The Thrill Is Gone/ You're Mean

Here's a beautiful copy of the original pressing of this classic Blues tune, which became B.B. King's biggest Pop hit and a truly iconic moment in his long and distinguished career beginning in the late 1940s. It might surprise you to learn that both sides of this single are specially edited versions of longer album tracks clocking at 5:30 and 9:39, respectively! Speaking of the 45 edit, the label says 3:55, but my recording of an earlier copy clocked at 4:09. It's not unusual, unfortunately, for label track times to be off by a few seconds, but this looks like a deliberate attempt to make the A side seem short enough for airplay, as 4:00 was becoming a new outer limit for acceptable AM song lengths by 1969, but 4:09 would have put it over the threshold some studios set. Note: This 45 record comes in a vintage ABC Records factory sleeve. It grades Near Mint across the board (Labels, Vinyl, Audio). The audio has a touch of light underlying surface noise. (This scan is a representative image from our archives.)