The Thrill Is Gone

B.B. King cut “The Thrill Is Gone” in 1969 and was unhappy enough with the result that it might have stayed in a drawer, until producer Bill Szymczyk called him, late at night, with a suggestion that would have sounded like heresy to a lot of blues traditionalists: layer in a full string arrangement, the kind of lush orchestral sweetening that was common currency on pop and country records of the era but had almost never touched a straight blues record. King said yes, and the decision reshaped his entire career.

Released as a single in December 1969, the string-draped version became the biggest hit of King’s career by a wide margin, reaching No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart – a pop chart position no other B.B. King single would ever match before or after – while also hitting No. 3 on the R&B chart. It won him a Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance the following year and, decades later, a spot in the Grammy Hall of Fame. None of that commercial math would have happened without the single, specific production choice that could have gone the other way just as easily: a blues guitarist letting an orchestra into the room.

What makes the record hold up as more than a crossover stunt is that King’s guitar and vocal performance never get buried under the arrangement – the strings widen the emotional frame around his playing rather than competing with it, which is the entire difference between tasteful crossover production and dilution. “Lucille” still does the talking; the orchestra just gives her a bigger room to do it in.

Greatest of All Time. A blues record that let an orchestra in the door and became the single biggest pop hit of a six-decade career because of it.

Hero image: B.B. King, live performance photo. Used under fair use for editorial commentary.