B.B. King named a Willie Nelson classic his favourite song of all time
B.B. King was one of the key figures in the development of the blues. Alongside the likes of Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley, he helped to take the genre from its earliest iteration – which originated deep in the Mississippi Delta – to the ears of the masses.
Whilst Waters is regarded as the father of Chicago blues and Bo Diddley the bridge between blues and rock and roll, B.B. King also carved out his own space. It was one of passion, soul and emotional introspection that followed in the tradition of the late Robert Johnson. He offered his own aura of profundity to the developing genre.
It makes a lot of sense, then, that B.B. King is affectionately dubbed ‘The King of the Blues’. He matched traditionalism with a new artistic outlook, introducing the old genre to a refined disposition. This was underpinned by the warmth of his voice and a compelling form of playing that utilised powerful string bends, staccato picking and emotive vibrato. King pushed the guitar to its limits, and in the process, he opened the gates for all that followed.
It was in the late 1940s that King started to come into his own as a musician, with the following decade seeing him take his sounds from within the confines of the Deep South to a great mass of followers. Neither he nor his associates could have imagined this prospect when playing in the dimly lit clubs of Memphis only a few years prior.
In the 1950s, he released classics such as ‘You Know I Love You’, ‘Woke Up This Morning’ and ‘Please Love Me’, material which saw him become a poster boy of the blues revolution, and by 1960, his status was cast in stone. Notably, his records greatly impacted British blues fanatics such as Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones. They would then repackage the formula for their own time and, in the process, give B.B. King a legacy so extensive that it overshadowed even that of Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley.
Elsewhere, other prominent, emotion-based guitarists such as Peter Green and Jimi Hendrix would cite him as a defining influence, spreading King’s gospel by proxy through the quality of their work. Following this, contemporary acts like U2 and Joe Bonamassa have all cited the brilliance of the Mississippi native over their careers.
Alongside the undoubted brilliance of his work, B.B. King positioned himself as one of the more genial commentators on music. In his time, he delivered praise on a wide variety of figures, from Peter Green to Elvis Presley. In fact, he was so enamoured by the former that he once explained: “He was the only one that gave me the cold sweats.”
Another artist that B.B. King adored was outlaw country pioneer Willie Nelson. Famously, the two collaborated on King’s 1997 album Deuces Wild with a rendition of Nelson’s ‘Night Life’ and played together on several other occasions. There was a significant amount of respect shared between the two, and in 2003, when speaking to Guitar.com, King revealed that he classed Nelson’s Grammy-winning version of ‘Always On My Mind’ as his favourite track of all time.
Asked to name his favourite song, King responded: “Oh man, that’s hard to tell. But I’ve got many by many. One of my songs, if you ask me my favourite song, is Willie Nelson’s ‘Always On My Mind’. That’s my favourite song of all time.”
The interviewer then noted that King had recorded a version of Nelson’s cover for his 2003 album Reflections. Still, the ever-humble musician was dismissive of his effort compared to his friend’s. He maintained: “I didn’t do it very well. Not compared to him, the way I hear it, I didn’t. But I was satisfied with what I tried to do. But that’s my favourite song.”
