B.B. King

Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer.

He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shimmering vibrato, and staccato picking that influenced many later blues electric guitar players.

AllMusic recognized King as "the single most important electric guitarist of the last half of the 20th century".

Riley B. King was born on September 16, 1925, on a cotton plantation of Berclair named Bear Creek in Leflore County, near the city of Itta Bena, Mississippi, the son of sharecroppers Albert and Nora Ella King.

When King was four years old, his mother left his father for another man, so he was raised by his maternal grandmother, Elnora Farr, in Kilmichael, Mississippi, then in Lexington.

As a teen, he moved to Indianola, which he referred to as his hometown and he later worked at a cotton gin.

King served in the U.S. Army during World War II but was released after being ruled as "essential to the war economy" based on his experience as a tractor driver.

While young, King sang in the gospel choir at Elkhorn Baptist Church in Kilmichael.

King was attracted to the Pentecostal Church of God in Christ because of its music.

The local minister performed with a Sears Roebuck Silvertone guitar during services and taught King his first three chords.

King's first guitar was bought for him by Flake Cartledge, his employer in Kilmichael, for 15 dollars.

Cartledge withheld money from King's salary for the next two months until the debt was repaid.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, King was a part of the blues scene on Beale Street.

"Beale Street was where it all started for me," King said.

He performed with Bobby Bland, Johnny Ace, and Earl Forest in a group known as the Beale Streeters.

According to King and Joe Bihari, Ike Turner introduced King to the Bihari brothers while he was a talent scout at Modern Records.

In November 1941, King Biscuit Time first aired, broadcasting on KFFA in Helena, Arkansas.

It was a radio show featuring the Mississippi Delta blues.

King listened to it while on break at a plantation.

A self-taught guitarist, he then wanted to become a radio musician.

In 1943, King left Kilmichael to work as a tractor driver and play guitar with the Famous St. John's Gospel Singers of Inverness, Mississippi, performing at area churches and on WGRM in Greenwood.

In 1946, King followed Bukka White to Memphis, Tennessee.

White took him in for the next ten months.

King returned shortly afterward to Mississippi, where he better prepared himself for the next visit.

Two years later, he returned to West Memphis, Arkansas in 1948.

He performed on Sonny Boy Williamson's radio program on KWEM in West Memphis, where he began to develop an audience.

King's appearances led to steady engagements at the Sixteenth Avenue Grill in West Memphis and later to a ten-minute spot on the Memphis radio station WDIA.

The radio spot became so popular that it was expanded and became the Sepia Swing Club.

He worked at WDIA as a singer and disc jockey, where he was given the nickname "Beale Street Blues Boy", later shortened to "Blues Boy", and finally to "B.B."

It was there that he first met T-Bone Walker.

King said, "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, a subsidiary of Modern.

Many of King's early recordings were produced by Sam Phillips, who later founded Sun Records.

In 1956 alone, he appeared at 342 shows.

King was born on a cotton plantation of Berclair, near the city of Itta Bena, Mississippi, and later worked at a cotton gin in Indianola, Mississippi.

He was attracted to music and taught himself to play guitar and began his career in juke joints and local radio.

He later lived in Memphis and Chicago; then, as his fame grew, he toured the world extensively.

King was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and is one of the most influential blues musicians of all time, earning the nickname "The King of the Blues", and is considered one of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with Albert King and Freddie King, none of whom are related).

King performed tirelessly throughout his musical career, appearing on average at more than 200 concerts per year into his 70s.

King died at 89 in Las Vegas in 2015.