In 1948, King got a job singing and playing in a commercial on Memphis's WDIA radio station. He moved up to DJ, calling himself “Riley King, the Beale Street Blues Boy,
” later shortened to “Blues Boy King,
” then simply “B. B.
”
King played the club scene at night, and on one such night in an Arkansas club in 1949, an event occurred that has remained significant for King. Two men fighting over a woman...