Eric Clapton, B.B. King’s ‘Riding with the King’ to Be Reissued With Two Unreleased Tracks

Eric Clapton and B.B. King’s 2000 collaborative album Riding With the King will be reissued for its 20th anniversary with two previously unreleased tracks on June 26th via Reprise Records.

One of those rarities was shared along with the album announcement, a rendition of the blues standard, “Rollin’ and Tumblin’.” The song was arguably made most famous by Muddy Waters in 1950, although it’s been interpreted by an array of artists, including Clapton and his band Cream on their 1966 debut, Fresh Cream. The version Clapton recorded with King decades later finds the pair sharing vocal duties just as a swampy dobro and a delicate electric guitar effortlessly swap licks.

The other unreleased track on the 20th-anniversary edition of Riding With the King will be a cover of Willie Dixon’s “Let Me Love You Baby.” Both songs were recorded during the original album sessions, while original producer Simon Climie returned to produce and mix the tracks for this release.

The 20th-anniversary edition of the album will be released in several formats, including a 180-gram black double vinyl package, and a 180-gam blue vinyl double LP available exclusively via Clapton’s online store and indie retailers. The vinyl version of the album was mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Los Angeles.

Clapton and King made Rolling With the King with the help of various guests such as Andy Fairweather Low, Steve Gadd, Nathan East, Joe Sample, Doyle Bramhall II, Susannah and Wendy Melvoin and Jim Keltner. In a 2000 interview with Rolling Stone, King (who died in 2015) spoke about how collaborating with Clapton was an inevitability: “Well, I think we kind of approached each other,” he said. “People praise me for playing guitar and I know [Eric is] number one. Of rock & roll guitarists, nobody plays better than he does, and he plays blues better than a lot of us. It’s been said many times, ‘Why don’t you and Eric do something together?’ Finally, he found the time, and here we are.”