Riding with the King (B.B. King and Eric Clapton album)

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Riding with the King
Claptonridingwiththeking.jpg
Studio album by B.B. King and Eric Clapton
Released June 13, 2000 (2000-06-13)
Genre Blues rock
Length 61:13
Label Duck / Reprise
Producer Eric Clapton, Simon Climie
B.B. King chronology
Let the Good Times Roll
(1999)Let the Good Times Roll1999		 Riding with the King
(2000)		 Makin' Love Is Good for You
(2000)Makin' Love Is Good for You2000
Eric Clapton chronology
Clapton Chronicles: The Best of Eric Clapton
(1999)		 Riding with the King
(2000)		 Reptile
(2001)

Riding with the King is a blues album by Eric Clapton and B.B. King that was released in 2000. It was their first collaborative album and won the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. The album reached number one on Billboard's Top Blues Albums and was certified 2× Multi-Platinum in the United States. Riding with the King was also released on a DVD-Audio in higher resolution and with a 5.1 surround sound mix in 2000.

The album was generally well received by reviewers, although some felt that it could have been better, and that the sound on the CD was too polished for a blues album.

Background

Riding with the King was the first collaborative album by Eric Clapton and B.B. King.[1][2] They performed together for the first time at Cafe Au Go Go in New York City in 1967 when Clapton was 22 and a member of Cream, but did not record together until 1997 when King collaborated with Clapton on the song "Rock Me Baby" for his duets album, Deuces Wild.[3][4] Clapton looked up to King and had always wanted to make an album with him.[3] King said they had discussed the project often, and added: "I admire the man. I think he's No. 1 in rock 'n' roll as a guitarist and No. 1 as a great person."[3] At the time of recording Riding with the King, Clapton was 55 and King 74.

Clapton initiated the recording sessions for Riding with the King and included some of his regular session musicians on the album. He also chose the songs and co-produced the album with Simon Climie, who had previously worked on several of Clapton's albums.[1] While this would appear to be a Clapton album recorded with King, Clapton gave center-stage to King, who took the lead on many of the songs with his singing and his solos.[5]

B.B. King and Eric Clapton

Content

The album contains five "vintage" King songs from the 1950s and 1960s: "Ten Long Years", "Three O'Clock Blues", "Help the Poor", "Days of Old" and "When My Heart Beats Like a Hammer".[3] Other standards include the Big Bill Broonzy-penned "Key to the Highway" (which Clapton had recorded in the early 1970s with Derek and the Dominos), Chicago pianist Maceo Merriweather's "Worried Life Blues", a cover of Isaac Hayes's composition "Hold On, I'm Comin'" originally a 1966 single for Sam & Dave, and "Come Rain or Come Shine" from the 1946 musical St. Louis Woman. The album's title track, "Riding with the King", is a John Hiatt composition that came about when producer Scott Mathews recounted to Hiatt a strange and abstract dream he had of flying on an airplane with Elvis Presley. It is also the title track of Hiatt's 1983 album of the same name that Mathews co-produced. The balance of the tracks were written especially for the album.[1]

The tracks are a mixture of acoustic ("Worried Life Blues") and electric songs ("Three O'Clock Blues"), and vary from slow numbers ("Ten Long Years") to "mid-tempo stomps" ("Help the Poor").[6]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 4/5 stars[1]
Entertainment Weekly A[6]
The Spokesman-Review Mixed[2]

William Ruhlmann at AllMusic noted that Riding with the King is more about King than Clapton, and that Clapton's role on the album is more of a "supportive" one. He also noted that aside from King and Clapton's guitar, there are often two or three additional guitarists on each track. Ruhlmann said that the result is "effective", but "never really stunning".[1] Dan Moos at PopMatters described the album as a "strong blues cocktail [...] with one part Mr. Clapton slickness mixed with three parts of Mr. King’s blues stature."[5] Steve Futterman at Entertainment Weekly called the "father" and "son" collaboration "triumphant".[6] Louis Gerber wrote in Cosmopolis that Riding with the King "goes directly to the heart and soul" and is a "refreshing and sensational album, the best in the popular music genre since the release of Santana's Supernatural".[4]

Dave Ferman wrote in The Spokesman-Review that while the album was a "great idea well executed", it is not as good as it could have been. Ferman complained that, in his opinion, Clapton has never been a very good blues vocalist, that Joe Sample's keyboards were far too prominent in the mix, and that the CD sounded too "squeaky-clean, [...] antiseptic and clinical" for a blues album.[2]

Nicole Bode wrote in the Columbia Daily Spectator that on the album, King takes Clapton "deeper into blues territory than he has ever gone alone".[7] She said that King's presence draws out a "raw, growling" side of Clapton's voice that will surprise most Clapton fans.[7] She was particularly complimentary of "Come Rain or Come Shine", on which she said King uses "a mournful vibrato so tender it almost breaks your heart".[7] Bode also liked the call and response guitar and vocal duet of Clapton and King on "Hold On, I'm Comin'", although she did add that Clapton's vocals are not of the same calibre as King's.[7]

