Completely Well

Completely Well was recorded over two days, June 24 and 25, 1969, at the Hit Factory in New York City, and released that December on the BluesWay label under producer Bill Szymczyk.

The album arrived at a turning point in B.B. King's career. He was forty-four years old and had spent two decades building his reputation on the segregated touring circuit known as the chitlin circuit. A younger generation of rock guitarists, Eric Clapton chief among them, had begun crediting King publicly as a primary influence, and promoter Bill Graham started booking King at the Fillmore alongside rock acts, introducing him to an entirely new, largely white audience.

Completely Well became King's commercial breakthrough, reaching number 38 on the Billboard 200, his first Top 40 pop album, and number 5 on the R&B albums chart, his first Top 10 placement there in roughly five years. Critics responded warmly as well; both AllMusic and The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide later rated it four out of five stars.

The album's centerpiece, a reworking of Roy Hawkins's 1951 blues "The Thrill Is Gone" dressed in string orchestration, became a crossover hit and earned King his first Grammy Award.