I've been putting together a playlist of my favorite jazz/blues tunes this week for a holiday gift CD -- hey, it's a lot more enjoyable than shopping at the mall! -- and I just had to include this treasure from the great B.B. King, singing "Every Day I Have The Blues." It's a bit unusual, because it features B.B. as a pure vocalist (Lucille sits this one out), singing a blues classic that B.B. covered many times on his own. This time, though, he's backed with a hard-swinging big-band arrangement by the Count Basie Orchestra.
The charts for the number were originally written for Joe Williams and the Basie orchestra back in 1959, a version that B.B. has lauded as "the version of versions, the one that will never be topped and put us all to shame." But I think he more than holds his own.
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