Get Well Quickly, Riley B. King

I happened to be listening to a T-Bone Walker record when I heard that B.B. King was hospitalized in Galveston, Texas yesterday with a 100.4 degree fever. He was expected to be released today. Performances scheduled for tonight and tomorrow night have been postponed, but B.B. still plans to be playing the blues in Fort Worth on Tuesday.

In 1949, the year in which B.B. King first recorded for Bullet Records in Nashville, Tennessee, Harry Truman was President, Ted Williams led the American League in home runs, Gene Autry recorded “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer,” the Berlin Airlift ended, and Israel was admitted to the United Nations. He has made many records since then; all have been good, some have been great, and I will argue that Live at the Regal, recorded in 1964 and released in 1965, is one of the best albums ever recorded in any genre. And in 2007, he is still the Beale Street Blues Boy.

Get well quickly, Riley B. King.

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