Very Best Of Chuck Berry, The - Chuck Berry

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
Value for Money

Advantages:	Great Timeless Music
Disadvantages:	none

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Well maybe I’m over doing it a little with the title, but for me Chuck Berry is, or at least his music is Rock ‘N Roll; that is, if you wanted to give someone an idea of what Rock ‘N Roll is about, then look no further than Chuck Berry and this album.

I should add that this album is called The Best Of Chuck Berry, and that there are a lot of Chuck Berry compilations like this about, only with differing tracks, so don’t be surprised if the one you have, or might get is different.

Now you may not have heard of Chuck Berry (I’d be surprised, though) but you will have heard his music, I mean, if your a fan of The Beatles, then you’ve heard Chuck’s music, if you like Buddy Holly or The Rolling Stones or The Manic Street Preachers, then you’ve heard Chuck’s music (lets face it, if you like music, then you’ve heard his music), if you seen films such as Back To The Future, Young Einstein, Pulp Fiction then you’ve heard Chuck’s music, because the thing is, even though the recordings themselves maybe dated, the music is timeless, and the songs on this album are great examples of timeless music.

It was a love of The Beatles that made me somewhat of a fan of Chuck’s, though I have to admit I only have this collection (something I’ll have to rectify), and the reason why I like the Beatles is because.........well maybe because my dads a fan and I remember the music playing when I was young(er), but the real fact of the matter is that, the music is great, I love good music, especially the more up beat, feel good stuff, anything that makes you/me want to get up and dance, or puts a smile on my face, and makes me feel that little bit better I love, and that pretty much sums up Rock ‘n Roll.

So I have amounted a number of ‘Best of......’ collections over the years, such as Jerry Lee-Lewis, Elvis, Buddy Holly, Billy Haley, Little Richard, and soon Carl Perkins (the man behind ‘Blue Suede Shoes’), and although Little Richard may have created Rock ‘n Roll and Elivs may have dressed it up well, and they’ve all had great hit songs, in my opinion, Chuck’s the one who really made it.

So Who Is Chuck Berry?
Charles Edward Anderson Berry was born on the 18th October 1926 in San Jose, California, America, he learnt to play the guitar and was nearly 30 when he released his first single, and that was in 1955, previously, at the age of 18, he’d spent some time in prison, for armed robbery, later in 1951, he recorded some of his songs on a home tape recorder and went on to join two other musicians and played the clubs.

He met Leonard Chess, due to a meeting with Muddy Waters, and Leonard, after hearing a song on Chuck’s demo tape called ‘Ida Mae’, was so impressed that he got Chuck to re-write it, and, after changing it the title to ‘Maybelline’, it became Chuck’s first single.

He released a number of singles over the next couple of years, all of which did well in the charts, he had/has a reputation for his now famous ‘duckwalk’, and also appeared in a few films. However, despite his success, he was sent to prison again, for 20 months, in 1961, on the charge of ‘Transporting an underage girl across state lines for immoral purposes’, coming out in ‘63 was like he’d never been away, he continued to write and achieve hit songs, aided by bands such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones (their first single was Chuck’s ‘Come On’) recording covers of his songs.

As things go the music scene changed as the sixties becomes the seventies, and Chuck had his greatest hit in 1972 with a live version of ‘My Ding-A-Ling’.

More recently he’s been trouble again after a camera was found recording images in the ladies toilet in his restaurant, his defence lay in that he wanted to know how they used so much toilet paper!.

He also successfully sued John Lennon after John admitted that Chuck’s ‘You Can’t Catch Me’ influenced, or was rather the basis for John’s Beatle’s track ‘Come Together’, the result was John’s ‘Rock ‘N Roll’ album, which included the song ‘You Can’t Catch Me’ and also Chuck’s ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’.

The Album
I bought it on tape for the very reasonable price of £3.99, it has 20 songs, 10-a-side, and they are,

No Particular Place To Go
School Day (Ring, Ring Goes The Bell)
Sweet Little Sixteen
Let It Rock
Memphis Tennessee
Nadine (Is It You)
You Never Can Tell
Promised Land
Reelin’ and Rocking’
My Ding-A-Ling
Maybelline
Roll Over Beethoven
Johnny B. Goode
Carol
Almost Grown
Back In The USA
Little Queenie
Brown Eyed Handsome Man
Sweet Rock And Roller
Rock and Roll Music

The inlay card gives you plenty of information about Chuck and the hits.

The Music
Is exceptional, although the music is often very similar (much like the music of Oasis and Status Quo, for instance), its really good, I could dance to this music all night, which is more than I can say for a lot of the music these days.

The term rock and roll, comes from the slang expression for sex, and listening, you can really see why. As I’ve said I love rock and roll, for me its the greatest, and if you can listen to this music without wanting move to the music, then frankly you have no soul.

The recording themselves aren’t that great, a sign of the times perhaps, and although I’ve heard great versions by other people, the originals are always the nice to have. As I write this I’m listing to the album and am finding that I’m spending most of the time clicking my fingers and clapping my hands and such to the music, its so good.

As well as musically, the songs are also lyrically good,

Reelin and ‘Rockin
“I looked at my watch and to my surprise,
I was dancing with a woman who was twice my size”

Memphis Tennessee
“Last time that I saw Marie she was waving me goodbye,
with hurry home teardrops on her cheek, that tricked from her eye....”

Rock And Roll Music
“Let me hear some more of that rock ‘n roll music,
Any old way you choose it,
Its got a back beat you can blues it,
Any old way you use it,
Its gotta be rock roll music,
If you wanna dance with me.”

A Bit About The Songs
‘Johnny B. Goode’ was used in Back To The Future, (Marti played it at the dance)
‘You Never Can Tell’ was used in Pulp Fiction, (Vincent and Mia won the dance contest to it)
‘Rock and Roll Music’ was used in Young Einstein (the young Einstein played it at the end of the film), its also been covered by many bands from The Beatles to The Manic Street Preachers
‘Roll Over Beethoven’ was by George Harrison as the last song in his conserts
‘Brown Eyed Handsome Man’, is thought by most, to be Buddy Holly’s, as it became a posthumous hit for him, even Paul McCartney only realised that it wasn’t Buddy’s, when he recorded it on his last album of Rock n’ Roll covers.

Mostly the songs deal with love, growing up, and the love of rock and roll, with a piano in addition to the guitars and drums, the music sounds really lively, all the songs are written by Chuck which is something I like in artists.

So what more do you want?, any band playing Chuck’s songs live, couldn’t go wrong, if you don’t have a Chuck Berry CD/tape or such in your collection, the I suggest you make room.

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