Columbia’s 1961 compilation of Robert Johnson’s 1936-37 recordings was not a best seller, unlike the boxed set that created a frenzy nearly 30 years later, but it was arguably the single most important blues reissue album in history. It not only represented an unprecedented move by a major record label in the LP market, but also served to introduce Johnson’s compelling and haunting music to new audiences of folk, blues, and rock -n- roll fan and musicians. Columbia mogul John Hammond, who had searched for Robert Johnson in 1938 only to find that the Delta bluesman had just died, instigated the reissue effort 23 years later. Johnson’s blues took on new life and new directions after listeners heard the seminal recordings of Cross Road (or Crossroads) Blues, Come On in My Kitchen, If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day, Me and the Devil Blues, Hell Hound on My Trail and the album’s 11 other tracks.

The cover art itself, an artist’s rendering of a man seated with his guitar, no face shown because no photo of Johnson had been unearthed, became legendary, but it was the least original aspect of the album, since Reginald Mount had done an unmistakably similar drawing for a 10-inch Blind Lemon Jefferson reissue LP on the London label in England a few years earlier.

King of the Delta Blues Singers was the first record inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in the Classics of Blues Recordings–Album category.

King of the Delta Blues Singers, Columbia CL 1654 (LP released in 1961).
Tracks:

1. CROSSROADS BLUES
2. TERRAPLANE BLUES
3. COME ON IN MY KITCHEN
4. WALKING BLUES
5. LAST FAIR DEAL GONE DOWN
6. 32-20 BLUES
7. KINDHEARTED WOMAN BLUES
8. IF I HAD POSSESSION OVER JUDGEMENT DAY
9. PREACHING BLUES
10. WHEN YOU GOT A GOOD FRIEND
11. RAMBLING ON MY MIND
12. STONES IN MY PASSWAY
13. TRAVELING RIVERSIDE BLUES
14. MILKCOW’S CALF BLUES
15. ME AND THE DEVIL BLUES
16. HELLHOUND ON MY TRAIL

Digitally remastered eissue CD (Columbia Legacy 65746) released in 1998 contains a bonus track:
17. TRAVELING RIVERSIDE BLUES (alternate take)

— Jim O’Neal