King of the Delta Blues Singers
# King of the Delta Blues Singers

King of the Delta Blues Singers is a compilation album by American Delta blues musician Robert Johnson, released in 1961 by Columbia Records. It is considered one of the most influential blues releases. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked it number 374 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

## Background

The album compiles sixteen mono recordings, nine of which were previously available as 78 rpm records on the Vocalion label, recorded during two sessions in 1936 and 1937. The records sold well in their target market of the American south and southwest, with "Terraplane Blues" a regional hit, but their sales figures were never beyond 5000 or so in total. An advance copy of the album was given by its instigator, John Hammond, to his newest signing to Columbia, Bob Dylan, who had never heard of Johnson and became mesmerized by the intensity of the recordings.

Hammond, who had initially searched for Johnson in 1938 to include him on the bill for the first of his From Spirituals to Swing concerts, prodded Columbia to assemble this record during the height of the folk revival. It was the first of the retrospective albums for folk, country, and blues artists of the 1920s and 1930s were rediscovered in the wake of that revival, some of whom were located and invited to appear at events such as the Newport Folk Festival. Nevertheless, Johnson's LP failed to make the charts, but the quality of Johnson's music was recognized and Johnson's reputation grew. The album became a badge of hip taste in the 1960s, evidenced by its appearance in the album cover photo to Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home amid various emblems of bohemian life.

## Release

The album was originally released by Columbia Records in 1961 as a mono LP. At the time of its release very little scholarship had been done on Johnson's life, and the album liner notes contain some inaccuracies and false conclusions, and a speculative portrait of Johnson's personality. As the two surviving portraits of him were discovered a decade later, the cover painting depicts a faceless musician in field clothes.

The album was followed in 1970 by King of the Delta Blues Singers, Vol. II, including the remaining recordings at that time available by Johnson not on this record. King of the Delta Blues Singers was reissued on September 15, 1998, by the Legacy Records subsidiary label of the Sony Corporation, with a newly discovered alternate version of "Traveling Riverside Blues" appended as a bonus track. The original recording engineer was Vincent Liebler.

## Reception

Professional ratings :

| Review scores ||
| - | - |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Birmingham Post | |
| Down Beat | |
| Ebony | (favorable) |
| The New York Times | (favorable) 1969 |
| The New York Times | (favorable) 1998 |
| Texas Monthly | (favorable) |
| Vibe | (favorable) |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | |
| The Wall Street Journal | (favorable) |
| The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings | (1998 reissue) + “crown” |

The Los Angeles Times wrote that Johnson's recordings for the albums "revolutionized the Mississippi Delta style that became the foundation of the Chicago blues sound". The Wall Street Journal wrote that "when his album King of the Delta Blues Singers made its belated way to England in the mid-1960s, it energized a generation of musicians".

In 1980, King of the Delta Blues Singers became the first album to be inducted by the Blues Foundation into the Blues Hall of Fame. The Hartford Courant selected King of the Delta Blues Singers for its list of the 25 Pivotal Recordings That Defined Our Times (1999). In 2003, the album was ranked number 27 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, with its ranking dropping to number 374 on the 2020 update of the list. (The album was not included in the 2012 version of the Rolling Stone list, instead being replaced by The Complete Recordings at number 22.) Mojo magazine ranked it number six on its list of 100 Records That Changed the World (2007).

## Track listing

### Side one

| Track | Song Title | Recorded | Catalogue | Released | Time |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1. | "Cross Road Blues" | November 27, 1936 | unreleased alternate take | 1961 | 2:28 |
| 2. | "Terraplane Blues" | November 23, 1936 | Vocalion 3416 | 1937 | 2:58 |
| 3. | "Come On in My Kitchen" | November 23, 1936 | unreleased alternate take | 1961 | 2:46 |
| 4. | "Walkin' Blues" | November 27, 1936 | Vocalion 3601 | 1937 | 2:28 |
| 5. | "Last Fair Deal Gone Down" | November 27, 1936 | Vocalion 3445 | 1937 | 2:38 |
| 6. | "32-20 Blues" | November 26, 1936 | Vocalion 3445 | 1937 | 2:50 |
| 7. | "Kind Hearted Woman Blues" | November 23, 1936 | Vocalion 3416 | 1937 | 2:50 |
| 8. | "If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day" | November 27, 1936 | previously unreleased | 1961 | 2:34 |

### Side two

| Track | Song Title | Recorded | Catalogue | Released | Time |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1. | "Preachin' Blues" | November 27, 1936 | Vocalion 4630 | 1939 | 2:50 |
| 2. | "When You Got a Good Friend" | November 23, 1936 | previously unreleased | 1961 | 2:35 |
| 3. | "Ramblin' on My Mind" | November 23, 1936 | unreleased alternate take | 1961 | 2:49 |
| 4. | "Stones in My Passway" | June 19, 1937 | Vocalion 3723 | 1937 | 2:25 |
| 5. | "Traveling Riverside Blues" | June 20, 1937 | previously unreleased | 1961 | 2:43 |
| 6. | "Milkcow's Calf Blues" | June 20, 1937 | unreleased alternate take | 1961 | 2:14 |
| 7. | "Me and the Devil Blues" | June 20, 1937 | unreleased alternate take | 1961 | 2:30 |
| 8. | "Hellhound on My Trail" | June 20, 1937 | Vocalion 3623 | 1937 | 2:36 |

### 1998 reissue bonus track

| Track | Song Title | Recorded | Catalogue | Released | Time |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 17. | "Traveling Riverside Blues" | June 20, 1937 | unreleased alternate take | 1998 | 2:39 |
