A mainstay of Memphis Blues from the mid-1940s until his death in 2001, the sometime DJ who billed himself on radio as ‘the world’s oldest teenager’ was the only man to record for the Bluff City’s three major independent record labels - Sun, Stax and Hi- and a lot more besides. With daughter Carla, Rufus Thomas more or less started the Stax label on its road to success, being one of the first and indeed also the last people to have a 45 issued by the label. In this collection you can hear just about everything Rufus cut between the title track – his first release – up to his first Stax solo hit ‘The Dog’ in 1962. Only a few of these records were anything more than local hits, but they all contribute significantly to a much bigger catalogue that is one of the most consistent of any artist whose career stretched across eight decades.
