{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox album| | name = Completely Well | type = studio | artist = B.B. King | cover = B.B._King_Completely_Well.jpg | alt = | released = December 5, 1969<ref name="AMG"/> | recorded = June 24–25, 1969 | venue = | studio = Hit Factory, New York City | genre = Blues, R&B, soul | length = 49:57 | label = BluesWay | producer = Bill Szymczyk | prev_title = Live & Well | prev_year = 1969 | next_title = Indianola Mississippi Seeds | next_year = 1970 }} '''''Completely Well''''' is a 1969 studio album by blues guitarist B. B. King. It is notable for the inclusion of "The Thrill Is Gone", which became a hit on both the R&B/soul and pop charts and which earned him a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance in 1970.<ref name="AMG"/>

The album was released in the US as an LP record in 1969 and as a CD in 1987; in the UK only as an LP. San Francisco critic Ralph J. Gleason's liner notes are mostly a profile of King, with only a passing reference to the actual music contained in King`s commercial breakthrough album.

==Background== "The Thrill Is Gone" is a cover of a song originally released by Roy Hawkins in the early 1950s, and for the version on this album, strings were added at the suggestion of producer Bill Szymczyk.<ref name=songfacts>{{Cite web |url=https://www.songfacts.com/facts/bb-king/the-thrill-is-gone |title=The Thrill is Gone by B.B. King |publisher=Songfacts |accessdate=2018-11-23}}</ref><ref name=guitarworld>{{Cite web |url=https://www.guitarworld.com/gw-archive/50-greatest-guitar-solos |title=50 Greatest Guitar Solos |publisher=Future plc |work=Guitar World |date=2009-01-29 |accessdate=2018-11-23}}</ref> King later revisited the song as a duet with Tracy Chapman on his 1997 album ''Deuces Wild''.<ref name=songfacts />

==Reception== {{Music ratings | rev1 = AllMusic | rev1Score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref name="AMG">{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/completely-well-mw0000628163|title=Completely Well - B.B. King &#124; Songs, Reviews, Credits |access-date=May 25, 2021|website=AllMusic}}</ref> |rev3 = ''The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide'' | rev3Score = {{rating|4|5}}<ref name=RSJRG>{{Cite book |editor-last=Swenson |editor-first=J. | author-link = | year = 1985 | title = The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide | publisher = Random House/Rolling Stone | location = US | isbn = 0-394-72643-X | pages = 118 }}</ref> |rev2 = ''The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings'' |rev2score = {{Rating|2.5|4}}<ref name="Penguin">{{cite book |last1=Russell |first1=Tony |last2=Smith |first2=Chris |title=The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings |year=2006 |edition=|publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-140-51384-4|page=355}}</ref> }} On the ''Billboard'' 200 chart, the album reached a peak position of number 38 on April 4, 1970, becoming King's first Top 40 album in the United States.<ref name=billboard200>{{Cite web |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/bb-king/chart-history/billboard-200 |title=B.B. King Chart History - Billboard 200 |accessdate=2018-11-23}}</ref> It also climbed to number 5 on ''Billboard'''s R&B albums chart, marking his first Top 10 entry on that chart in about five years since ''Live at the Regal'' (1965).<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/bb-king/chart-history/r-b-hip-hop-albums |title=B.B. King Chart History - Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Albums |work=Billboard |accessdate=2018-11-23}}</ref>

The single "The Thrill Is Gone" from the album became his highest-charting song on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, reaching number 15,<ref name=billboardhot100>{{Cite web |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/bb-king/chart-history/hot-100 |title=B.B. King Chart History - Hot 100 |work=Billboard |accessdate=2018-11-23}}</ref> and it rose to number 3 on ''Billboard''<nowiki/>'s R&B singles chart.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/bb-king/chart-history/r-b-hip-hop-songs/song/578671 |title=B.B. King The Thrill Is Gone Chart History - Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs |work=Billboard |accessdate=2018-11-23}}</ref> The follow-up single "So Excited" reached number 54 on the Hot 100<ref name=billboardhot100 /> and number 14 on the R&B chart.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/bb-king/chart-history/r-b-hip-hop-songs/song/574344 |title=B.B. King So Excited Chart History - Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs |work=Billboard |accessdate=2018-11-23}}</ref>

==Track listing== #"So Excited" (B.B. King, Gerald Jemmott) -- 5:34 #"No Good" (Ferdinand Washington, B.B. King) -- 4:35 #"You're Losin' Me" (Ferdinand Washington, B.B. King) -- 4:54 #"What Happened" (B.B. King) -- 4:41 #"Confessin' the Blues" (Jay McShann, Walter Brown) -- 4:56 #"Key to My Kingdom" (Maxwell Davis, Joe Josea, Claude Baum) -- 3:18 #"Cryin' Won't Help You Now" (Sam Ling, Jules Taub; LP has only B.B.) -- 6:30 #"You're Mean" (B.B. King, Gerald Jemmott, Hugh McCracken, Paul Harris, Herbie Lovelle) -- 9:39 #"The Thrill Is Gone" (Rick Darnell, Roy Hawkins; LP has Arthur H [Art] Benson, Dale Pettite) -- 5:30<ref name="AMG"/>

==Personnel== *B.B. King: Vocals, lead guitar *Hugh McCracken: Rhythm guitar *Paul Harris: organ, acoustic and Fender Rhodes electric piano *Jerry Jemmott: Bass *Herbie Lovelle: Drums *Bert "Super Charts" DeCoteaux: string and horn arrangements

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{Discogs master|type=album|146583}}

{{B.B. King}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:B. B. King albums Category:1969 albums Category:Albums produced by Bill Szymczyk Category:BluesWay Records albums