B.B. King

B. B. King (born Riley B. King, September 16, 1925) is an African American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter known for his expressive singing and inimitable guitar playing. As Komara has written, King introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato that would influence virtually every electric blues guitarist that followed. Critical acclaim and widespread popularity have cemented his reputation as possibly the most respected and successful of all blues musicians. B. B. King arrived in Memphis for the first time in 1946 to work as a musician, but after a few months of hardship he left, going back to Mississippi. There he decided to prepare himself better for the next visit and returned to Memphis two years later. Initially he worked at the local R&B radio channel WDIA as a singer and disc jockey, where he gained the nickname Beale Street Blues Boy", later shortened to B. B. It was there that he first met T-Bone Walker - "Once I'd heard him for the first time, I knew I'd have to have [an electric guitar] myself. Had to have one, short of stealing!" In 1949, King began recording songs under contract with Los Angeles-based RPM Records. Many of King's early recordings were produced by Sam Phillips, who later founded Sun Records. Before his RPM contract, King had debuted on Bullet Records by issuing the single "Miss Martha King" (1949), which got a bad review in Billboard magazine and did not chart well.