Eric Clapton, B.B. King ‘Riding With the King’: 20th Anniversary Edition: Listen
by Best Classic Bands Staff
B.B. King and Eric Clapton (Photo: Craig Matthew; used with permission)
Eric Clapton and B.B. King first performed together in New York City in 1967. Over 30 years later, in 1999, the longtime friends joined forces to create a collection of all-new studio recordings of blues classics and contemporary songs. The resulting album, Riding With the King, would be released in June 2000 and go onto sell over 2 million copies in the U.S. and win the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of this classic album, two previously unreleased tracks have been added: the blues standard, “Rollin’ and Tumblin’,” and a cover of Willie Dixon’s “Let Me Love You Baby.” Both tracks were recorded during the original sessions and were produced and mixed especially for this release by Simon Climie, who produced the original album with Clapton. The original tapes have been remastered by Bob Ludwig and released on June 26 via Reprise Records.
Listen to the previously unreleased “Let Me Love You Baby”
The 14-track collection is available in all formats including a 180-gram double vinyl package, mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Los Angeles.
Listen to the previously unreleased “Rollin’ and Tumblin'”
The album features four B.B. King originals, plus a selection of covers from writers as diverse as Isaac Hayes & David Porter (“Hold On I’m Coming”), Johnny Mercer & Harold Arlen (“Come Rain or Come Shine”) and William Broonzy & Charles Seger (“Key to the Highway”).
John Hiatt wrote the album’s title track.
The album features the musicians Andy Fairweather Low, Steve Gadd, Nathan East, Joe Sample, Doyle Bramhall II, Susannah and Wendy Melvoin, and Jim Keltner. The celebrated producer and arranger Arif Martin contributed string arrangements and orchestration to two tracks.
Riding With the King Track Listing
The album cover photo (Photo: Robert Sebree; used with permission)
Riding With the King
Ten Long Years
Key to the Highway
Marry You
Three O’Clock Blues
Help The Poor
I Wanna Be
Worried Life Blues
Days of Old
When My Heart Beats Like a Hammer
Hold On I’m Coming
Come Rain Or Come Shine
20th Anniversary Bonus Tracks
Rollin’ and Tumblin’
Let Me Love You Baby
Related: Our feature on B.B. King, who died in 2015
1 Comment so far
Jump into a conversationNever bought this as I felt that Clapton was long past his prime (and after a number of dud albums like “Pilgrim” I was wary) so is it any good? I always felt that Eric’s best years were in the late 60’s through the early 70’s and when he re-emerged after kicking heroin.
My biggest complaint is I always felt he was a decent but not great songwriter.