VizzTone has released a rare find from the archives of Bob Corritore’s recording career: “I Want To Be The One,” a previously unreleased 2002 studio collaboration with Little Milton. The single, out now, serves as the first glimpse of Corritore’s forthcoming Early Blues Sessions (due October 17), a collection spanning 1984–2007 and featuring an extraordinary roster of artists whose work helped define the blues.
In his newsletter, Corritore recalled how the track felt like a lost classic:
Milton wrote this beautiful song specifically for our session. It feels like this song is the perfect link between his Mississippi roots and his later blues/soul style. If this came out as a 45 in the mid 1970s, I can imagine that it would be on all of the jukeboxes at all the Chicago blues bars.
I look forward to everybody hearing it. Also appearing as part of the studio band for this song were Henry Gray and Chico Chism. Little Milton is in great voice and his guitar tone on this song is spectacular! I think you’ll also enjoy my harmonica contributions.
Little Milton was already decades into a celebrated career when he stepped into the studio with Corritore in 2002. He brought both sides of his artistry into this recording, with Corritore on harmonica alongside a seasoned studio band. Early Blues Sessions reflects Corritore’s decades-long effort to capture historic moments with blues legends.
From Lowell Fulson and Jimmy Rogers to Robert Lockwood, Pinetop Perkins, and Sam Lay, many of the artists on these sessions are no longer with us. Yet through Corritore’s foresight—booking them at his Rhythm Room in Phoenix and taking them into the studio—their music lives on in vivid form.
“I Want To Be The One” is a reminder of the fertile intersection of blues generations. Milton, who could command both the juke joint and the soul stage, left behind a song that feels as alive today as it would dropping needle-first on a turntable when it was first recorded.
