Last week, after learning B.B. King died, I spent some time picking through King’s deep discography searching for anything straying from his classic urban blues style. I reckoned, as he’d been making records for SEVENTY years, you know, there might be something unheard, like an odd disco track or even him rapping. I hoped to suss out any attempt to keep King relevant after urban blues had drifted away from the pop charts. Um, my search paid off: I found an odd, mid-’80s, experiment incorporating Michael Jackson‘s “Billie Jean” into King’s take on Jimmy Reed‘s blues standard “Big Boss Man.”
Weird, RIGHT?! I wonder what his producer was thinking? I couldn’t imagine ANYONE suggesting using a wholesale lift of “Billie Jean” to underpin, and slightly boogie up, “Big Boss Man.” Michael Jackson was fuckin’ everywhere in the mid ’80s and this track woulda been the most obvious nick. “Boss Man” is off King’s 1985 album Six Sliver Strings, and honestly, I wonder if this was just a misguided producer’s attempt to help King cross over in the mid-’80s to radio-friendly MOR soul.