
B.B. King
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B.B. King, "Auld Lang Syne": For The Record
B.B. King's 39th studio album, the 2001 holiday LP A Christmas Celebration Of Hope, brought the blues legend home the GRAMMY for Best Traditional Blues Album at the 45th GRAMMY Awards. Additionally, the album's closing track, King's cheerful instrumental interpretation of the Scottish traditional "Auld Lang Syne," earned King the GRAMMY for Best Pop Instrumental Performance.
For The Record: B.B. King's "Auld Lang Syne"
The album also performed well on the charts, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Top Blues Albums chart, and nearly cracking the Top 20 of the Holiday Albums chart, peaking at No. 21.
A New Year's standard sung all over the world to herald the closing of one year and the opening of a new one, "Auld Lang Syne" takes its lyrics from a Scottish poem written by Robert Burns in the late 18th century. Loosely translated, the title means "days gone by," or "long, long ago," making the song's opening lyrics a rhetorical question pondering whether it is right that old times be forgotten.
With swelling big-band horns and King's signature creamy guitar tones, this reimagining of the classic holiday favorite makes for the perfect change-up for any midnight revelers who've grown tired of the famous Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians version, played over loudspeakers throughout Times Square every year following the ball drop on New Year's Eve.