R&B
VA - King R&B Box Set [1996] (4 x CDs)
Collectors usually encounter The King R&B Box Set the same way they would an old archive drawer, opening it out of curiosity and then realizing how much history sits inside. Issued across four discs and drawing from the catalogue of King Records, the set gathers recordings made between 1945 and 1966, years when rhythm and blues was still defining its shape. The label’s Cincinnati operation recorded, pressed, and shipped its own records under one roof, and that practical spirit carries through the entire box.
The early stretch places the listener right inside the late-forties rhythm and blues circuit. Wynonie Harris and Roy Brown arrive with the kind of punch that once drove jukeboxes and Saturday night dances. Horns push hard, pianos roll underneath, and the recordings feel immediate rather than polished.
As the sequence settles into the mid-fifties, the character of the label broadens. Groups like The Royals bring tight vocal interplay and guitar driven arrangements, while Hank Ballard adds a tougher rhythmic edge that hints at the rock and soul currents forming around the time. The emotional tone deepens through singers such as Little Willie John, whose recordings show how King’s catalogue moved naturally toward early soul.
Instrumental blues arrives through Freddie King, his guitar lines cutting cleanly through the arrangements. Toward the end, early recordings by James Brown appear not as a grand finale but as a continuation of the sound that had been building across the discs.
CD4 closes in an unusual way. After the final music tracks, the box includes three short interview excerpts featuring King founder Syd Nathan. They are brief, almost offhand conversations, yet they place a human voice behind the label that shaped everything heard before.
Played from beginning to end, the set feels less like a retrospective and more like a long stack of original singles turning on the spindle, each one revealing another corner of the King sound. (B)
My favorite R&B Box set of the last few months... Enjoy
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Track lists
CD1
01 Bull Moose Jackson and His Band - I Know Who Threw The Whiskey in The Well 2:45
02 Ravens - Bye, Bye Baby Blues 2:44
03 Bull Moose Jackson and His Buffalo Bearcats - I Love You, Yes I Do 3:00
04 Lonnie Johnson - Tomorrow Night 3:04
05 Bull Moose Jackson and His Buffalo Bearcats - I Want A Bowlegged Woman 3:03
06 Wynonie Harris - Good Rockin'Tonight 2:46
07 Roy Brown - Long About Midnight 3:05
08 Todd Rhodes - Blues for The Red Boy 2:41
09 Lonnie Johnson - Pleasing You (As Long as I Live) 3:06
10 Roy Brown - Rockin' at Midnight 2:44
11 Todd Rhodes - Pot Likker 2:41
12 Ivory Joe Hunter - Guess Who 2:59
13 Wynonie Harris - All She Wants to Do is Rock 2:33
14 Joe Thomas - Page Boy Shuffle 2:39
15 Eddie Vinson - Ashes on My Pillow 2:35
16 Bull Moose Jackson - Why Don't You Haul Off and Love Me 3:01
17 Ivory Joe Hunter - Jealous Heart 2:51
18 Wynonie Harris - Sittin' on it All The Time 2:38
19 Tiny Bradshaw and His Orchestra - Well, Oh Well 2:42
20 Roy Brown - Hard Luck Blues 3:00
21 Wynonie Harris - Good Morning, Judge 2:41
22 Mabel Scott - Disgusted 2:29
23 Dominoes - Sixty Minute Man 2:31
24 Earl Bostic - Flamingo 2:42
25 Lucky Millinder - I'm Waiting Just for You 2:38
26 Wynonie Harris and His All-Stars - Bloodshot Eyes 2:39
CD2
01 Sonny Thompson and His Orchestra - Mellow Blues (Part 1) 2:46
02 Wynonie Harris With Todd Rhodes Orchestra - Lovin' Machine 2:27
03 Tiny Bradshaw and His Orchestra - The Train Kept A' Rollin' 2:46
04 Swallows - It Ain't The Meat 2:34
05 Roy Byrd (Professor Longhair) - Rockin' With Fes 2:03
06 Swallows - Beside You 2:34
07 Sonny Thompson - I'll Drown in My Tears 2:53
08 Dave Bartholomew and His Orchestra - My Ding-a-Ling 2:15
09 Dominoes - Have Mercy Baby 2:22
10 Lil Greenwood and The Four Jacks - Grandpaw Can Boogie Too 2:50
11 Royals - Moon Rise 2:48
12 Todd Rhodes - Trying 2:36
13 Little Willie Littlefield - K.C. Loving 2:40
14 Moose Jackson - Big Ten Inch Record 2:28
15 Annisteen Allen - Baby, I'm Doing It 2:28
16 Hot Lips Page and His Orchestra - Jungle King 2:45
17 Little Esther and Her Orchestra - Cherry Wine 2:13
18 Big Jay McNeely - Nervous Man, Nervous 2:35
19 Billy Ward and His Dominoes - Rags to Riches 2:42
20 Young John Watson - Space Guitar 2:38
21 Midnighters - Work With Me Annie 2:46
22 Platters - Only You (And You Alone) 3:05
23 Midnighters - Sexy Ways 2:31
24 Charms - Hearts of Stone 2:35
25 Lula Reed - Rock Love 2:08
26 Jack Dupree and Mr. Bear - Walking The Blues 2:55
CD3
01 Earl 'Connelly' King - Don't Take it So Hard 2:43
02 Little Willie John - All Around The World 2:57
03 Otis Williams and His Charms - Ivory Tower 2:17
04 Billy Gayles - I'm Tore Up 2:23
05 Little Willie John - Fever 2:42
06 Billy Doggett - Honky Tonk (Part 1) 3:08
07 Billy Doggett - Honky Tonk (Part 2) 2:37
08 Annie Laurie - It Hurts to Be in Love 2:44
09 Billy Doggett - Ram-Bunk-Shush 2:31
11 Tiny Topsy - Miss You So 2:08
13 Little Willie John - Talk to Me, Talk to Me 2:43
14 Chanters - No, No, No 2:15
15 Hank Ballard - The Twist 2:36
16 Teddy Humphries - What Makes You So Tough? 2:21
17 Hank Ballard - Finger Poppin' Time 1:51
18 Smokey Smothers - Come on Rock, Little Girl 2:49
19 Little Willie John - Sleep 2:54
21 Hank Ballard - Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go 2:26
23 King Pins - It Won't Be this Way (Always) 2:26
25 Johnny 'Guitar' Watson - Gangster of Love 2:53
26 James Brown - Papa's Got A Brand New Bag (Part 1) 2:04
CD4
01 Lonnie Johnson - Me and My Crazy Self 2:36
02 Billy Ward and His Dominoes - That's What You're Doin' to Me 2:32
03 Earl Bostic - No Troubles Bubbles 4:40
04 Lula Reed With Sonny Thompson - Wild Stage of Life 2:21
05 Little Willie John - Fever (With String Overdub) 2:47
06 Hank Ballard - Dr. Lover 2:35
07 Hank Ballard - Get That Hump in Your Back 2:55
08 Syd Nathan and Eli Oberstein Address A Sales Meeting - September 22, 1951 - Eli Oberstein Address A Sales Meeting - September 22, 1951 8:34
09 Syd Nathan Talks About His European Trip - October 1952 - Syd Nathan Talks About His European Trip - October 1952 7:49
10 Syd Nathan Addresses an A & R Meeting - December 11, 1954 - Syd Nathan Addresses an A & R Meeting - December 11, 1954 8:59
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Music weaves itself into the fabric of our emotions, dances through the corridors of memory, and whispers to the soul of who we are. Sharing these stories deepens the connection, turning the experience into something timeless and profound.
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