Ivory Joe Hunter
Bespectacled and velvet-smooth in the vocal department, pianist Ivory Joe Hunter appeared too much mild-mannered to be a rock & roller. But when the rebellious music first crashed the American consciousness in the mid-'50s, there was Ivory Joe, deftly delivering his blues ballad "Since I Met You Baby" right alongside the wildest pioneers of the era.
Hunter was already a grizzled R&B vet by that time who had first heard his voice on a 1933 Library of Congress cylinder recording made in Texas (where he grew up). An accomplished tunesmith, he played around the Gulf Coast region, hosting his own radio program for a time in Beaumont before migrating to California in 1942. It was a wise move since Hunter -- whose real name was Ivory Joe, incidentally (perhaps his folks were psychic!) -- found plenty of work pounding out blues and ballads in wartime California. He started his own label, Ivory Records, to press up his "Blues at Sunrise" (with Johnny Moore's Three Blazers backing him), and it became a national hit when leased to Leon Rene's Exclusive imprint in 1945. Another Hunter enterprise, Pacific Records, hosted a major hit in 1948 when the pianist's "Pretty Mama Blues" topped the R&B charts for three weeks.
At whatever logo Hunter paused from the mid-'40s through the late '50s, his platters sold like hot cakes. For Cincinnati-based King in 1948-1949, he hit with "Don't Fall in Love with Me," "What Did You Do to Me," "Waiting in Vain," and "Guess Who." At MGM, then new to the record biz, he cut his immortal "I Almost Lost My Mind" (another R&B chart-topper in 1950), "I Need You So" (later covered by Elvis), and "It's a Sin." Signing with Atlantic in 1954, he hit big with "Since I Met You Baby" in 1956 and the two-sided smash "Empty Arms"/"Love's a Hurting Game" in 1957.
Hunter's fondness for country music reared its head in 1958. Upon switching to Dot Records, he scored his last pop hit with a cover of Bill Anderson's "City Lights." Hunter's Dot encores went nowhere; neither did typically mellow outings for Vee-Jay, Smash, Capitol, and Veep. Epic went so far as to recruit a simmering Memphis band (including organist Isaac Hayes, trumpeter Gene "Bowlegs" Miller, and saxist Charles Chalmers) for an LP titled The Return of Ivory Joe Hunter that he hoped would revitalize his career, but it wasn't meant to be. The album's cover photo -- a closeup of Hunter's grinning face with a cigarette dangling from his lips -- seems grimly ironic in the face of his death from lung cancer only a few years later.
© Bill Dahl /TiVo
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Cold Blooded Woman - From The Archives (Digitally Remastered)
Ivory Joe Hunter, Memphis Slim
Blues - Erschienen bei Essential Media Group am 10.11.2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ivory Joe Hunter
Ivory Joe Hunter, Memphis Slim
Blues - Erschienen bei Archive of Folk & Jazz Music am 12.09.1974
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ivory Joe Hunter
Blues - Erschienen bei Rhino Atlantic am 31.08.2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
An Introduction To Ivory Joe Hunter
Blues - Erschienen bei Fuel 2000 am 06.09.2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
San Franciso Blues
Jazz - Erschienen bei Redwood Records am 14.04.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Baron of the Boogie (Remastered)
R&B - Erschienen bei Master Tape Records am 17.07.2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
This Is My Country
Country - Erschienen bei LocoBop am 22.06.2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
1945-1947
Blues - Erschienen bei Classics Blues & Rhythm Series am 04.08.2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Classics: 1947-1950
Blues - Erschienen bei Classics Blues & Rhythm Series am 10.06.2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Live At The Grand Ole Opry
Country - Erschienen bei LocoBop am 19.05.2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
I'm Yours 'til Eternity
Pop - Erschienen bei Matchless Music am 20.03.2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ivory Joe Hunter
R&B - Erschienen bei Music Manager am 31.08.2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ivory Joe Hunter Sings Sixteen of His Greatest Hits
Soul - Erschienen bei Music Manager am 12.09.2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Blues At Midnight
Soul - Erschienen bei Red Cab Records am 17.01.2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Yes I Want You (Billboard Hot 100 - No 94)
R&B - Erschienen bei Music Manager am 05.11.2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Empty Arms (Billboard Hot 100 - No 43)
R&B - Erschienen bei Music Manager am 05.11.2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Since I Met You Baby: Essential Masters
Blues - Erschienen bei Burning Fire am 14.07.2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Come On Let Your Hair Down
Pop - Erschienen bei Jazztastic am 01.05.2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Landlord Blues
Blues - Erschienen bei Redwood Records am 17.03.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo