Chuck Berry - album artist

Did some research and surprised to see Chuck has made quite a few decent albums. Like many I think of him primarily as a singles artist as you don't see many mentions of his studio albums except the comp The Great 28. His album art work was also quite colourful for the late 50's



Is Chuck underrated as an album artist?

 

I guess it depends on how you define "album artist". His first three albums are basically just collections of his singles up to that time with as few as two otherwise-unavailable songs on them, so you couldn't really call them canonical albums in the modern sense. But they are fantastic collections of songs all the same. St Louis to Liverpool is his best IMO, but I really wish they'd included "Nadine" (a hit at the same time as it came out) on it.

 

Rock It from 1979 is really good and his last album Chuck is good too.

 

Rockit looks like an ELO album

 

Looks like the USS Enterprise from "Star Trek" and the Millenium Falcon "Star Wars had a baby...

 

If Rockit had come out a few years earlier - with the big fifties nostalgia craze in full swing - I've always wondered if it mightn't have become a hit.

 

There is an amazing 50s-styled cover version of the song "If I were" from Rock-It by Swedish rock n roll band The Refreshments (who repeatedly used to tour as backing band for Dave Edmunds over there). It's on their album "Easy To Pick Up, Hard To Put Down".

 

It shows you just how large Chuck loomed in Chess Records' history that AFTER SCHOOL SESSION was only the second LP ever issued by the company, not long after the December 1956 issue of the label's debut 12-incher, the multi-artist movie tie-in album ROCK, ROCK, ROCK! (I hesitate to call it a "soundtrack" album, though most people would). And AFTER SCHOOL SESSION preceded The Best of Muddy Waters and The Best of Little Walter, issued sometime later in 1957 -- the next single artist to rate a NON-best of issue was Dale Hawkins, and after that the floodgates opened, with releases by The Moonglows, Bo Diddley, The Flamingos, Howlin' Wolf, and Sonny Boy Williamson.

Given the nature of the contracts that the Chess brothers had with their artists, I'm assuming that the matter of LP releases -- which seems to have been a matter of Leonard and Phil and whoever deciding the stars had lined up just right (and record sales were solid and steady enough across their prime distribution territories) -- and the issue of actually cutting an LP, versus the company just assembling something from what was on hand (and any royalties derived thereof) was handled in a fairly cavalier fashion by most concerned. (Wolf, with his own acumen and his wife Lillie looking out for his interests, was probably the one artist in the early days to ask relevant questions and get good answers).

Chuck's output was so strong that no matter how Chess Records assembled his existing stuff on those first three or four LPs, they inevitably made great listening, although most critics agree that among that handful of jewels, CHUCK BERRY IS ON TOP probably stands out as the most substantial for raw listening pleasure.

Each of the first three albums constitute just about the best rock & roll long-players you could find in those days -- not that there was that much competition; rock & roll was a 45 rpm marketplace, plain and simple. Elvis could sell albums, of course, and he was putting good stuff out; and Buddy Holly had the two that he lived to finish, and there were also Bill Haley's long-players (the earliest of which pre-date any of these others listed) were good listening as well. Those platters constituted as much rock and roll as you could get in more than 3-minute doses, without having to flip a record etc. It must've been like mainlining certain kinds of controlled substances for some teenagers -- those with the money and the interest to indulge in those 10- and 12-inch platters.

And listening to them today you're hearing precisely the sounds that were inspiring the likes of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Jeff Beck, Keith Relf, Chris Dreja, Paul Samwell-Smith, Jim McCarty, Jimmy Page et al, and the template not only for covers by those just named, but for expansions into new territory (i.e. "Guitar Boogie" on ONE DOZEN BERRYS becoming the jumping off point for "Jeff's Boogie" on the Yardbirds' ROGER THE ENGINEER aka THE YARDBIRDS aka OVER UNDER SIDEWAYS DOWN . . . . )

 

QUESTION:

I just picked up the excellent CHUCK BERRY IN LONDON LP reissued on the most recent Record Store Day. Enjoying this lesser-known album very much, originally released in 1965.

BUT why is the song "Night Beat" included on this album? It had already appeared on the previous album (St Louis To Liverpool, released in 1964). Was Chess Records too lazy to find another track? Is it a slightly different take, and I just didn't notice?

I do know the song itself was a leftover track originally from December 1957. But why duplicate the song on two consecutive albums?

Would love to hear any info about this.

 

It would not surprise me if Chuck was that lazy. "One Dozen Berrys" features "Blue Feeling", and then nine tracks later, "Low Feeling", the same recording at a slower tape speed.

 

Well, at least they slowed down "Low Feeling" to fool us into thinking it was a different track!

But to have "Night Beat" appear on 2 consecutive albums of otherwise new material was a weird way to go. I mean they could have duplicated some other more-obscure track that was not from the previous album.

 

That's true. Not to mention, "Night Beat" comes from a 1957 session. So by the first time it was used, it was already nearly seven years old. And it's not like it's some great track that was a big hit, just an average Chuck instrumental. What a mystery!

 

Yes, it is strange. It is like someone in 1964 found that never-before-issued old track ("Night Beat") from 1957 and put it on the St Louis To Liverpool album. Then, a year later in 1965, someone else was looking around to compile the tracks for Chuck Berry In London. They noticed an unused track from 1957 (again, "Night Beat") and decided to include it, but didn't realize that it was really already used on the previous album. Weird.

 

Chuck Berry Is on Top and (especially) St. Louis to Liverpool are exceptional records. I think a 12-track, 30-minute album provides the perfect dose of Berry -- The Great Twenty-Eight is canonical and fabulous, but it's too much at one sitting for me. Moreover, the LP-only tracks on the noncompilation albums provide stylistic variety (instrumentals, ballads, etc.) -- I even enjoy "Hey Pedro" when I'm in the right mood.

 

What a great post. Thanks, Bruce! I've been thinking about the issue of 1950's albums and this is right in line with my thinking. I think Ritchie Valens and the Everlys also made a stellar 50's LP or two....

I appreciated your Bo Diddley reviews on AllMusic and they have led me down quite a rabbit hole! (I do wish Allmusic would fix their Bo section.... there is a bit of programming glitchiness with a couple entries over there....)

 

Chuck for me is another one of those 50s/60s greats who really is defined by his singles, and with whom I've found no strong justification to adhere to the regular LP release configurations. In my collection, I have two chronological self-created comps - the first focusing on his golden-era, pre-prison 50's material, and the second picking up the story in the early 60's after his release. That being said, St. Louis to Liverpool - if indeed designed and recorded as a full-length LP - holds up very well.

 

I wish AMG would fix a lot of things -- unfprtunately, except for one review of a then-new Yes album that they asked me for in, I don't know, 2015 {?), I haven't had any formal contact with them since I retired at the end of 2012. But thanks for the kind words.