The Joe Liggins Collection 1944-57

Joe Liggins was an R&B pianist, singer and bandleader, who was a prominent personality on the R&B scene and in the R&B charts in the decade following WWII, and who, along with artists like Amos Milburn helped develop the small-group jump blues style that came to the fore during that time. He scored his first hit in 1945 with his composition “The Honeydripper”, which was an R&B No. 1 and (along with Louis Jordan’s “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie”) jointly holds the record for the longest stay at the top of the Billboard R&B chart. That two-million seller launched his career and he racked up a dozen Top 10 hits over the next five years, with distinctive saxophones of Little Willie Jackson and James Jackson Jr.. This great value collection 77-track 3-CD collection selects from his singles releases for the Exclusive label between 1945 and 1950, and for Specialty from 1950 to ’54, plus sides he made later for mercury and Aladdin. It comprises a significant proportion of his body of work during that time, with almost every release represented by at least one side, and many by both sides. It’s an excellent and highly entertaining showcase for his sophisticated and stylish brand of R&B, and traces the way his, and the genre’s, music developed in what was a dynamic era of popular music in the decade before the rock ‘n’ roll explosion.