Two Steps from the Blues

Two Steps from the Blues
Compilation album by Bobby Bland
Released	January 1, 1961
Recorded	1956–1960
Studio	Universal Recording Corp. (Chicago)
Genre	Soul blues
Length	30:16
Label	Duke/MCA
Producer	Don Robey
Bobby Bland chronology
Like Er Red Hot (1960) Two Steps from the Blues (1961) Here's the Man! (1962)
Singles from Two Steps from the Blues
"I'll Take Care of You" Released: November 1959 "I Pity the Fool" Released: January 1961

Two Steps from the Blues is the debut album by American blues singer Bobby Bland, in 1961. It compiles five songs recorded between 1956 and 1960 and seven songs recorded in two sessions from August 3 to November 12, 1960. The sessions took place at Universal Recording Corporation in Chicago, where Bland and his backing band moved after a series of successful singles and albums. The backing band was composed of Joe Scott and Melvin Jackson (trumpet), Pluma Davis (trombone), Robert Skinner and L. A. Hill (tenor saxophone), Rayfield Devers (baritone saxophone), Teddy Reynolds (piano), Clarence Holloman (guitar on some tracks, notably "I Don't Want No Woman," where Bobby Bland shouts, "Look out, Clarence!" in the middle of the guitar solo), Wayne Bennett (guitar on other tracks), Hamp Simmons (bass), and John "Jabo" Starks (drums). Scott also served as an arranger.

The album was critically and commercially successful. It produced two singles, "I Pity The Fool" and "Don't Cry No More", which charted at number 1 and 2 on the Billboard R&B chart, respectively. Two Steps from the Blues was ranked at number 217 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.^[1]