Although his career was tragically cut short by his death at the age of 42, Freddy King was one of America’s most distinctive and influential electric blues guitarists, leaving an indelible mark on more than one generation of guitar superstars, including Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan and the Rolling Stones’ Mick Taylor. The Texas-born axeman began playing guitar at the age of six, and in his teens moved with his family to the South Side of Chicago, where he was inspired by witnessing club gigs by such seminal electric bluesmen as Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers and Elmore James. Originally billed as Freddy King, he began recording in 1957, revealing a massively influential style that merged his Texas and Chicago influences, and soon achieved commercial success with a series of infectious instrumental hits.

King scored his biggest hit with 1961’s “Hide Away,” which became his signature tune; it also became a standard for bluesy bar bands on both sides of the Atlantic, and a regular feature of Eric Clapton’s live sets. King followed “Hide Away” with a memorable series of self-penned instrumental hits, including the blues standards “San-Ho-Zay” and “The Stumble.” The aforementioned tunes are all featured on King’s all-instrumental 1961 LP Let’s Hide Away and Dance Away with Freddy King. Originally released on the legendary King label, it remains one of the most influential guitar albums of all time, and demonstrates why King remains a guitar icon.