Dark Bilious Vapors

I'll reprint the questions here, in case you want to challenge yourself without scrolling down to the original post (which is several posts below this one):

1. What was B.B.'s birth name?
2. When did B.B. first arrive in Memphis, and what brought him here?
3. True or False: B.B. began his career in Memphis as a radio personality.
4. What do the initials "B.B." stand for, and how did he come by that name?
5. True or False: Sam Phillips produced some of B.B.'s earliest records at Sun Studios.
6. True or False (2 parter):
   Part 1: In 1982, B.B. released an album of country songs.
   Part 2: Hell yes; it was one of his biggest hits.
7. How did B.B.'s guitar come to receive the name, "Lucille"?

1. What was B.B.'s birth name?
   Riley B. King. King was born September 16, 1925, in Itta Benna, Mississippi.
2. When did B.B. first arrive in Memphis, and what brought him here?
   In 1946 (1947, according to some sources). He originally came to stay with and learn blues guitar from his cousin, Bukka White
3. True or False: B.B. began his career in Memphis as a radio personality.
   True. King actually started his career at KWEM in West Memphis, AR, and parlayed that into steady gigs at the Sixteenth Avenue Grill in West Memphis. From there, King managed to get a spot broadcasting on the pioneering black radio station, WDIA in Memphis.
4. What do the initials "B.B." stand for, and how did he come by that name?
   "Blues Boy". When King first started broadcasting in Memphis, he was dubbed "The Peptikon Boy" (after the sponsor, an alcohol-loaded elixir). The powers that be decided he needed a catchier moniker, so they then called him "The Beale Street Blues Boy", which was shortened to "Blues Boy", and then to "B.B."
5. True or False: Sam Phillips produced some of B.B.'s earliest records at Sun Studios.
   False. While it is true that Sam Phillips produced some of B.B.'s earliest records, that was long before Phillips founded Sun Studios.
6. True or False (2 parter):
   Part 1: In 1982, B.B. released an album of country songs.
   True. In Love Me Tender King covered a number of Nashville standards, including the title tune, which is, of course, more closely associated with a different Memphis "King".
   Part 2: Hell yes; it was one of his biggest hits.
   False. Hell no, it was one of his few flops.
7. How did B.B.'s guitar come to receive the name, "Lucille"?
   I can't tell the story better than the Official B.B. King Website: "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 to remind him never to do a crazy thing like fight over a woman. Ever since, each one of B.B.'s trademark Gibson guitars has been called Lucille."

Len on 09.16.05 @ 09:44 PM CST