Slim Harpo - The Original King Bee (The Best Of Slim Harpo)
COMPILATION
1 LP, Old-style tip-on jacket by Stoughton Printing
Original analog Master tape : YES
Heavy Press : 180g
Record color : black
Speed : 33RPM
Size : 12”
Stereo
Studio
Record Press : Quality Record Pressings
Label : Analogue Productions
Original Label : Rhino Records
Recorded at Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio
Produced by Robert Holmes and J.D. Miller
Remastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio
Originally released in 1983
Reissued in 2021
Tracks :
Side A
- Baby Scratch My Back
- Got Love If You Want It
- I'm A King Bee
- Shake Your Hips
- Te Ni Nee Ni Nu
- I've Been A Good Thing (For You)
- Raining In My Heart
Side B
- The Music's Hot
- Mohair Sam
- Tip On In
- Moody Blues
- The Hippy Song
- Don't Start Crying Now
- Rock Me, Baby
Hi-Fi News "Album Choice" selection for September 2018
Reviews :
What's the point in listening to us doing 'I'm A King Bee' when you can hear Slim Harpo do it?" -- Mick Jagger, 1968
"Mastered by Cohearent Audio from the best analogue tapes, this compilation covers 1957-1969, so judgments about sound quality are not meant to be taken as sonic absolutes. Rather, it reflects what care and integrity can do with iffy "historic" originals. Harpo was a blues legend revered by the British — The Rolling Stones covered "I'm A King Bee," while The Yardbirds, The Kinks, Them and others also plundered his catalogue. This disc gives you 14 original recordings from the Excello label, including the 1957 takes of 'I'm A King Bee,' 'I Got Love If You Want It,' and 1960s 'Moody Blues' which may have inspired the band that left blues for Prog, sounding almost too good to be true." Ken Kessler, Album Choice, Hi Fi News, September 2018
"A flat, quiet pressing on 180g vinyl, nicely packaged in a tip-on jacket from Stoughton Printing, it's typical of AP's quality work. ... Chad Kassem did find and use, as the source for his compilation, a 1983 analog tape that had been used by Rhino Records for the original 1983 LP version of this reissue: The Best of Slim Harpo: The Original King Bee. ... Kassem's latest passion is a classic piece of American roots music." — Robert Baird, Stereophile, May 2018
"Analogue Productions' 'greatest hits' package is in the spirit of early blues releases, and it's a much better packaging than Excello's own 'best of' release from 1969. ... The new reissue was mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl by Quality Record Pressings. It easily beats the fine Rhino mastering from Richard Simpson (of RCA fame). Original pressings of Slim Harpo's Excello albums — from which these songs were culled — sound thin, bass shy and two-dimensional compared to Gray's new mastering. But that doesn't begin to describe how good this LP sounds. ... This is big raw sound that grips you and won't let go. It succeeds because Slim Harpo was one of the underrated great blues singers and hopefully this great sounding reissue will remedy that failing. Highest recommendation for sound and music." Dennis D. Davis, Hi-Fi +, Issue 155
Ratings :
Discogs 4.59/5 , Hi-Fi + : Recording = 9/10; Music = 10/10 , Hi Fi News : Sound Quality: 90%