It's been speculated that
Blues in My Heart
was recorded in late 1961 right before
B.B. King
left
Modern
for
ABC
, possibly with everything getting cut in one session. If that was the case, it might account for the grind-it-out feel of these ten small-combo sides (probably with
Plas Johnson
on sax and
Maxwell Davis
on keyboards), which are lacking in noteworthy songs, with the possible exception of
"Downhearted"
(aka
"How Blue Can You Get?"
).
King
, of course, brings committed singing and playing to the session; he was too much of a pro to give anything less than that to everything he did in the studio back then. Even by the adjusted standards of
's brand of urban blues, however, these songs just sound too similar to each other to rate among his better work, often sticking to a slow to midtempo shuffle and nearly identical chord progressions. Fact is, when
"Troubles Don't Last"
follows
"Got 'Em Bad,"
the arrangement's so similar that at first you're wondering whether it's "Got 'Em Bad, Pt. 2" (though it isn't).
does have a renowned if slightly cruel lyric, though, especially when
changes to a stuttering tempo and complains, "I gave you seven children/And now you want to give them back!" Still, even that particular song was done more memorably on
's famous concert album
Live at the Regal
a few years later. Note that the version of
"Got 'Em Bad"
is different from the one that came out on a
Kent
single in 1965, which added a
piano overdub. ~ Richie Unterberger