Powerhouse blues and R&B singer, the original "Hound Dog" belter, and one of the most important female architects of rock & roll. Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton only notched one national hit in her lifetime, but it was a true monster. "Hound Dog" held down the top slot on Billboard's R&B charts for seven long weeks in 1953. Alas, Elvis Presley's rocking 1956 cover was even bigger, effectively obscuring Thornton's chief claim to immortality.

Rock & roll exploded in the '50s onto a cultural landscape that was so uptight and repressed as to be unrecognizable today, even to those who lived through it. Everything – from the clothes young people wore to the music they listened to to the money they spent – was a hard-fought statement, because no youth group before those '50s teenagers ever had that kind of freedom and did something with it. Pop music was bland, bland, bland (just like it is now) and the bigger and badder and bolder rock & roll became, the more of a threat it was to the status-quo squares who banned it every chance they got. You couldn't listen to it, you couldn't dance to it at your school, concerts in public places were banned, and artists were often jailed for performing it in public.

10 CD Wallet Box featuring the best of late 40s/early 50s rhythm & blues, jump blues, boogie blues and just plain ol' blues.

This is an album that should not have worked. LaVern Baker (a fine R&B singer) was joined by all-stars from mainstream jazz (including trumpeter Buck Clayton, trombonist Vic Dickenson, tenor-saxophonist Paul Quinichette and pianist Nat Pierce) for twelve songs associated with the great '20s blues singer Bessie Smith. Despite the potentially conflicting styles, this project is quite successful and often exciting. The arrangements by Phil Moore, Nat Pierce, and Ernie Wilkins do not attempt to re-create the original recordings; Baker sings in her own style (rather than trying to emulate Bessie Smith), and the hot solos work well with her vocals.

Jimmie Lawrence Vaughan is an American blues rock guitarist and singer based in Austin, Texas. He is the older brother of the late, Texas blues guitar legend, Stevie Ray Vaughan. Collection includes: 'Strange Pleasure' (1994); 'Out There' (1998); 'Do You Get The Blues?' (2001); Omar Kent Dykes & Jimmie Vaughan - 'On The Jimmy Reed Highway' (2007); 'Plays Blues, Ballads & Favorites' (2010); 'Plays More Blues, Ballads & Favorites' (2011); Baby, Please Come Home (2019).

Sam The Man Taylor is a saxophonist as adept at swinging jazz as he is at the blues and R&B for which he is most famous. With his unending drive and energy, he stood out in the bands he was in, including those of Cootie Williams, Cab Calloway and others. During the 50s he spent much of his time playing R&B sessions, but he also performed and recorded often with his own combo and, ten years later, he achieved wide recognition in Japan thanks to his ballads. This CD, however, resents an exultant Taylor, deeply rooted in the most genuine jazz, during a swinging 1958 session with great jazzmen like Charlie Shavers, Georgie Auld, Budd Johnson and Hank Jones. As a bonus, there is an example of his more rocking side, fronting a group that exudes Taylors typically soulful essence.

Jays Blues is a fine collection of early-'50s jump blues sides that Jimmy Witherspoon cut for Federal Records. This 23-track collection offers a good retrospective of one of Witherspoon's most neglected – and admittedly, uneven – periods.

This 2 CD collection features over 2 hours of digitally re-mastered music and 40 of Pat Benatars all-time classic hits and signature songs- including 20 Top 40 Chart Hits. Highlights include "Heartbreaker," "Hit Me with Your Best Shot," "Hell Is for Children," "Love Is a Battlefield," and many more!!!

Her mountainous stature matching the sheer soulful power of her massive vocal talent, Big Maybelle was one of the premier R&B chanteuses of the 1950s. Her deep, gravelly voice was as singular as her recorded output for Okeh and Savoy, which ranged from down-in-the-alley blues to pop-slanted ballads. In 1967, she even covered ? & the Mysterians' "96 Tears" (it was her final chart appearance). Alleged drug addiction leveled the mighty belter at the premature age of 47, but Maybelle packed a lot of living into her shortened lifespan.

"Ride Daddy Ride: Vintage Songs About Sex 1927-1953" is a compilation album that features a selection of early 20th-century songs with suggestive and risqué themes, dating from 1927 to 1953. The tracks on this album capture the humor, innuendo, and open references to sexuality that were part of the blues, jazz, and swing scenes of the time.

Modern electric blues guitar can be traced directly back to this Texas-born pioneer, who began amplifying his sumptuous lead lines for public consumption circa 1940 and thus initiated a revolution so total that its tremors are still being felt today. Few major postwar blues guitarists come to mind that don't owe T-Bone Walker an unpayable debt of gratitude. B.B. King has long cited him as a primary influence, marveling at Walker's penchant for holding the body of his guitar outward while he played it. Gatemouth Brown, Pee Wee Crayton, Goree Carter, Pete Mayes, and a wealth of other prominent Texas-bred axemen came stylistically right out of Walker during the late '40s and early '50s.

Following on from the huge success of Ballroom Bonanza, Len returns with a brand new compilation in 2016, to feature his all-time favourite Crooners, Swooners and Big Band classics! This hand-picked compilation of songs in Len Goodman’s Crooners & Swooners is set to make anyone’s heart strings tingle and get toes tapping with the inclusion of tracks from Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Dean Martin, Bette Midler, Etta James and Barry Manilow, being sure to get more than a ‘seven!’. Known to millions as the Head Judge of BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing and ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, Len has sashayed his way to the top of the dance world. Beginning his dance life at the age of 21, he has gained years of vast knowledge and experience in Ballroom and Latin American dancing through teaching, competing and judging, making him a four-time British Champion. Len’s passion for dance and the music associated with it has been demonstrated in programmes made for BBC4 including Len Goodman’s Dance Band Days, Len Goodman’s Big Band Bonanza, Dancing Cheek to Cheek with Lucy Worsley and Dancing in the Blitz with Jools Holland and Lucy Worsley. Len has also appeared on BBC Radio 2 presenting his favourite music including some of the music featured in Strictly, those that influenced his life and include a variety of styles from Jazz to American Songbook to Pop.

This contains straight-up reissues of two of T-Bone's Imperial albums, themselves merely collections of the original 78s. Everything on these 24 sides was recorded between 1950 and 1954 – not as trailblazing a period as the one from 1946 to 1947 on Black and White, but still prime T-Bone by any yardstick. The majority of these sides were cut in Los Angeles, with the exception of the New Orleans-recorded "I'm Still in Love With You" and the Windy City cut of "Bye Bye Baby." Loads of great T-Bone guitar and a cool West Coast sound to most everything on here make this an important addition to anyone's blues collection.

Tiny Grimes was one of the earliest jazz electric guitarists to be influenced by Charlie Christian, and he developed his own swinging style. Early on, he was a drummer and worked as a pianist in Washington. In 1938, he started playing electric guitar, and two years later he was playing in a popular jive group, the Cats and the Fiddle. During 1943-1944, Grimes was part of a classic Art Tatum Trio which also included Slam Stewart. In September 1944, he led his first record date, using Charlie Parker; highlights include the instrumental "Red Cross" and Grimes' vocal on "Romance Without Finance (Is a Nuisance)." He also recorded for Blue Note in 1946, and then put together an R&B-oriented group, "the Rockin' Highlanders," that featured the tenor of Red Prysock during 1948-1952. Although maintaining a fairly low profile, Tiny Grimes was active up until his death, playing in an unchanged swing/bop transitional style and recording as a leader for such labels as Prestige/Swingville, Black & Blue, Muse, and Sonet.

Roomful of Blues is an American blues and swing revival big band based in Rhode Island. With a recording career that spans over 40 years, they have toured worldwide and recorded many albums. Roomful of Blues, according to The Chicago Sun-Times, "Swagger, sway and swing with energy and precision". Since 1967, the group’s blend of swing, rock and roll, jump blues, boogie-woogie and soul has earned it five Grammy Award nominations and many other accolades, including seven Blues Music Awards (with a victory as Blues Band Of The Year in 2005). Billboard called the band "a tour de force of horn-fried blues…Roomful is so tight and so right." The Down Beat International Critics Poll has twice selected Roomful of Blues as Best Blues Band. Hook, Line & Sinker features twelve carefully chosen songs from Little Richard, Dave Bartholomew, Amos Milburn, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Floyd Dixon and others. Produced by Vachon, the CD is a ferocious and enthusiastic blast of rocking guitars, punching horns and huge, room-filling vocals. The results are a non-stop hip-shaking party. It’s clear why People magazine said Roomful’s music “can turn a dull evening at home into a heel-clicking night of fun.