A staff review by AllMusic commented: By 1967, King had refined his singing and guitar style to a fine point.

What was just beginning to emerge during this period was King the showman, the singer with a story to tell his audience and nowhere was this more apparent than in his live performances.

Bonus tracks on 2012 and 2015 Japanese CD reissues "Goin' Down Slow" and the reconstructed full version of "Sweet Sixteen" were previously issued on King of the Blues and come from the same live performance as the Blues is King album.

(An edit of the recording without the opening guitar solo and the ending was released on the compilation His Best – The Electric B.

King, for the box set the master of this version was combined with a vinyl rip of the BluesWay single.)