B.B. King in London


B.B. King in London is a studio album, the nineteenth, by B.B. King, recorded in London in 1971. He is accompanied by US session musicians and various British rock- and R&B musicians, including Ringo Starr, Alexis Korner and Gary Wright, as well as members of Spooky Tooth and Humble Pie, Greg Ridley, Steve Marriott, and Jerry Shirley.
The album was released in the United Kingdom on November 19, 1971, in order to coincide with the first date of King's tour of the country.
John Lennon had announced that he would perform on some of the tracks, but ended up having no involvement with the album.

Recording

In addition to playing keyboards on many tracks, Gary Wright also contributed his own composition "Wet Haystack". The track "Alexis Boogie" features Alexis Korner and three members of Humble Pie, and marked the first time B.B. King played acoustic guitar on an official recording.
Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr played drums on three tracks. On two of these songs he performed in a twin-drum setup with Jim Gordon, while on "Part-Time Love" he was the sole drummer. John Lennon was also invited to participate in the sessions, but did not take part as he was living in New York at the time.
During the sessions at Command Studios, filming was carried out for a BBC documentary program, which was broadcast in 1972.

Reception

In the United States, the album reached number 57 on the Billboard 200 and number 15 on Billboard's R&B Albums chart. The first single from the album, "Ghetto Woman", peaked at number 68 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 25 on the R&B Singles chart, while the follow-up single, "Ain't Nobody Home", reached number 46 on the Hot 100 and number 28 on the R&B chart.

Track listing

  1. "Caldonia" -- 4:01
  2. "Blue Shadows" -- 5:11
  3. "Alexis' Boogie" -- 3:30
  4. "We Can't Agree" -- 4:48
  5. "Ghetto Woman" -- 5:15
  6. "Wet Hayshark" -- 2:29
  7. "Part-Time Love" -- 3:17
  8. "Power of the Blues" -- 2:23
  9. "Ain't Nobody Home" -- 3:09

Personnel

;Technical