producer) |
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| Robert Johnson chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |  |
| Birmingham Post | |
| Down Beat | |
| Ebony | (favorable) |
| The New York Times | (favorable) 1969 |
| The New York Times | (favorable) 1998 |
| Texas Monthly | (favorable) |
| Vibe | (favorable) |
| Virgin Encyclopedia | |
| The Wall Street Journal | (favorable) |
King of the Delta Blues Singers is a compilation album by American blues musician Robert Johnson, released in 1961 on Columbia Records. It is considered one of the greatest and most influential blues releases ever. In 2003, the album was ranked number 27 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
The album compiles sixteen mono recordings, thirteen of which were previously available as 78s on the Vocalion label, originally recorded during two sessions in 1936 and 1937. The records sold well in their target market of the American south and southwest, with "Terraplane Blues" something of a regional hit, but their sales figures were never beyond 5000 or so in total. By the time this album appeared, Johnson was mostly rumor, if known at all, except to a small group of collectors and those who had purchased the original 78s. An advance copy of the album was given by its instigator, John Hammond, to his newest signing to Columbia, Bob Dylan, who had never heard of Johnson and became mesmerized by the intensity of the recordings.
Hammond, who had initially searched for Johnson in 1938 to include him on the bill for the first of his From Spirituals to Swing concerts, prodded Columbia to assemble this record during the height of the folk revival. It was the first of the retrospective albums for folk, country, and blues artists of the 1920s and 1930s rediscovered in the wake of that revival, some of whom would be located and invited to appear at events such as the Newport Folk Festival. Nevertheless, Johnson's LP failed to make the charts, but the quality of Johnson's music was recognized and Johnson's reputation grew. The album became a badge of hip taste in the 1960s, evidenced by its appearance in the album cover photo to Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home amid various emblems of bohemian life. Songs from the album were repeatedly covered throughout the decade by many artists, notably Eric Clapton who recorded "Ramblin' On My Mind" on John Mayall's 1966 classic Bluesbreakers album, and "Cross Road Blues" with his own power trio Cream on the 1968 album Wheels of Fire. Clapton would later record an entire disc of Johnson's songs, Me and Mr. Johnson.
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