Although this collection has "Don't Answer the Door," "Paying the Cost to Be the Boss" and a nice live re-cut of "Sweet Sixteen" to highly recommend it, this 1968 issue is hardly King's best, and the "electric" part of the title makes it sound like there's an acoustic B.B. King album lurking around somewhere that you and I somehow missed in the ...

Although this collection has "Don't Answer the Door," "Paying the Cost to Be the Boss" and a nice live re-cut of "Sweet Sixteen" to highly recommend it, this 1968 issue is hardly King's best, and the "electric" part of the title makes it sound like there's an acoustic B.B. King album lurking around somewhere that you and I somehow missed in the last 40 years. To be sure, these are rock solid performances all recorded between 1965 to 1968, just as King's music was getting slicker and more urban. But this was one of the albums that helped introduce B.B. to a more modern audience (it's gone on to sell over a million copies in 30 years' time), heading straight to the timeline of "The Thrill Is Gone" putting him on the map worldwide. This 1998 CD reissue also includes three bonus tracks, studio versions of "Waitin' On You" and "Night Life," plus "Messy But Good" from the motion picture soundtrack For the Love of Ivy. Not his best, certainly electric, and ultimately, a good one to add to the collection after you've gotten about five or six others first. ~ Cub Koda, Rovi