Pianist, singer and songwriter Ivory Joe Hunter was a blues balladeer extraordinaire, specialising in a unique brand of highly tuneful and soulful blues songs that bucked the trend for more raucous and extrovert blues in the 1940s and early ‘50s, although he could rock and boogie with the best of them as well.

Born in Texas in 1914 – “Ivory Joe” were his given names and not a nickname - he made his first recordings as a talented youngster for the Library of Congress in 1933. He worked on radio in Texas in the early ‘40s before moving to Los Angeles, and joining Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers for a while before making his first solo records in 1945.

He had a string of hits in the late ‘40s which appear on Acrobat’s existing product Ivory Joe Hunter – Jukebox Hits 1945-50 (ACMCD4208), registering a landmark No.1 with I Almost Lost My Mind in 1950. This great value 51-track 2CD set picks up the story from that point and includes selected A- and B-sides from his releases on the MGM, Atlantic & Dot labels during the 1950s – by the end of the decade his chart career was over. It features all his 12 R&B and pop chart entries from this era, including the R&B No.1s I Almost Lost My Mind, I Need You So and Since I Met My Baby, plus the Top 5 hits Guess Who, Jealous Heart, Waiting In Vain, I Quit My Pretty Mama and Empty Arms.

The selections in the set include some great grooving instrumentals and rock ‘n’ roll flavoured material alongside the trademark ballads, and it’s a fine showcase for an artist with one of the most distinctive styles in blues. Billed as “The Baron of the Boogie”, and also known as “The Happiest Man Alive”, he was honoured at both the Monterey Jazz Festival and the Grand Ole Opry.

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