Red Hot & Blue (Lee Atwater recording project)
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Red Hot & Blue is an album released in 1990 by Lee Atwater, a Republican political consultant in the United States.[1][2] Atwater wanted to bring to a wider audience the sounds of 1960s Stax Records and southern R&B and blues.[3] "Bad Boy" was released as a single.[4] The title track was nominated for a Grammy Award.[5]
Atwater donated his portion of the album royalties to charity.[3] He was hospitalized for treatment for his brain tumor at the time of Red Hot & Blue's release.[6]
The album was recorded in 1989 at Treasure Isle Recorders in Nashville, with Atwater flying in for weekend sessions.[7][8] Isaac Hayes produced six of its songs; he praised Atwater's guitar playing.[6][9] The album features over a dozen rhythm and blues performers, including Hayes, Chuck Jackson, Carla Thomas, B.B. King, Sam Moore, the Memphis Horns, and Billy Preston.[10] Atwater chose the performers and the songs; he asked Mike Curb to release the album on his label.[11][12] Lee Greenwood played saxophone on Red Hot & Blue.[13]
Atwater forced a Washington, D.C., YMCA to play work-in-progress cuts over its sound system while he exercised.[14] Atwater reported that the highlight of the album was the chance to play with his idol, B.B. King.[15] "Just a Little Bit/Treat Her Right" is a duet between Atwater and Arletta Nightingale.[16]