Riding with the King peaked at number one on the Billboard Top Blues Albums in 2000,[8] and was certified 2× Multi-Platinum in the United States.[9] The album also won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album in 2000.[10][11]

Track listing

No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Riding with the King"   John Hiatt 4:23
2. "Ten Long Years"   Jules Taub, B.B. King 4:40
3. "Key to the Highway"   Big Bill Broonzy, Charlie Segar 3:39
4. "Marry You"   Doyle Bramhall II, Susannah Melvoin, Craig Ross 4:59
5. "Three O'Clock Blues"   Lowell Fulson, B.B. King, Jules Taub 8:36
6. "Help the Poor"   Charles Singleton 5:06
7. "I Wanna Be"   Doyle Bramhall II, Charlie Sexton 4:45
8. "Worried Life Blues"   Sam Hopkins, Big Maceo Merriweather 4:25
9. "Days of Old"   Jules Taub, B.B. King 3:00
10. "When My Heart Beats Like a Hammer"   B.B. King, Jules Taub 7:09
11. "Hold On, I'm Comin'"   Isaac Hayes, David Porter 6:20
12. "Come Rain or Come Shine"   Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer 4:11

Personnel

Main personnel

Source: Discogs[12]

Production and artwork

Source: Discogs[12]

Accolades

Grammy Awards

Year Recipient/Nominated work Award Result
2001 Riding with the King Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album[13] Won

Chart performance

Certifications

Region Certification Sales/shipments
Argentina (CAPIF)[58] Gold 30,000
Australia (ARIA)[59] Platinum 70,000
Austria (IFPI Austria)[60] Gold 25,000
Brazil (ABPD)[61] Gold 100,000
Denmark (IFPI Denmark)[62] Platinum 50,000
France (SNEP)[63] Gold 167,800[64]
Germany (BVMI)[65] Gold 150,000
Greece (IFPI Greece)[66] Platinum 30,000
Italy (FIMI)[67] Platinum 100,000
Japan (RIAJ)[68] Platinum 204,000[69]
Netherlands (NVPI)[70] Gold 40,000
New Zealand (RMNZ)[71] Platinum 15,000
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[72] Gold 25,000
United Kingdom (BPI)[73] Gold 265,000[74]
United States (RIAA)[75] 2× Platinum 2,890,335[74]
Summaries
Europe (IFPI)[76] Platinum 1,000,000

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone
xunspecified figures based on certification alone

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ "Australiancharts.com – B.B. King & Eric Clapton – Riding With The King". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ "Austriancharts.at – B.B. King & Eric Clapton – Riding With The King" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  17. ↑ "Ultratop.be – B.B. King & Eric Clapton – Riding With The King" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  18. ↑ "Ultratop.be – B.B. King & Eric Clapton – Riding With The King" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
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  21. ↑ "Top Stranih [Top Foreign]" (in Croatian). Top Foreign Albums. Hrvatska diskografska udruga. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – B.B. King & Eric Clapton – Riding With The King" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  24. ↑ "B.B. King & Eric Clapton: Riding With The King" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  25. ↑ "Lescharts.com – B.B. King & Eric Clapton – Riding With The King". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  26. ↑ "Longplay-Chartverfolgung at Musicline" (in German). Musicline.de. Phononet GmbH. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  27. ↑ "Top 40 album DVD és válogatáslemez-lista – 2000. 31. hét" (in Hungarian). MAHASZ. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  28. ↑ "Italiancharts.com – B.B. King & Eric Clapton – Riding With The King". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ "South Korea Gaon International Album Chart". On the page, select "2014-07-19", then "국외", to obtain the corresponding chart. Gaon Chart Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  31. ↑ "Charts.org.nz – B.B. King & Eric Clapton – Riding With The King". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  32. ↑ "Norwegiancharts.com – B.B. King & Eric Clapton – Riding With The King". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  33. ↑ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  34. ↑ "Swedishcharts.com – B.B. King & Eric Clapton – Riding With The King". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  35. ↑ "Swisscharts.com – B.B. King & Eric Clapton – Riding With The King". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  36. ↑ "Eric Clapton | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  37. ↑ "B.B. King – Chart history" Billboard 200 for B.B. King. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  38. ↑ "B.B. King – Chart history" Billboard Top Blues Albums for B.B. King. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  39. ↑ "Eric Clapton – Chart history" Billboard Top Catalog Albums for Eric Clapton. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
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  50. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  52. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  57. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  58. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  59. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  60. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Enter B.B. King & Eric Clapton in the field Interpret. Enter Riding with the King in the field Titel. Select album in the field Format. Click Suchen
  61. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  62. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  63. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  64. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  65. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  66. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  67. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  69. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  70. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  71. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  72. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  73. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Enter Riding with the King in the field Keywords. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Select Gold in the field By Award. Click Search
  74. ↑ 74.0 74.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  75. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH
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