"When the King of the Blues honors the King of Kings, it's nothing less than a joy to the world. After more than five decades of singing the blues, guitar legend B.B. King delivers A Christmas Celebration of Hope, his first-ever holiday album. In its thirteen tracks, B.B. puts a classic blues spin on a host of contemporary holiday favorites including "Please Come Home For Christmas," and "Auld Lang Syne." MCA Records is donating all profits from the sale of this album to City of Hope, a world renowned biomedical research and treatment center that brings lifesaving hope to those that suffer from cancer, HIV/AIDS, diabetes and other catastrophic diseases.

B.B. chose the album title himself to reflect the charitable nature of the project. "It has been my long-time dream to produce an album of Christmas music," says B.B. "In addition, it is with pleasure that I dedicate this album to City Of Hope in support of their hard work to bring hope and healing to all people who suffer from life threatening diseases everywhere."

The blues has long been part of the holidays, and here, B.B. - along with his guitar Lucille - reinvent several familiar holiday tunes. Produced by B.B. King himself and recorded with his band in Lafayette, Louisiana at Dockside Recording Studio, A Christmas Celebration of Hope features Christmas classics in both popular and blues music genres as well as two B.B. King originals: "Christmas Celebration" (first released in 1960 on Kent Records) and the newly written instrumental "Christmas Love."

For the last half-century there has been only one King of the Blues - Riley B. King, better known as B.B. King. Since B.B. started recording in the late 1940s, he has released over fifty albums, many of them classics. He was born September 16, 1925, on a plantation in Itta Bene, Mississippi, near Indianola. In his youth, he played on street corners for dimes, and would sometimes play in as many as four towns a night. In 1947, he hitchhiked to Memphis, TN, to pursue his music career. Memphis was where every important musician of the South gravitated, and which supported a large musical community where every style of African American music could be found. B.B. stayed with his cousin Bukka White, one of the most celebrated blues performers of his time, who schooled B.B. further in the art of the blues.

B.B.'s first big break came in 1948 when he performed on Sonny Boy Williamson's radio program on KWEM out of West Memphis. This led to steady engagements at the Sixteenth Avenue Grill in West Memphis, and later to a ten-minute spot on black-staffed and managed Memphis radio station WDIA. "King's Spot," became so popular, it was expanded and became the "Sepia Swing Club." Soon B.B. needed a catchy radio name. What started out as Beale Street Blues Boy was shortened to Blues Boy King, and eventually B.B. King.

In the mid-1950s, while B.B. was performing at a dance in Twist, Arkansas, a few fans became unruly. Two men got into a fight and knocked over a kerosene stove, setting fire to the hall. B.B. raced outdoors to safety with everyone else, then realized that he left his beloved $30 acoustic guitar inside, so he rushed back inside the burning building to retrieve it, narrowly escaping death. When he later found out that the fight had been over a woman named Lucille, he decided to give the name to his guitar. Ever since, each one of B.B.'s trademark Gibson guitars has been called Lucille.

Soon after his number one hit, "Three O'Clock Blues," B.B. began touring nationally. In 1956, B.B. and his band played an astonishing 342 one night stands. From the chitlin circuit with its small-town cafes, juke joints, and country dance halls to rock palaces, symphony concert halls, universities, resort hotels and amphitheaters, nationally and internationally, B.B. has become the most renowned blues musician of the past 40 years.

Over the years, B.B. has developed one of the world's most identifiable guitar styles. He borrowed from Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker and others, integrating his precise and complex vocal-like string bends and his left-hand vibrato, both of which have become indispensable components of rock guitarists vocabulary. His economy, his every-note-counts phrasing, has been a model for thousands of players, from Eric Clapton and George Harrison to Jeff Beck. B.B. has mixed traditional blues, jazz, swing, mainstream pop and jump into a unique sound. In B.B.'s words, "When I sing, I play in my mind; the minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille."

In 1968, B.B. played at the Newport Folk Festival and at Bill Graham's Fillmore West on bills with the hottest contemporary rock artists of the day who idolized B.B. and helped to introduce him to a young white audience. In 1969, B.B. was chosen by the Rolling Stones to open 18 American concerts for them; Ike and Tina Turner also played on 18 shows.

B.B. was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. He received NARAS' Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 1987, and has received honorary doctorates from Tougaloo (MS) College in 1973; Yale University in 1977; Berklee College of Music in 1982; and Rhodes College of Memphis in 1990. In 1992, he received the National Award of Distinction from the University of Mississippi.

In 1991, B.B. King's Blues Club opened on Beale Street in Memphis, and in 1994, a second club was launched at Universal City Walk in Los Angeles. A third club in New York City's Times Square has opened as well. In 1996, the CD-Rom "On The Road With B.B. King: An Interactive Autobiography" was released to rave reviews. Also in 1996, B.B.'s autobiography, "Blues All Around Me" (written with David Ritz for Avon Books) was published. In a similar vein, "The Arrival Of B.B. King" by Charles Sawyer, was published in 1980 by Doubleday.

B.B. continues to tour extensively, averaging over 250 concerts per year around the world. Classics such as "Payin' The Cost To Be The Boss," "The Thrill Is Gone," "How Blue Can You Get," "Everyday I Have The Blues," and "Why I Sing The Blues" are concert (and fan) staples. Over the years, the multi-Grammy Award-winner has had two #1 R&B hits, 1951's "Three O'Clock Blues," and 1952's "You Don't Know Me," and four #2 R&B hits, 1953's "Please Love Me," 1954's "You Upset Me Baby," 1960's "Sweet Sixteen, Part I," and 1966's "Don't Answer The Door, Part I." B.B.'s most popular crossover hit, 1970's "The Thrill Is Gone," went to #15 pop.

B.B.'s Gold-certified Deuces Wild, B.B.s all-star collection of duets, released in 1997, returned B.B. to the limelight. His 1998 album, Blues On The Bayou, was considered a triumph by fans and critics alike, and his annual B.B. King Blues Festival Tour has featured on the bill such esteemed blues artists as Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Taj Mahal, Tower Of Power, the Robert Cray Band, Susan Tedeschi, and Buddy Guy. B.B.'s 1999 release of Let The Good Times Roll - The Music of Louis Jordan, was a loving tribute to one of the 20th Century's great song stylists, while his 2000 release Makin' Love Is Good For You also proved to be the perfect musical prescription. Later that same year, B.B. teamed up with Eric Clapton on the multi-platinum release of Riding With The King. An album embraced by fans and critics alike.

Though in his late 70's, B.B.'s spirits remain young, thanks to his ceaseless devotion to his music and his fans. With the release of A Christmas Celebration of Hope, B.B. King continues to bring good cheer to music lovers the world over"

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