Forty of the greatest Rock and Roll Songs Ever Written, and all orinals
Disadvantages:
Lack of Sleeve Notes
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
I don’t know if this is under the correct heading but there are so many Chuck Berry compilations that go under the title “The Best Of” or “The Very Best Of”. The monkey in my hand is called “The Best Of” and is a double CD that you can pick up for around 6.99 GBP, is on the MCA label, and has a catalogue number of MCD 11560. Right that’s all the boring bits out of the way. The packaging and booklet are minimal , with two pictures of the man himself, and a track listing and the fact that all of the forty tracks within were composed by the man himself bar four.
Next I’ll give you a list of what the CD contains, to help you decide whether or not you wish to track it down.
CD One:
1. Roll over Beethoven 2. Sweet Little Sixteen 3. Johnny B. Goode 4. You Never Can Tell 5. You can't catch me 6. Downbound Train 7. Too Much Monkey Business 8. Havana Moon 9. School Day 10. Oh Baby Doll 11. Beautiful Delilah 12. Sweet Little Rock and Roller 13. Anthony Boy 14. Little Queenie 15. Almost Grown 16. Let It Rock 17. Back in the U.S.A. 18. Reelin' and Rockin' 19. Around And Around 20. Brown Eyed Handsome Man
CD Two
1. Maybelline 2. No Particular Place To Go 3. Rock & Roll Music 4. Run Rudolph Run 5. Jo Jo Gunne 6. Carol 7. Confessin' the Blues 8. Jaguar and Thunderbird 9. Down the Road Apiece 10. Thirty Days 11. Merry Christmas Baby 12. My Ding-a-ling 13. I'm Talking about you 14. Too Pooped to Pop 15. Bye Bye Johnny 16. Promised Land 17. Tulane 18. Come On 19. Nadine (Is it you?) 20. Memphis, Tennessee
Unfortunately my autobiography of Charles Edward Berry has gone walkabout so I’ll just have to play it by ear.
Chuck Berry started in a three piece combo in the early fifties and came up with his trademark guitar intro (you know, Johnny B. Goode) , by adapting one of the piano riffs that his pianist was playing.
When he started making rock and roll records he had to co credit Alan Freed (the DJ who allegedly coined the phrase Rock’n’Roll and applied it to music, it was in fact a euphemism , for , how can I put this genteelly, ah yes, making love), but back to Freed , he was a WHITE man) because Berry was BLACK and could not get a deal unless a WHITE man got a cut of the proceeds. This collection solely credits Berry with writing Maybelline so maybe justice has been done.
Berry’s songs always tell a story, and usually clock in at less than three minutes, no mean feat. So “You Never Can Tell” , as featured in Pulp Fiction is the story of a young couple getting married, covered by Emmylou Harris and rewritten and a hit for Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe as “I Knew The Bride”.
“Johnny B. Goode” is one of the greatest rock’n’roll songs ever and covered by just about everybody in the world, though Jimi Hendrix did a particularly incendiary version, available on the DVD and soundtrack of the Jimi Hendrix Story.
Berry has been a huge influence on generations of musicians, although recently he himself has been rather quiet, probably in jail for some scam or other.
Sweet Little Sixteen was borrowed by the Beach Boys and rewritten as “Surfin’ USA”. Berry gets a writing credit on the record, the Beach Boys acknowledging their debt to the man.
One great thing about this album , is that you can hear the original versions of the songs that so many artists have covered. As such it is an almost historical document and really deserves some decent sleeve notes to do justice to the importance of the music contained in the box.
The Rolling Stones first ever single was Come On, the original is featured here. Roll Over Beethoven was covered by the Beatles and Electric Light Orchestra, the hits keep on coming.
The Manic Street Preachers covered “Rock and Roll Music” on their “Masses Against The Classes” CD single. “Back in the USA” was plagiarised (in the best possible taste) by the Beatles as “Back in the USSR”. David Bowie covered “Almost Grown” and “Around and Around” (also covered by The Rolling Stones), both of these are included in this set.
Berry’s royalties from covers of his songs must have made him an absolute fortune. It’s almost certain that in your collection you will have a Chuck Berry song.
This product has not yet been reviewed. 
