Chuck Berry -Wow!!!

Has anyone heard the Chuck Berry is on Top - St. Louis to Liverpool MOFI release above?

I was wondering how much better the sound was than on the Bear Family and Hip-O-Select box sets.

 

I haven't heard it, but you might want to check out this thread if you haven't already:

Chuck Berry - Berry Is On Top / St. Louis To Liverpool MFSL MoFi Gold CD * »

 

I bought it the week it was released it sounds excellent IMO. I never bothered A/B comparisons but at the present price it would seem to be a no brainer.

 

Thank you @Monosterio.

 

I have it and it's terrific and has just about all the hits!

 

I went ahead and ordered 2 books: the Autobiography (older paperback) and "Long Distance Information" which is about the recordings. I think those will give me a nice overview of his life and musical activity.

I think I'll hold on the DVDs for now. Too expensive to get the deluxe box set of Hail Hail, and anyway, I prefer Blu-Ray to DVD so maybe one day Hail Hail will be re-released on Blu-Ray.

So that just leaves the CDs. The 3 Hip-O boxes cost about $50 each (plus shipping to New Zealand, which is a bit rough). So that's about half the price of the Bear Family box. I looked at the Hip-O track listings, and they seem a bit repetitive at times, with multiple takes or mixes of a song in a row. This could make for tedious listening, unless there is a nice dose of variety (or humor) in the takes. Any opinions on that?

As for the other comps, I think I will just hold off until I can figure out how to get a "complete" set of Chuck's albums and singles. My guess it that means going for either the Bear box or the Hip-O boxes, correct?

 

The Hip-O-Select boxes only include the Chess material. The Bear Family box also includes Chuck's Mercury material, BBC sessions and other live shows aside from the Chess material. Neither box has everything so would need to get both the Hip-O-Select and Bear Family releases to have everything. I think if I remember correctly the Hip-O-Select boxes have a few alternate versions that do not appear on the Bear Family set. Both sets include some alternate takes of the Chess material.

 

This set contains 5 of Chuck's album + bonus tracks.

 

I've got this PD release. Lot's of bang for the buck.
Love the unreleased/alternate versions.

Darryl

 

I would advise the great 28, the movie and his catalog from Live At The Fillmore on...

 

Agreed with the Fillmore stuff. I thought I knew Chuck Berry and then I listened to this.

 

So what's it like?

 

Excellent. A bit slower. More steeped in the blues. Steve Miller is on here also playing the harp. A different version of my Ding-A-Ling. I loved it.

 

One of my favorite lyrics of all time, from Chuck Berry's "Reelin' & Rockin'"

"Well I looked at my watch and to my surprise
I was dancing with a woman that was twice my size!"

[Chorus]
"And we rolled, reelin' and a rockin'
We was reelin' and a rockin'
Rollin' till the break of dawn."

Read more: Chuck Berry - Reelin' & Rockin' Lyrics | MetroLyrics

 

Yes, very nice collections with quite a few rarities. I have Vols. 2 and 3.

Chuck Berry's Golden Decade
1. "Maybellene"
2. "Deep Feeling"
3. "Johnny B. Goode"
4. "Wee Wee Hours"
5. "Nadine"
6. "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man"
7. "Roll Over Beethoven"
8. "Thirty Days"
9. "Havana Moon"
10. "No Particular Place To Go"
11. "Memphis"
12. "Almost Grown"
13. "School Days"
14. "Too Much Monkey Business"
15. "Oh, Baby Doll"
16. "Reelin' and Rockin'"
17. "You Can't Catch Me"
18. "Too Pooped to Pop"
19. "Bye Bye Johnny"
20. "'Round and 'Round"
21. "Sweet Little Sixteen"
22. "Rock and Roll Music"
23. "Anthony Boy"
24. "Back In the U.S.A."

Chuck Berry's Golden Decade Volume 2
1. "Carol"
2. "You Never Can Tell"
3. "No Money Down"
4. "Together We Will Always Be"
5. "Mad Lad" (Davis)
6. "Run Rudolph Run" (Marks, Brodie)
7. "Let It Rock"
8. "Sweet Little Rock and Roller"
9. "It Don't Take But A Few Minutes"
10. "I'm Talking About You"
11. "Driftin' Blues" (Brown, Moore, Williams)
12. "Go Go Go"
13. "Jaguar and the Thunderbird"
14. "Little Queenie"
15. "Betty Jean"
16. "Guitar Boogie"
17. "Down the Road Apiece" (Raye)
18. "Merry Christmas Baby" (Baxter, Moore)
19. "The Promised Land"
20. "Jo Jo Gunne"
21. "Don't You Lie to Me"
22. "Rockin' at the Philharmonic"
23. "La Juanda" (Espanola)
24. "Come On"

