John Lee Hooker’s The Best of Friends Returns to Print

The collaborative 1998 collection will be reissued on July 12th

June 11, 2024June 11, 2024 Ron Hart 0 Comments BMG, Bonnie Raitt, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, Jimmie Vaughan, John Lee Hooker, Los Lobos, Robert Cray, Ry Cooder, The Best of Friends, Van Morrison

John Lee Hooker The Best of Friends, BMG 1998/2024

Released four years before his passing in 2001, John Lee Hooker’s collaborative 1998 LP The Best of Friends served as evidence of the blues giant’s deep influence in modern music.

Even listening to the album over 25 years later, one can hear the respect and admiration exuded throughout these late career pair-ups by such marquee acts as Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder, Carlos Santana, Van Morrison, Los Lobos and Bonnie Raitt as they all sit beneath Hook’s world-weary learning tree.

The Best of Friends on vinyl (Image: BMG)

On July 12th, BMG will be making The Best of Friends available on vinyl for the very first time as a 2LP set along with its return to the CD format as well. The reissue includes an exclusive edition available through Vinyl Me Please, featuring a striking red and black marble vinyl limited to 750 units. All formats include the Bonus Track “Up and Down” featuring Johnnie Johnson on piano.

For younger blues fans at the time, The Best of Friends served as an indispensable compendium for exploring Hook’s work during the ‘80s and ‘90s across such classic albums as 1989’s seminal The Healer and 1995’s Chill Out. Now, a quarter century later, the collection offers music fans a key reminder of what makes John Lee Hooker one of the definitive architects of electric blues music in the 20th century.

See below for the full tracklist.

The Best of Friends: