Billy Boy Arnold – I Wish You Would – Charly Blues Masterworks Vol. 34 – Charly Records CD BM 34

This 1993 14-cut compilation is a blues masterclass, period!  These are the best of Arnold’s Chess Records and Vee-Jay Records years. 

The outstanding Chicago blues sound of the 1950s era is ideally captured here by Arnold, who to this day in no way gets his due as he remains an underacknowledged blues harmonica giant.

Arnold’s classic output here was recorded during his fertile 1955-1957 period, with a “who’s-who” of classic Chicago bluesmen in support, including piano greats Henry Gray, Otis Spann, and Sunnyland Slim, guitarists Bo Diddley, Jody Williams, and Syl Johnson, bassists Odell Campbell, Mack Thompson, and Milton Rector, and drummers Clifton James, Earl Phillips, and Fred Below, among others still, with the entirety of the accompanying cast framing Arnold’s vibrant vocals and affecting harmonica forays to superlative effect.

Vocally across this CD’s landscape, Arnold is compelling, and his renowned harmonica efforts, which are greatly indebted to his youthful blues hero, Sonny Boy Williamson I, are purposeful, captivating, and strident.  The song selection is chock-full of Arnold masterpieces

There is not a less-than-incomparable song amidst the span of this unrivaled collection.  It easily persists as a major document of blues exertions by one of the greatest post-war Chicago blues harmonica virtuosos ever recorded.

Below are the running tracks of this CD. 

Song Titles

• Sweet On You Baby
• You Got To Love Me
• I Wish You Would
• I Was Fooled
• Don’t Stay Out All Night
• I Ain’t Got You
• Here’s My Picture
• You’ve Got Me Wrong
• My Heart Is Crying
• Kissing At Midnight
• Prisoner’s Plea
• No, No, No, No, No
• Everyday, Every Night
• Rockinitis

Essential!  This needs to be in any thoughtful blues collection!