Track Listing

1. High and Lonesome
2. You Don't Have to Go
3. Ain't That Lovin' You Baby
4. I Ain't Got You
5. You Got Me Dizzy
6. Little Rain
7. Honest I Do
8. Odds and Ends
9. Ends and Odds
10. Going to New York
11. Take Out Some Insurance
12. Baby, What You Want Me to Do
13. Hush Hush
14. Big Boss Man
15. Bright Lights, Big City
16. Oh John
17. Shame, Shame, Shame

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13532 in Music
• Released on: 2000-03-14
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
With his meteoric run of hits from early 1955 through late 1961, Chicago's Jimmy Reed reigned as the most popular bluesman of his day, rivaled only by fellow Mississippi transplant B.B. King. By the mid-'60s Reed was playing New York's Carnegie Hall and the Apollo Theater and touring England as a star. Reed's sweet, Delta-inflected singing complemented the cool, walking bass shuffles of his cleverly crafted songs, the finest of which are to be found in this tasteful contribution to Rhino's Blues Masters series. Included here are chart toppers like "You Don't Have to Go," "Ain't That Lovin' You, Baby," "Baby, What You Want Me to Do," "Big Boss Man," and "Bright Lights, Big City," all durable standards that influenced a generation of rockers from Bob Dylan to the Rolling Stones to Jimi Hendrix and earned Reed his proper place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. --Alan Greenberg

Customer Reviews

Jimmy Reed's Prime Tracks From the Vee-Jay Vaults
Of the Post-WWII bluesmen, Jimmy Reed was one of the most influential performers and certainly one of the most popular. While stories abound of his alcoholism (which would lead to his death in 1976 at the age of 50) and the resulting inappropriate behavior both on stage and in the studio, Reed still managed to place more singles on the pop chart than any other bluesman during his tenure on Vee-Jay.

Playing guitar and harmonica, his first big hit was the No. 5 R&B hit "You Don't Have to Go" in 1955, which featured the kind of loping shuffle that became his trademark. His music was simple enough for just about anyone to pick up a guitar and play his songs, but the power of his music was the irresistible boogie groove that his songs would mine. He followed that up the following year with another Top Ten R&B single "Ain't That Lovin' You Baby." But his biggest hits were the pop crossovers "Honest I Do" (No. 32, 1957) and "Baby What You Want Me To Do" (#37, 1960).

"I Ain't Got You," from 1955, will be recognized by most Baby Boomers as a Yardbirds cover, and Reed's original material would be covered by artists from Elvis Presley to the Rolling Stones.

Reed rerecorded many of his early hits for ABC-Bluesway from the mid-Sixties into the Seventies, but the tracks included here are all the original Vee-Jay recordings from 1953 to 1963. Quite simply, this is the best single-disc collection of Reed's work. His other must-own release is Mobile Fidelity's Jimmy Reed at Carnegie Hall/The Best of Jimmy Reed (now available on Collectables.) HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Hard-Hitting Song Selection
MCA's pitiful "20th Century Masters" series made me skeptical of the cursory and careless patch-work that constitutes the "greatest hits" collections of most Blues and Rock masters. But Rhino, as usual, proves to be the industry's most adept anthologizing entity here and has gone quite far to put the work of Rock 'N Roll's many geniuses into the kind of perspective that does proper justice to the artists. This Jimmy Reed collection, with its careful, dense and precise song selection, is no exception. Its 17-song track list reflects exactly the kind of generosity that the "20th Century Masters" series lacks. Not a single one of Reed's original classics eludes the radar here, from the particularly raw and aggressive early numbers, "High and Lonesome" and "Aint That Lovin' You Baby" to the smoother and more casual knockouts that stole crowds from Carnegie Hall to London in the late 50s, such as "Bright Lights Big City" and "Baby What You Want Me to Do," admirably covered by Neil Young (one of Reed's biggest fans) & Crazy Horse on their 1996 album, "Broken Arrow." That Reed would earn such a tribute from an artist whose roots are steeped in a tradition so dramatically distinct from his own testifies to the immensity of his influence. This is the document of a true American innovator whose work and talent made Rock 'N Roll possible.

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Best collection On Jimmy Reed
Rhino's great Blues Masters series finally lands on Jimmy Reed. With Vee Jay's 1993 25 cut collection now out-of-print this is the way to go. Sound is good and the liner notes are typically Rhino excellent. Reed's sound was pretty simple: "laid-back" vocals and guitar and records whose sound had an appeal beyond his blues base. Also, a special shout out to Reed's sideman Eddie Taylor who supplies most of the great guitar moments on these cuts. All of this made these records cross over to the pop charts in the late 50's and early 60's. It's those attributes that often gets Reed overlooked when critic's talk about the great bluesmen. But time and his great songs have been good to Reed's legacy. That and the fact that many of his best songs got covered and still get played every night somewhere in a blues club near you make this an essential part of your record collection.