The Google page today opened to the song, “The thrill is gone away, the thrill is gone away baby.”
The doodle depicts the “King of the Blues” B.B. King performing on his guitar. The animated doodle which is created by guest artist Steve Spencer and guest animator Nayeli Lavanderos, depicts his life.
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He was born in 1925 Mississippi as Riley B. King, he was a sharecropper’s son who grew up singing gospels in churches. The doodle shows how King performed on street corners, hitchhiked to Memphis, Tennessee, and got a job at the radio station WDIA. It also shows him performing at the famous Beale Street, which gave him the name “Beale Street Blues Boy,” later shortened to “B.B.”
The singer won 15 Grammy Awards including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987. He also received honorary Doctorates of Music from various universities, and in 1980 was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. On February 21, 2012, he performed at the White House.
King was known as the traveling blue-man having traveled across the country with his guitars that he named Lucille.
In October 2012, a feature documentary on the life of King titled was released. Titled “B.B. King: The Life of Riley”, it was narrated by Morgan Freeman and directed by Jon Brewer.
King died in his sleep on May 14, 2015.
Google’s doodle page contains notes from the B.B. King Family Trust and an interview with the doodle’s creators. It also carries the early sketches and drafts of the doodle.