Chuck Berry's Golden Decade Volume 3
1. "Beautiful Delilah"
2. "Go Bobby Soxer"
3. "I Got to Find My Baby"
4. "Worried Life Blues" (Big Maceo Merriweather)
5. "Roly Poly"
6. "Downbound Train"
7. "Broken Arrow" (E. Anderson)
8. "Confessin' the Blues" (Walter Brown, Jay McShann)
9. "Drifting Heart"
10. "In-Go" (author unknown)
11. "Man and the Donkey"
12. "St. Louis Blues' (W.C. Handy)
13. "Our Little Rendezvous"
14. "Childhood Sweetheart"
15. "Blues for Hawaiians"
16. "Hey Pedro"
17. "My Little Love Light"
18. "Little Marie"
19. "County Line"
20. "Viva Viva Rock And Roll"
21. "House of Blue Lights" (Don Raye, Freddie Slack)
22. "Do You Love Me"
23. "Blue on Blue"
24. "Oh Yeah"

 

However, this does not include tracks from his return to Chess after his stay at Mercury.

 

If you like hunting for vinyl a worthy target is "Golden Decade," a tw0-LP set that Chess put out in the mid-60s. The sets above are often found in "electronically processed to stereo" sound- altered from the original mono with awful sound.

The original Golden Decade cover shows a gold disc with the title and is in pure, crisp mono.

 

I thought some forum members might like this list of Chuck Berry covers from his web site. This is in no way complete but still interesting.

