Mention the blues to the average person on the street and inevitably, the name B.B. King is the first image to enter their consciousness. He took the sounds of the Mississippi Delta and awed the world, from state penitentiaries to palaces, to roadhouses, to the White House. B.B. King is one of our nation’s greatest natural resources. 

In November 21, 1964, WVON disc jockey Purvis Spann introduced B.B. King to a crowded Regal Theatre as “the words greatest blues singer” and “th...