King of the Delta Blues Singers, Vol. II is a compilation album

Compilation album

A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...

 by American blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 musician Robert Johnson, released in 1970 on Columbia Records

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

. It is considered one of the greatest blues releases ever. In 2003, the album was ranked number 424 on Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time

The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:...

.

Music

The album compiles sixteen recordings, ten of which were previously available as 78s on the Vocalion

Vocalion Records

Vocalion Records is a record label active for many years in the United States and in the United Kingdom.-History:Vocalion was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Piano Company of New York City, which introduced a retail line of phonographs at the same time. The name was derived from one of their...

 label, originally recorded during five sessions in 1936 and 1937. Through the course of the 1960s, blues music had become more visible in the popular music landscape of the day. Songs from Johnson's first album

King of the Delta Blues Singers

King of the Delta Blues Singers is a compilation album by American blues musician Robert Johnson, released in 1961 on Columbia Records. It is considered one of the greatest and most influential blues releases ever...

 had been covered by popular rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 artists in the late sixties, including Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton

Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...

 and Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...

, who based their "Lemon Song

The Lemon Song

"The Lemon Song" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin, featured on their 1969 album Led Zeppelin II. It was recorded at Mystic Studios in Hollywood when the band was on their second concert tour of the United States....

" partly on "Traveling Riverside Blues

Traveling Riverside Blues

"Travelling Riverside Blues," sometimes called "Mudbone" or "Mud Bone," is a blues song written and recorded in Dallas, Texas by the bluesman Robert Johnson...

." The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...

 placed a version of "Love In Vain

Love in Vain

"Love in Vain" is a 1937 blues song written by Robert Johnson.The song is noted for its sad lyrics, tone, and style. In the 1991 documentary film The Search for Robert Johnson, John P. Hammond plays Robert's recording of "Love in Vain" for the elderly Willie Mae Powell, the woman for whom it was...

" on their 1969 landmark Let It Bleed

Let It Bleed

Let It Bleed is the eighth British and tenth American album by English rock band The Rolling Stones, released in December 1969 by Decca Records in the United Kingdom and London Records in the United States...

before it had been released on LP, having heard the song on a bootleg recording circulating at the time.

Columbia decided it was time to issue another Johnson album, scoured the vaults again and came up with nine additional Vocalion masters

Master recording

A multitrack recording master tape, disk or computer files on which productions are developed for later mixing, is known as the multi-track master, while the tape, disk or computer files holding a mix is called a mixed master.It is standard practice to make a copy of a master recording, known as...

, four unreleased alternate takes and one unreleased track. Likely finding no further acceptable recordings, to bring the number of tracks to the same sixteen as on Volume I, the alternate of "Ramblin' On My Mind

Ramblin' On My Mind

"Ramblin' On My Mind" is a blues song recorded on November 23, 1936 in San Antonio, Texas by legendary bluesman Robert Johnson. The song was originally released on 78 rpm format as Vocalion 03519 and ARC 7-05-81. Johnson performed the song in the key of E, and recorded two takes...

" and master of "Preachin' Blues" from the earlier LP were issued again. Although not quite as popular or influential as its predecessor, it includes recordings of two Johnson songs that have become blues standards, "Sweet Home Chicago

Sweet Home Chicago

"Sweet Home Chicago" is a popular blues standard in the twelve bar form. It was first recorded and is credited to have been written by Robert Johnson...

" and "Love in Vain

Love in Vain

"Love in Vain" is a 1937 blues song written by Robert Johnson.The song is noted for its sad lyrics, tone, and style. In the 1991 documentary film The Search for Robert Johnson, John P. Hammond plays Robert's recording of "Love in Vain" for the elderly Willie Mae Powell, the woman for whom it was...

." In contrast to the deeply emotive songs released on the 1961 album, many of the tracks on Volume II display Johnson's lighter side.

King of the Delta Blues Singers, Vol. II was reissued on August 10, 2004 by the Legacy Records subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment

Sony Music Entertainment

Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....

