Live at the Regal

Live at the Regal
Live album by
B.B. King
Released1965
RecordedNovember 21, 1964
VenueRegal Theater, Chicago, Illinois
GenreBlues
Length34:46
LabelABC
ProducerJohnny Pate
B.B. King chronology
My Kind of Blues
(1961) 		Live at the Regal
(1965) 		Confessin' the Blues
(1966)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[4]
MusicHound Blues[3]
The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings + “crown”[5]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide[2]

Live at the Regal is a 1965 live album by American blues guitarist and singer B.B. King. It was recorded on November 21, 1964, at the Regal Theater in Chicago. The album is widely heralded as one of the greatest blues albums ever recorded and was ranked at number 141 in Rolling Stone's 2003 edition of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list,[6] before dropping to number 299 in a 2020 revision.[7] In 2005, Live at the Regal was selected for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress in the United States.

Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, John Mayer and Mark Knopfler are among musicians who have used the album as a primer before performances.

The album was included in Robert Christgau's "Basic Record Library" of 1950s and 1960s recordings—published in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981)[8]—and in Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[9]

It was voted number 604 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000).[10] In the same book it was number 6 in the Top 50 Blues albums of All-Time.

  1. ^ Gioffre, Daniel (n.d.). "B.B. King - Live at the Regal". AllMusic. Retrieved September 6, 2019.
  2. ^ Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. Rolling Stone. p. 118. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
  3. ^ Rucker, Leland (2002). MusicHound Blues: The Essential Album Guide (2 ed.). Visible Ink Press. p. 227. ISBN 978-1578-5903-0-8. B.B.'s vocal-like guitar playing is part and parcel of his rare ability to communicate intimately with an audience, a powerful rapport which is perfectly captured on Live at the Regal, a 1964 performance considered by many to be not only his finest recording but the greatest album in all modern blues.
  4. ^ Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. p. 3074. ISBN 978-0857125958.
  5. ^ Russell, Tony; Smith, Chris (2006). The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings. Penguin. p. 355. ISBN 978-0-140-51384-4.
  6. ^ "500 Greatest Albums of All Time Rolling Stone's definitive list of the 500 greatest albums of all time". Rolling Stone. 2012. Retrieved September 18, 2019.
  7. ^ "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. 2020-09-22. Retrieved 2021-08-02.
  8. ^ Christgau, Robert (1981). "A Basic Record Library: The Fifties and Sixties". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 0899190251. Retrieved March 16, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
  9. ^ ^ Robert Dimery; Michael Lydon (23 March 2010). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. ISBN 978-0-7893-2074-2.
  10. ^ Colin Larkin, ed. (2000). All Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd ed.). Virgin Books. p. 201. ISBN 0-7535-0493-6.