ARTIST COVERED
The Hellacopters
Sweet Little Rock & Roller
AC/DC
School Days
Johnny B. Goode
The Animals
Almost Grown (Live)
Around And Around
How You’ve Changed
I Gotta Find My Baby (Live)
Let It Rock (Live)
Memphis, Tennessee
Sweet Little Sixteen
Too Much Monkey Business
Paul Anka
Memphis, Tennessee
Count Basie
Memphis, Tennessee
The Beach Boys
Johnny B. Goode (Live)
Rock And Roll Music
Sweet Little Sixteen (Surfin’ USA)
The Beatles
I’m Talking About You
Little Queenie (Live)
Memphis, Tennessee
Rock And Roll Music
Roll Over Beethoven
Roll Over Beethoven (Live)
Sweet Little Sixteen
David Bowie
Around And Around
The Byrds
Roll Over Beethoven
Chubby Checker
Johnny B. Goode
Eric Clapton
Little Queenie
Dave Clark Five
Memphis, Tennessee
Reelin’ And Rockin’
Rock And Roll Music
Roll Over Beethoven
Sweet Little Sixteen
Eddie Cochran
Sweet Little Sixteen
The Cream
Too Much Monkey Business
Dave Edmunds Band
Run Rudolf Run
John Denver
Johnny B. Goode (1979)
Bo Diddley
Memphis, Tennessee
The Doors
Carol
Downliner's Sect
Our Little Rendezvous
Too Much Monkey Business
Guitar Boogie
The Electric Light Orchestra
Roll Over Beethoven (2 versions)
The Everly Bros.
Maybellene
Foghat
Maybellene
Run Rudolph Run
Rory Gallagher
Johnny B. Goode
Roll Over Beethoven
Leif Garrett
Johnny B. Goode
Grateful Dead
Johnny B. Goode
Promised Land
Run Rudolf Run
Around and Around
The Germs
Round and Round
Bill Haley & His Comets
Johnny B. Goode
Rock And Roll Music
Emmylou Harris
You Never Can Tell
Jimi Hendrix
Johnny B. Goode
Buddy Holly
Brown-Eyed Handsome Man
Humble Pie
No Money Down
Rock And Roll Music
Iron Maiden
Roll Over Beethoven (they called it Roll Over Vic Vella and used it as a b-side)
Jan & Dean
Memphis, Tennessee
Waylon Jennings
Brown-Eyed Handsome Man
Nadine
You Never Can Tell
Elton John
Johnny B. Goode (1979)
Tom Jones
Johnny B. Goode
Memphis, Tennessee
Judas Priest
Johnny B. Goode
The Kinks
Beautiful Delilah
Too Much Monkey Business
Alvin Lee/Ten Years After
Johnny B. Goode
Roll Over Beethoven
Sweet Little Sixteen
John Lennon
Sweet Little Sixteen
You Can’t Catch Me
Gary Lewis & the Playboys
Sweet Little Rock and Roller
Jerry Lee Lewis
Brown-Eyed Handsome Man
Johnny B. Goode (4 versions)
Little Queenie (2 versions)
Maybellene
Memphis, Tennessee (2 versions)
No Particular Place To Go
Roll Over Beethoven (3 versions)
Sweet Little Sixteen (3 versions)
MC5
Back in the USA
Mountain
Roll Over Beethoven (live)
Ted Nugent
Carol (Bootleg)
Maybellene
Roy Orbison
Memphis, Tennessee
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Jaguar And The Thunderbird (Bootleg)
Elvis Presley
Brown-Eyed Handsome Man (Bootleg)
Johnny B. Goode (2 versions)
Memphis, Tennessee
No Particular Place To Go (Bootleg)
The Promised Land
Rock And Roll Music (Bootleg)
School Days
Too Much Monkey Business (2 versions)
Pretty Things
Oh Baby Doll
Route 66
Johnny B. Goode
Don't Lie To Me
The Ramones
Jaguar And The Thunderbird
REO Speedwagon
Rock And Roll Music
Little Queenie
Keith Richards
Run Rudolph Run
Johnny Rivers
Brown-Eyed Handsome Man
Bye Bye Johnny
Johnny B. Goode
Maybellene
Memphis, Tennessee (2 versions)
The Promised Land
Tommy Roe
Carol
The Rolling Stones
Around And Around
Beautiful Delilah
Bye Bye Johnny
Carol (2 versions)
Come On
Don’t Lie To Me
(Down The Road A Piece
I’m Talking About You
Let It Rock
Little Queenie
Memphis, Tennessee
(Route 66)
You Can’t Catch Me
Linda Ronstadt
Back In The U.S.A.
Carlos Santana
Havana Moon
The Scorpions
Bye Bye Johnny
Bob Seger
Let it Rock (Live)
You Never Can Tell
Sex Pistols
Johnny B. Goode (Live)
Shadows of Knight
Let it Rock
Gene Simmons
Rock And Roll Music (Good Ole’ Country Music)
Simon And Garfunkel
Maybellene
Spider Murphy Gang
Johnny B. Goode (Live)
Schooldays (Schuitog)
Rock’n Roll Music (Live)
Maybellene (Live)
Little Queenie (Autostop nach Schwabing)
Bruce Springsteen
Around And Around (Live)
Back In The U.S.A. (Live)
Little Queenie (Live)
No Money Down (Live)
Sweet Little Sixteen (Live)
You Never Can Tell (Live)
Status Quo
Bye Bye Johnny
Carol
Roll Over Beethoven
Steve Gibbons Band
Tulane
Rod Stewart
Sweet Little Rock & Roller
James Taylor
The Promised Land
George Thorogood
I’m A Rocker
It Wasn’t Me
Johnny B. Goode
Move It
Nadine
No Particular Place To Go
Three Dog Night
Too Much Monkey Business
Peter Tosh
Johnny B. Goode
Tanya Tucker
Brown-Eyed Handsome Man
Conway Twitty
Johnny B. Goode
Maybellene
Memphis, Tennessee
Reelin’ And Rockin’
30 Days
Uriah Heep
Roll Over Beethoven (Live)
Gene Vincent
Maybellene
Wyclef Jean
Let It Rock
Johnny Winter
Johnny B. Goode
30 Days
The Yardbirds
Too Much Monkey Business (Live)

 

Yes

 

If the Rock Hall was smart, they'd induct this guy! Let's start a campaign!!!!!!

 

To the best of my knowledge, there are no known recordings of Elvis singing "No Particular Place To Go", "Rock and Roll Music", or "School Days"... not live, not in an informal jam, definitely not in a recording studio. I'm not sure where they came up with the idea he covered those titles, but they are wrong. They omitted one he did do, though: "Maybelline" was part of his live setlist in 1955, and a recording of one performance survives.

 

I don't think they profess to have a complete list. I think it is more like an example of some of the groups that cover the material. I added a few of my own that I recalled.

I am not sure where they got the information for Elvis. I am not a fan.

 

I found the stereo vol 1 for $12 and grabbed it. I like it but would definitely love to find a mono.

 

Wrong Elvis perhaps? Elvis COSTELLO has performed "No Particular Place To Go" live.