His Best

Product Description:

Personnel: Chuck Berry (vocals, guitar); Matt Murphy, Owen McIntire (guitar); L.C. Davis (tenor saxophone); James Robinson (saxophone) Johnnie Johnson, Lafayette Leake, Paul Williams, Dave Kafinetti (piano); Willie Dixon, Reggie Boyd, Nick Potter (bass); Fred Below, Ebby Hardy, Phil Thomas, Odie Payne, Robbie McIntosh (drums); Martha Berry (background vocals).

Producers: Leonard Chess, Phil Chess, Esmond Edwards, Andy McKaie.

Includes liner notes by Chris Morris.

Digitally remastered by Erick Labson at MCA Music Media Studios, North Hollywood, California.

This is part of the Chess Records 50th Anniversary series.

A seminal figure in the evolution of rock 'n' roll, Chuck Berry's influence as songwriter and guitarist is incalculable. His cogent songs captured adolescent life, yet the artist was 30 years old when he commenced recording. In 1955, during a chance visit to Chicago, Berry met bluesman Muddy Waters, who advised the young singer to approach the Chess label. Berry's demo of 'Ida May', was sufficient to win a recording contract and the composition, retitled 'Maybellene', duly became his debut single. Berry enjoyed further hits with 'Thirty Days' and 'No Money Down', but it was his third recording session that proved even more productive, producing a stream of classics, 'Roll Over Beethoven', 'Too Much Monkey Business' and 'Brown-Eyed Handsome Man'. The artist's subsequent releases read like a lexicon of pop history - 'School Days', 'Rock And Roll Music' (all 1957), 'Sweet Little Sixteen', 'Reelin' And Rockin', 'Johnny B. Goode' (1958), 'Back In The USA', 'Let It Rock' (1960) and 'Bye Bye Johnny' (1960) are but a handful of the peerless songs written and recorded during this prolific period.

Berry was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1986. His stature as an essential figure in the evolution of popular music cannot be underestimated.