School Days and Can't Catch Me....then there's Monkey Business, Havana Moon, and Down Bound Train. Oh crap, Promised Land too.
Very tough choice but I went with Come On and Too Much Monkey Business. I almost went with Brown Eyed Handsome Man in competition with Too Much Monkey Business. Both have that unique cadence, humor and lyrical dexterity that I think was unmatched in the '50s and still top of the game into the mid-60s. "Laid off from my job and I can't afford to check it I wish someone would come along and run into it and wreck it"
It's actually his best selling single which is very strange. Shows that the best isn't always the best selling.
Along with the ones mentioned I'd add the great I Wanna Be Your Driver and his wittiest song, Dear Dad.
"You Never Can Tell" and "Johnny B Goode". I was tempted to use one of my votes for "Memphis", but decided against it since every cover version I've heard of the song is better than the original.
What Mike said. Just add a zero after the 2. Keith says Wee Wee Hours last I heard though. For what that is worth. And there is a funny Steve Miller anecdote in the most recent RC magazine, about when Steve told Chuck to go "F' himself" when Chuck was yelling at him at a gig, in the early 70s.
I love all of Chuck's music! I have since I was 5 years old. But Chuck was mostly, shall we say, a difficult and often times an unkind individual. You have seen Hail Hail Rock n Roll, no doubt?
I voted for "Johnny B. Good" (which I figured would top the list) and "Reelin' and Rockin'", but it was hard to pass up "You Never Can Tell", "Havana Moon", "Memphis", so many others. If I had to do the poll again, I'd replace "Promised Land" for "Almost Grown", because, obviously "Promised Land" is one of his greatest. I grew up listening to the 2-LP The Great 28, which is nothing but great songs, of course, but it didn't have "Promised Land" and "You Never Can Tell", two of his very best. I don't think I heard "You Never Can Tell" until I saw Pulp Fiction. Put "Promised Land" and "You Never Can Tell" in place of "Almost Grown" and either "Oh Baby Doll" or "Beautiful Delilah", and there's the best possible Great 28. Not enough poll spots to add "I Want to Be Your Driver"!
Chuck Berry has so many greats. But I don’t think there is anything in recorded music that can touch the magic of “Maybellene” And “No Particular Place To Go” is a personal favorite even if it’s a re-write of “School Days.”
