Mr. Luck: The Complete Vee-Jay Singles album cover
Mr. Luck: The Complete Vee-Jay Singles

Jimmy Reed

1955 - 1961
Craft Recordings

Every Jimmy Reed song sounds the same, but while you’re listening to it it’s the greatest song you’ve ever heard. His patient, somewhat nasal singing is reminiscent of Cab Calloway, and his simple, loping style of blues features a slowly bouncing boogie rhythm, choruses that are barely an extension of the verse, and a relaxed feel that makes his music purely pleasurable. Many of his songs, like “Big Boss Man,” “Baby What You Want Me To Do,” “Bright Lights, Big City,” “Ain’t That Loving You Baby,” “Take Out Some Insurance,” are blues classics and have been recorded by Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead, the Animals, Van Morrison, and many others. This three-CD set contains nearly 80 tracks and about a dozen short clips of Reed talking about some of his biggest hits, and it’s simultaneously everything you’ll ever need and not nearly enough.

Phil Freeman

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