Five Essential King Sunny Adé Albums

At 75, King SunnyAdé in performance is still a delight to watch. He can still instigate leg works that will make Zlatan reach for his sagging pants and scratch his scalp.

Prodigious and prolific , KSA’s discography teaches the importance of consistency. Who would have thought that his first album hardly sold 100 copies? Or that he was once stranded in Abeokuta for months after he ditched by his first musician boss? But he followed his dream unconditionally. He ditched school to become a band boy. He trekked a long distance home after buying his guitar with every penny in his pocket. And he remains the undisputed King of juju music and one of the harbinger of the international attention a horde of African musicians enjoy today. With more than 80 albums and countless recorded performances to his name, here are five albums that you must listen to.

The Best of the Classic Years

The classic years being 1967 to 1974, a time after Adé left Federal Rhythms Dandies, the semi-pro Highlife band of Moses Olaiya to begin his solo career, armed with a guitar bought from his savings. He named his first band, Green Spots, after the more accomplished Blue Spots Band run by his juju predecessor, IK Dairo.

This smorgasbord of aural delights displays hints of juju roots from which Ade would snatch the genre to further modernize it effectively with…