The music world lost a good one this year. Riley B. (B.B.) King passed away on May 14th, 2015 at the age of 89.
King released a Christmas record, A Christmas Celebration of Hope, back in 2001. It was not met with great reviews. In his review for Allmusic, Richie Unterberger awarded the album 2.5 out of 5 stars and called the collection an “adequate, good-humored reprisal”. Unterberger thought only “Please Come Home for Christmas” was overproduced and concluded his review with the statement: “It’s hardly the first King you’ll pull off your shelf, and not the first R&B Christmas album you’ll turn to either, but you could do worse in the holiday season.”
The song I’m featuring tonight is best known (for my generation anyway) as an Eagles recording. However, Please Come Home for Christmas was written and recorded by Charles Brown in 1960 and has been covered by Johnny and Edgar Winter, Bon Jovi, Willie Nelson, Kelly Clarkson, John Mayer and many, many others. (BTW, the Eagles version of the song features the very first recording of Timothy B Schmidt as the bassist for the band.)
Despite the tepid review, it’s still great to hear BB King sing and play guitar.
Please Come Home for Christmas – B.B. King
Tom's Christmas Music Blog 