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Artist
Billy Love
12+ albums
bluesAlldeep houserhythm and bluesNeed to Rate
about
Born Milton Morse Love, 8 December 1929, Memphis, Tennesssee Died 2 May 1975, Colorado Springs, Colorado Singer / pianist / songwriter / arranger. Until recently, very little information was available about Billy 'Red' Love, an R&B artist who recorded for Sam Phillips at 706 Union Avenue in the early 1950s. He was never interviewed and never featured in any music publications. Thanks to the admirable research of Martin Hawkins for the new Bear Family CD, many new facts have come to light. Billy's instrument was the piano. It is unknown whether he had any formal training on piano or what his basic influences were. By the late 1940s he was gaining a good reputation in Memphis as a player and as a teacher (Rosco Gordon was one of his pupils and called Love a formidable pianist). In 1951 Sam Phillips was very busy in his part-time studio (the Memphis Recording Service), recording as much of the local blues and R&B talent as he could. He had not yet started his Sun label and leased most of his product to Chess and RPM/Modern. Billy Love did some session work for Phillips, backing Walter Horton, Rufus Thomas and Willie Nix, before he got the chance to cut his own record as a singer-pianist. This resulted in the storming drinking song "Juiced", probably cut on July 24, 1951. Phillips was under pressure from Chess to come up with a good follow-up for Jackie Brenston's "Rocket 88" (a # 1 R&B record, produced by Phillips, his first big success), after "My Real Gone Rocket" had bombed
top songs
albums
Melloghettomental
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The Chess Story 1947-1975 (1950-1951) (Disc 2)
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Sun Records - The Blues Years 1950-1958, Disc 1
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Blues Guitar Masters CD2
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The Sun Records Story CD1
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Sun Records-25 Rare Blues Classics
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The Chess Story 1947-1975
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Boogie Woogie
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Sun Records - The Blues Years, 1950 - 1958 CD1
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Let's Get Drunk Again (Booze-Fueled Blues, Bluegrass, Hillbilly, And RnB, 20s-50s)
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Sun Records - The Blues Years 1950-1958 (Charly) Disc 7
Billy Love's The News Is All Around Town