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

My Ding a Ling is garbage and he didn't even write it. What's great about him is his songwriting.

 

And Little Richard claims he's the true King. What made Elvis the King, beyond his success, was the black artists were basically performing R&B where as Elvis was fusing Black R&B and White Country with stylings of Gospel and Rockabilly. Elvis was unique. James Brown said he and Elvis were the only true American originals.

 

OUT.......................................IN
Around And Around............No Money Down
Bye Bye Johnny...................You Never Can Tell
Come On..............................Promised Land

 

I wonder if the compiler of the Charly release I posted earlier had similar thoughts as those here, that The Great Twenty-Eight is largely on point, if for a couple of changes.

Both feature the same songs except for:

The Great Twenty Eight
Havana Moon
Oh Baby Doll
I Want To Be Your Driver

Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll
No Money Down
Your Never Can Tell
Promised Land

 

Some, including me, would argue that Chuck was already fusing Black R&B and Country from the start. When Chuck first played "Maybellene" in its original form to the Chess Brothers, it was called "Ida Red" and they told Chuck that it sounded too country. Chuck's songs comprise the template for "rock and roll". The fact that he wrote and created at least a few dozen of the most important rock and roll songs places him above all others. As John Lennon said: "If you had to give another name to rock and roll, you could call it Chuck Berry" (or something like that; I don't have the exact quote handy).

 

Chuck Berry was on Elvis' radar from that first Chess single. Here is a rare recording of Elvis, Scotty & Bill performing the song on the Louisiana Hayride in 1955, about a month after the single came out:

 

Agreed. I never said I liked it, just that it's a song left off Great 28 (with good reason).

Oh, and his guitar playing was pretty good too.

 

But Chuck had a way with words. I think some of his lyrics are sheer genius.

 

How about Deep Feeling, his "original" version of Fleetwood Mac´s Albatross:



Maybe it doesn´t fit on a Best of Chuck, but I like it!

 

Chuck liked it well enough to include it in his live sets.

 

Chuck definitely liked his own ding-a-ling. And he liked it even more when that ding-a-ling was being played with by one of those rock and roll gals that he was always singing about...

 

I'm talking about from a vocal standpoint. What makes Chuck and Elvis different is that Elvis was a singer and a phenomenal one. Chuck was a musician and songwriter and a phenomenal one. But Elvis' status as King comes from his voice and of course mass success. Nobody had the vocal diversity of Elvis back then. Hound Dog, Don't Be Cruel and Any Way You Want Me were all recorded the same day. Not the same year or same month but same day. He sounds like a totally different singer in all three. Not just because they're all different genres, but his voice is completely different on all three.

 

Yes, Elvis was a superb and unique singer, and he definitely was among the "finest" singers from that period. As you say, he was "phenomenal". But I don't think it was particularly the most representative of "rock and roll". I personally would say Little Richard is a greater "rock and roll" singer. And I'm sure there are fans out there who would consider Jerry Lee Lewis to match Elvis in vocals. But that's just my opinion.

 

My words exactly. Rock and roll is the product of several crucial people, but Chuck supplied the largest piece of the puzzle, for the genre.

 

Absolutely. "All of Chuck's children are playing his licks" and singing the songs that he wrote.

 

What hit's collection has the most stereo?

 

I once saw Chuck play with a world-class band led by Allen Toussaint, and he made them play the damn thing for 15 minutes. Toussaint basically sat at the piano with an "OK, whatever" kind of smile.

 

Essential, imo:

 

Because Rock n Roll was the new mainstream genre of the day, Elvis was a singer who sang Rock n Roll and the specific "Rock" style of it.
But it's tough to say what was classified as Rock n Roll and what wasn't.
Hound Dog and Jailhouse Rock were more clearly the "Rock" style of Rock n Roll but that doesn't make All Shook Up or Don't Be Cruel any less a part of the Rock n Roll genre, or even Love Me Tender for that matter, because it's recorded for the fan base of the Rock n Roll genre and by a Rock n Roll artist.
I know you and I agree a lot on the Beatles.
So it's kind of like saying Lennon was a great Rock n Roll singer on Twist and Shout or It Won't Be Long, or Paul on Long Tall Sally or I Saw Her Standing There, but that doesn't make No Reply or All My Loving, or even Yesterday or I'll Be Back, not part of the Rock n Roll genre.
So for me, because Elvis was arguably the best singer across the board, all his styles still represent the Rock n Roll genre because he was a Rock n Roll singer.
Just like The Beatles were the best Rock n Roll band even though much of their music wasn't "Rock" stylistically.

 

This is my 1st attempt. I know someone is going to say I left this song or that song off the list.
I tried to confine it to 40 songs (20 per disc) hence the title.

Chuck Berry - 40 Finest Berries

Disc 1

1 Maybellene
2 Wee Wee Hours
3 Thirty Days
4 No Money Down
5 Downbound Train
6 Roll Over Beethoven
7 You Can't Catch Me
8 Havana Moon
9 Too Much Monkey Business
10 Brown Eyed Handsome Man
11 School Day
12 Oh! Baby Doll
13 Rock And Roll Music
14 Sweet Little Sixteen
15 Reelin' And Rocking
16 Johnny Be Goode
17 Around And Around
18 Beautiful Delilah
19 Carol
20 Sweet Little Rock And Roller

Disc 2

1 Jo Jo Gunne
2 Merry Christmas Baby
3 Run Rudolph Run
4 Almost Grown
5 Little Queenie
6 Back In The USA
7 Betty Jean
8 Memphis, Tennessee
9 Let It Rock
10 Too Poopped To Pop
11 Bye Bye Johnny
12 Jaguar And Thunderbird
13 I'm Talking About You
14 Come On
15 Go Go Go
16 Nadine
17 No Particular Place To Go
18 You Never Can Tell
19 Promised Land
20 My Ding-A-Ling


Darryl

 

Too bad the CD wasn't mastered by Steve. The LP was as I recall sounded pretty sweet. The CD doesn't sound bad either but not as nice as the LP.

 

Personally I have the three Hip o select boxes covering most everything Chuck recorded on Chess. That s all the Chuck I need-no more-no less.
Chick Berry was a true song-writing genius. His way with lyrics is second to none. So of course he was the king of rock n roll. But so was Elvis, Jerry Lee and Little Richard. Without those guys-well the world would be an empty place.

 

According to setlist.com here are the 25 songs Chuck plays live most often. I'm sure some of the early set lists are missing but at least this gives some approximation based upon the set lists that they have. There are quite a few covers on this list.

1 Johnny B. Goode
2 Roll Over Beethoven
3 Reelin' and Rockin'
4 Let It Rock
5 Sweet Little Sixteen
6 School Days
7 Carol
8 Memphis, Tennessee
9 My Ding-a-Ling (cover)
10 Around and Around
11 Rock and Roll Music
12 Nadine
13 Little Queenie
House Lights
15 You Never Can Tell
16 Honest I Do (cover)
It Hurts Me Too (cover)
18 Maybellene
19 Wee Wee Hours
20 Mean Old World (cover)
21 Every Day I Have the Blues (cover)
22 Key to the Highway (cover)
23 3/4 Time (cover)
24 Bio
25 The Promised Land

Here are the next 7 Chuck Berry penned tunes if you eliminate the covers from the list.

No Particular Place To Go
Rockin' At The Philharmonic
Too Much Monkey Business
Back In The U.S.A.
Brown Eyed Handsome Man
Bye Bye Johnny
Bring Another Drink

 

My ideal comp would also include "Tulane" and "I Want to Be Your Driver." Otherwise, I love it!