B.B. King: The Soul Of B.B. King version on CD in Standard edition. This particular edition was published in United Kingdom in publishing company Ace on 13. January 2004.

The original, rarely heard LP, which appeared in October 1963 under the title "B. B. King," was the twelfth and final B. B. to be released on Crown. For later reissues of the LP it was renamed The Soul Of B. B. King, a name that reflected the spirit of the times (and was less confusing to record buyers). For the avoidance of doubt, let's say straight out that this is a blues album from start to finish, with not a single soul tune or ballad to be heard. B. B. brings his usual intensity to every performance, singing and playing as if this take could be the one that will bring him another hit. You could say that's the real soul of B. B. King. By the end of 1963, it had been almost two years since B. B. had left Modern Records for ABC-Paramount, so the album was assembled from the vast store of material he left behind. Rather more than half of the tracks were recorded in the sixties, while the rest came from the previous decade. Stylistically and chronologically, it's a long way from the sombre Please Remember Me, a 1952 recording by Houston that uses a sampling of his first big hit, 3 O'Clock Blues, to the subversive You Never Know, a Maxwell Davis production from the 1960s with punchy brass and punchy organ. But once one gets used to the musical diversity, the album holds up. Highlights for the listener include the shuffle Going Home, an instrumental house rocker that shows B. B.'s debt to T-Bone Walker, and the boisterous big band number Shake Yours. The eight bonus tracks, mostly new on the Ace CD, were produced by Maxwell Davis in the 1960s. Taken as a whole, they equal the quality of the original album, perhaps even surpassing it. Three titles appear on the Kent 45: Just A Dream, The Road I Travel (a remake of Roy Brown's Hard Luck Blues) and Love, Honor And Obey. (How is it that this little gem has escaped reissue until now?) Eyesight To The Blind is an alternate version, first released on the Kent LP "The Jungle", without the dubbed horns heard on the Kent single. The quality of the remaining tracks only underlines the overall uniqueness of B's work. B. King from this period. Who would have thought that A Woman Don't Care could remain unreleased until 1991 (and then only appear in Japan) or that this version of Tampa Red's Green And Lucky Blues, with its sparse but effective arrangement, would only now see the light of day? Eighteen tracks of top-notch B. B. King in better-than-ever sound at a mid-price, intelligently assembled in a series that appears to be the largest and most comprehensive reissue project ever devoted to the bluesman. We've never had it so good.

Album spans genres Blues and Modern Electric Blues.