Does Chuck Berry's "Great 28" Cover ALL The Greats?

The album is from 1982 and although You Never Can Tell was a top 20 hit in 64 and did chart higher than some other tracks on the album, I wonder how many folks recognized it as a glaring omission prior to it's use in Pulp Fiction?
I will say it should have been included when you are selecting 28 songs.

 

That "Complete Chess Recordings" set is one of my favorite compilations ever and introduced me to a whole new side of Berry. Lots of instrumental fireworks on that one. And it's killing me right now that I may have misplaced it in a move and couldn't find it to crank last night!!

 

Promised Land is a great Chuck Berry song for sure.. and should be there....I enjoyed recently listening to a bunch of takes of Elvis singing it and cracking up


You NEver Can Tell however is doubly special as for many people it was their introduction to Chuck in the movie Pulp Fiction in that great scene with Travolta and Uma Thurman dancing... I wonder if that was the last time Chuck Berry was heard widely in popular culture for a new generation...

 

hey , however the great 28 is pretty darn great.. sort of the rosetta stone of rock and roll!

 

I’d exchange «Oh, Baby Doll», “Beautiful Delilah”, “Sweet Little Rock and Roller”, and “No Particular Place to Go” for “You Never Can Tell”, “Promised Land”, “Down the Road Apiece”, and “No Money Down.”
Money Down."

 

I would put Run Rudolph Run on there somewhere.

 

Agreed!

 

Yes. I had thought about expanding it to 3CDs , bur caught up in working on comps on other artists.
My CB comp was one of the few that I only did 2CDs.
Most of my CD comps are 3-4 CDs.
When I made my CB comp, I had recently added his music to my collection.
I didn't want to throw a bunch of tracks together fot a 3rd disc without giving it much thought.
I want it to chronologically flow through all 3 discs.
Am Imaking sense?

Darryl

 

I was messing with ya
We're guilty of reevaluating artists or playing more of their music for a while after they die.
I think we initially do it as tribute then realize we should have been doing so more already.

 

I was actually listening to Chuck quite a bit recently before this happened.

 

but that is where it gets hard.. i think Oh Baby Doll, Sweet Little Rock and Roller and No Particular Place to Go absolutely have to be there!

The man just wrote a ton of great songs!

 

yeah... another Berry classic

 

This has more tracks than the Great 28 including some of the ones that were missing. It also has a very nice detailed booklet.

 

I love "Oh Baby Doll", great energy. Always cheers me up.

 

Anyone else a fan of "Together (We'll always Be") I think the opening chords are awesome. It would be in my Top 28! I originally had the 28 CD and then improved to the 2 CD "Anthology" about 10 years ago and then about 2-3 years ago I finally took the plunge on the Bear Complete set - crazy amount of music I think 16 CDs.

 

Like I said before it does not have everything, but it's a great collection for what it is, and the sound quality is pretty darn good since it came out in the early days of CD before loudness.

 

I play Chuck's music all the time. It's just think that 2 CD comps can be...lacking (for want of a better word).
My CB comp is the first one I attempted. My first try ( so to speak) of putting together my own personal comp of artists I have in my collection.

Darryl

 

No just 28 of them!


Peace and love✌

 

See, but that's the thing, The Great 28 sounds really great on vinyl. It was not just the song selection, but sound quality. The songs are short enough that getting 14 per side was not a problem, and they got the songs to really "pop" off of that double slab of hot wax. The CDs (of 28) were known to not have the same magic, not quite anyway. Maybe they remastered this CD set and got it better on a reissue.

Before The Great 28 became the one to have, there were two double sets on Chess called "Golden Decade" and the four LPs had about the same tracks as 28 does, but they were spread over 8 sides and include fake stereo.

 

I agree, Rock And Roll Rarities Vols. 1 & 2 adds just the right amount of additional hits, rarities, outtakes and true stereo mixes to the collection.

It would be a six LP box set to have all this together, and includes the best sound quality you can get for Berry. I quit looking after I got both the 28 and the two Rarities sets on vinyl.

btw, Steve Hoffman assembled the two R&R Rarities collections.

 

The Great 28 is a spectacular collection of songs. I wouldn't change a thing. There are plenty of other superb collections for the completists out there. For those that need great exposure with minimal risk, you cannot go wrong with this.

 

"No Particular Place to Go" is a remake of "School Days", and I don't really want the same song twice. Sure it rocks harder, but "School Days" has better lyrics, in my opinion, and after all, it is the original. I basically cut the others because I find the four I mentioned more essential, and I wanted to keep it to the twenty-eight songs. It wasn't easy cutting all of them, though.

 

I think the OP is right: Promised Land and You Never Can Tell should have been included. Time for a revision ?

 

This 2CD set is the one I own, and appears to be comprehensive.

 

There's no reason to keep it to 28, though (aside from the rhyming title) as you can fit more songs onto a single CD. At minimum, a one-disc Chuck comp should have all his top-40 hits (except "My Ding A Ling") because there aren't that many.