| The Essential Bessie Smith | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 13 reviews)
Sales Rank: 48139
Category: Music
Artist: Bessie Smith
Publisher: Sony
Studio: Sony
Manufacturer: Sony
Label: Sony
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 64922
UPC: 746464922228
EAN: 0746464922228
ASIN: B000002ADO
Release Date: September 23, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | Aggravatin' Papa - Bessie Smith, Turk, Roy | | • | Baby Won't You Please Come Home - Bessie Smith, Williams, Clarence | | • | 'Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do - Bessie Smith, Grainger, Percy | | • | Jail-House Blues - Bessie Smith, Smith, Bessie | | • | Graveyard Dream Blues - Bessie Smith, Cox, Ida | | • | Ticket Agent, Ease Your Window Down - Bessie Smith, Williams, Spencer | | • | Boweavil Blues - Bessie Smith, Austin, Lovie | | • | Weeping Willow Blues - Bessie Smith, Carter, Paul | | • | Dying Gambler's Blues - Bessie Smith, Gee, Jack | | • | St. Louis Blues - Bessie Smith, Handy, W.C. | | • | You've Been a Good Ole Wagon - Bessie Smith, Balcom | | • | Cake Walkin' Babies (From Home) - Bessie Smith, Smith, Chris [Rhyth | | • | Careless Love Blues - Bessie Smith, Handy, W.C. | | • | I Ain't Goin' to Play Second Fiddle - Bessie Smith, Bradford, Perry | | • | At the Christmas Ball - Bessie Smith, Longshaw, Fred | | • | Jazzbo Brown from Memphis Town - Bessie Smith, Brooks, George | | • | Backwater Blues - Bessie Smith, Smith, Bessie | | • | After You've Gone - Bessie Smith, Layton, Turner |
Disc 2
| • | Alexander's Ragtime Band - Bessie Smith, Berlin, Irving | | • | There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight - Bessie Smith, Hayden, Joe | | • | Trombone Cholly - Bessie Smith, Brooks, George | | • | Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair - Bessie Smith, Brooks, George | | • | A Good Man Is Hard to Find - Bessie Smith, Green, Eddie [1] | | • | Dyin' by the Hour - Bessie Smith, Brooks, George | | • | Me and My Gin - Bessie Smith, Burke, Harry | | • | Kitchen Man - Bessie Smith, Belledna, A. | | • | Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out - Bessie Smith, Cox, James | | • | On Revival Day (A Rhythmic Spiritual) - Bessie Smith, Razaf, Andy | | • | Moan, You Moaners - Bessie Smith, Williams, Spencer | | • | Black Mountain Blues - Bessie Smith, Cole, Hazel | | • | Shipwreck Blues - Bessie Smith, Smith, Bessie | | • | Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl - Bessie Smith, Brymn, Tim | | • | Do Your Duty - Bessie Smith, Wilson, Wesley | | • | Gimme a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer) - Bessie Smith, Grant, Coot | | • | Take Me for a Buggy Ride - Bessie Smith, Mezzrow, Mezz | | • | Down in the Dumps - Bessie Smith, Wilson, Lana |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com essential recording
Bessie Smith was crowned the Empress of the Blues, and, while this moniker was well deserved, she was much more. A prolific recording artist, Smith was quite an eclectic performer. In fact, she may have been one of the first true crossover artists. This neat two-disc set gives the listener a good sampling of her wide repertoire. Smith is backed up by some of the best jazz musicians of her era. Her rendition of "St Louis Blues" for example, features the horn work of a young Louis Armstrong. Smith was not above doing such suggestive material as "Kitchen Man" or "Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl" and could breath new life into a pop chestnut like "Alexander's Ragtime Band." And when Smith sang "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out," she knew what she was talking about. The title of this album says it all. --Lars Gandil
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Oldies, but goodies April 7, 2008
These songs were instrumental in the rise of rock and roll. This lady really sang the blues the way they were meant to be sung. I was a young woman in the fifties and recall many good songs and many talented entertainers. I prefer the older songs, but there have been some good music from each decade that I have lived through. It seems that they all stem from the early blues songs such as the ones on this album.
Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddler April 4, 2008
I have heard of Mama Bessie for years. But I wasn't really familiar with her music. Sometimes you have to grow older and mature in order to appreciate such music. What I have read about her was she was a volatile and commanding personality. It saddens me that she probably died unnecessarily.
She had issue with her siblings too. I guess it is difficult when you come from poverty and all of a sudden you are making money, but your family is still there. She was their savior. She obviously experienced much stress from the financial demands of family.
My favorite songs are as follows:
Good Ole Wagon
Gimme A Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer
Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair
Taint Nobody's Business
Moan you Moaners
A Good Man is Hard to Find
Nobody Knows You
I especially love Gimme A Pigfoot because it speaks about pretentiousness with a comical twist. Folks have various faces and sometimes it hard to determine when the real person surfaces. Liquor or corn liquor(fermented corn) has a way of making one lose their inhibitions and the real person emerges.
Great service! December 17, 2007
What's not to like? I got what I ordered within just a few days after I placed the order. This, to me, is great service! No stress, no strain.
 Bessie never made "early videos" March 1, 2007
The reviewer below is misinformed. Bessie never made "early attempts at video." She made exactly one appearance on film, in "St. Louis Blues," and it is amazing for the power and dignity that she brings to it, even though she is cast as woman treated like a doormat by "Jimmie." But it is a national treasure because were it not for that 17-minute clip (you can find it on youtube), there would be no record of her facial expressions, movements, majesty singing live.
Bessie's the Bomb! October 2, 2006
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
BESSIE SMITH is undoubtedly the Great Godmother of Blues and was a legend in her own time. Her influence was seen in many singers who followed, including Janis Joplin her often referred to Bessie as being her primary inspiration. Supposedly Bessie was the inspiration for the character "Shug Avery" in one of America's most important films, The Color Purple. Bessie Smith's original recordings were produced on so-called "Race Records," marketed for the segregated African-American community (they were considered too sexual for the likes of lily white listeners.) Bessie made a few early rather regrettable "videos" of her songs; her attempts at a breakthrough into movies were equally unfortunate. She had no dramatic training and the studios only saw her cast as the perennial docile or happy-go-lucky black maid--and Bessie wasn't having any of that.
The selected anthology is expertly remastered. It features `Taint Nobody's Bizness If I do; St. Louis Blues; and the politically incorrect Send Me to the `Lectric Chair. It looses 1 Star only because it should have included two or three selections found elsewhere.
Queen of the Blues Volume 1
Salutes Bessie Smith
Best of the Empress of the Blues
The Ultimate Collection
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