, with the master version of "Ramblin' On My Mind" appended as a bonus track. The original recording engineer was Vincent Liebler.

Side one

Track	Recorded	Catalogue	Released	Song Title	Time
1.	11/23/36	Vocalion 3416	1937	Kind Hearted Woman Blues Kind Hearted Woman Blues "Kind Hearted Woman Blues" is a blues song recorded on November 23, 1936 in San Antonio, Texas by legendary bluesman Robert Johnson. The song was originally released on 78 rpm format as Vocalion 03416 and ARC 7-03-56. Johnson performed the song in the key of A, and recorded two takes, the first...	2:28
2.	11/23/36	Vocalion 3475	1937	I Believe I'll Dust My Broom	2:57
3.	11/23/36	Vocalion 3601	1937	Sweet Home Chicago Sweet Home Chicago "Sweet Home Chicago" is a popular blues standard in the twelve bar form. It was first recorded and is credited to have been written by Robert Johnson...	2:57
4.	11/23/36	Columbia CL 1654 (alternate take)	1961	Ramblin' On My Mind Ramblin' On My Mind "Ramblin' On My Mind" is a blues song recorded on November 23, 1936 in San Antonio, Texas by legendary bluesman Robert Johnson. The song was originally released on 78 rpm format as Vocalion 03519 and ARC 7-05-81. Johnson performed the song in the key of E, and recorded two takes...	2:50
5.	11/23/36	previously unreleased	1970	Phonograph Blues	2:38
6.	11/27/36	Vocalion 3563	1937	They're Red Hot They're Red Hot "They're Red Hot" is a song originally performed and written by blues musician Robert Johnson. Notably, it is one of very few songs recorded by the bluesman that is not based around twelve bar blues. It is based on a common ragtime chord progression...	2:56
7.	11/27/36	Vocalion 3475	1937	Dead Shrimp Blues Dead Shrimp Blues "Dead Shrimp Blues" is a song written by Robert Johnson.It is from the recording sessions of November 26 and 27, 1936, in San Antonio, Texas along with "32-20 Blues", "They're Red Hot", "Cross Road Blues", "Walkin' Blues", "Last Fair Deal Gone Down", "Preaching Blues" and "If I Had Possession Over...	2:29
8.	11/27/36	Vocalion 4630	1939	Preaching Blues	2:49

Side two

Track	Recorded	Catalogue	Released	Song Title	Time
1.	6/19/37	Vocalion 3723	1937	I'm a Steady Rollin' Man	2:35
2.	6/19/37	Vocalion 3623	1937	From Four 'Til Late	2:22
3.	6/20/37	unreleased alternate take	1970	Little Queen of Spades	2:16
4.	6/20/37	Vocalion 3665	1937	Malted Milk	2:20
5.	6/20/37	unreleased alternate take	1970	Drunken Hearted Man	2:26
6.	6/20/37	unreleased alternate take	1970	Stop Breakin' Down Blues	2:21
7.	6/20/37	Vocalion 4002	1938	Honeymoon Blues	2:16
8.	6/20/37	unreleased alternate take	1970	Love in Vain Love in Vain "Love in Vain" is a 1937 blues song written by Robert Johnson.The song is noted for its sad lyrics, tone, and style. In the 1991 documentary film The Search for Robert Johnson, John P. Hammond plays Robert's recording of "Love in Vain" for the elderly Willie Mae Powell, the woman for whom it was...	2:20

2004 reissue bonus track

Track	Recorded	Catalogue	Released	Song Title	Time
17.	11/23/36	Vocalion 3519	1937	Ramblin' on My Mind Ramblin' On My Mind "Ramblin' On My Mind" is a blues song recorded on November 23, 1936 in San Antonio, Texas by legendary bluesman Robert Johnson. The song was originally released on 78 rpm format as Vocalion 03519 and ARC 7-05-81. Johnson performed the song in the key of E, and recorded two takes...	2:23

External links

• King of the Delta Blues Singers, Vol. II at Discogs
  Discogs
  Discogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...