Bobby "Blue" Bland

about

Bobby "Blue" Bland (Robert Calvin Brooks, January 27, 1930 – June 23, 2013) was an American rhythm & blues singer. Bland's craft was most clearly heard on a series of early 1960s releases, including "Cry Cry Cry", "I Pity the Fool" (number 1 on the R&B chart in 1961) and "Turn On Your Love Light", all included on the 1961 album "Two Steps From The Blues". Bobby Bland developed a sound that mixed gospel with the blues and R&B. Bland was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1981, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2012. He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame described him as "second in stature only to B.B. King as a product of Memphis's Beale Street blues scene". He was sometimes referred to as the "Lion of the Blues" and as the "Sinatra of the Blues". His music was also influenced by Nat King Cole. Bland was born Robert Calvin Brooks in the small town of Barretville, Tennessee. His father, I.J. Brooks, abandoned the family not long after Robert's birth. Robert later acquired the name "Bland" from his stepfather, Leroy Bridgeforth, who was also called Leroy Bland. Robert dropped out of school in third grade to work in the cotton fields and never graduated from school. With his mother, Bland moved to Memphis in 1947, where he started singing with local gospel groups, including the Miniatures. Eager to expand his interests, he began frequenting the city's famous Beale Street, wher

top songs

albums

Dreamer

I Pity The Fool: The Duke Recordings, Vol. One

Two Steps From the Blues

The Anthology

Music For Groovin'

Midnight Run

His California Album

Turn On Your Love Light: The Duke Recordings Volume 2

Live on Beale Street

The Best of Bobby 'Blue' Bland

Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City

The Definitive Collection

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