Thursday, September 25. 2014
CBID - New Soundalikes
CBID is never complete as new records and CDs appear and some old rarities are discovered. This section presents interesting additions and corrections to CBID.
Today: a couple of interesting soundalikes to be added to the chapter on Chuck Berry soundalikes in Volume 4:
PETTER BAARLI (Norway)
See Backstreet Girls, Volume 3, page 1054, and Volume 4, page 1766 for biographical info.
Go Jimmy Go (Petter Baarli-Bjørn Nilsen) 2014
CD: You Petter B. Goode [Voices of Wonder VOW-175CD] ? Norway, 2014
Just the title of this album is reason enough to be included. However, the song itself is Berry on high speed. Among the thank youâs on the sleeve are Chuck and AC/DC. It should give you an idea of the content on the 15 tracks album.
POWDER BLUES (USA/Canada)
See Volume 3, page 1423 for biographical info.
Thirsty Ears (3:18) (Jack Lavin) 1979
45: Liberty/Capitol-EMI LT-1423 ? Canada, 1981
LP: Thirsty Ears [Liberty/Capitol-EMI LT-1105 ] ? Canada, 1981
CD: First Decade/Greatest Hits [WEA CD-71359] ? Canada, 1990
The song starts with that typical Johnny B. opening riff and almost sounds like a Berry song you havenât heard before, except thereâs a horn section in there.
The album reached platinum (200.000 copies) in the Summer of â81.
Note Their debut album âUncutâ (1979) features the studio version of âWhat Have I Been Drinkinââ but it doesnât have that Berry feeling to it which the live version from 1983 has (Volume 4, page 1866).
Sunday, September 7. 2014
The Bear Family Definition of 'COMPLETE'
In the meantime Bear Family added the boxset to their online catalog. You can now pre-order the set at the Bear Family Store.
They also included a complete, though little detailed track listing. This now gives us a first look at what is included in the box, and what is not. The contents is interesting, though a bit different from what I wrote earlier.
Bear Family has promised the COMPLETE studio recordings of Chuck Berry. However I find that my definition of "complete" differs a bit from theirs. Their definition of "complete" means that you will get EVERY song Berry ever recorded, but you will get just ONE version of every song.
This is in contrast to e.g. what Hip-O-Select had in mind with their three 4-CD boxes. If you look at Hip-O's first box, you'll find five different versions of Sweet Little Sixteen. As these variants often differ only slightly, listening to such a CD is boring for most. And if you have followed this blog closely, you know that even Hip-O missed to include some previously published tracks.
On the new Bear Family boxset there will be only ONE version of Sweet Little Sixteen plus the demo version. Thus you will not be bored by listening to eight variants of the same song. This is good. But you will need to buy additional CDs to complete your collection.
From the track listing it is a bit unclear which version we will hear. There is only one version of Sweet Little Sixteen, so it's probably the sped up hit single version. But there is also only one version of Merry Christmas Baby, which can either be the version used for the CHESS single, or the one used for the CHESS album. We will see. It seems that all the alternate or early takes are missing - at least unless they have been published under a different name before. So there's only one version of Betty Jean on the set, but there are three takes of Vacation Time: the single version plus the two alt. takes from America's Hottest Wax, known as 21 and 21 Blues. We will have to do some research once the boxset is available.
The sequence of the tracks on the 16 CDs is also a bit unclear. Basically it follows the recording dates, but the Joe Alexander takes are after How High The Moon. And between the Chuck Berry '75 album tracks and the ATCO tracks there are 18 CHESS tracks which were recorded in the 1960s. I expect the books to explain more about these recordings.
Bear Family's press release and order form also promise that with the Mercury and ATCO recordings "all surviving alternate takes" are included. From the track listing it seems that there is only one additional Mercury track and not a single alt. take from the ATCO sessions.
CDs 1 to 11 contain studio recordings, CDs 12 to 16 contain live recordings. Most of these are well-known such as the 1956 Alan Freed Show recordings. Included are some which were difficult to get before, such as the Newport recordings from 1958, the two songs from the American Hot Wax movie, or the BBC sessions with King Size Taylor & the Dominoes. Unheard before are two more shows from Detroit 1963 and a couple of additional recordings from Coventry 1972. From the Fillmore and from Toronto there seems to be just the well-known recordings.
Almost at the end of CD 16 you will find the 1977 Dr. Pepper promotion song. I did not see any other of the rare recordings from our Radio Show and Promotional Records section.
In total, the CD set seems to fulfill a bit less than what the PR promised. It will, however, contain several previously unreleased tracks and a lot of what has been very difficult to find up to now. Stay tuned: more when I learn more about this box ...
Saturday, September 6. 2014
CBID - Two Berry Cover Versions From Austria
CBID is never complete as new records and CDs appear and some old rarities are discovered. This section presents interesting additions and corrections to CBID.
Today: To be added to the chapter on Chuck Berry covers in Volume 3, two Austrian releases:
DE ICCO & The Stoolgang (Austria)
Singer Stefan De Icco led this funny named 50's revival Rock n' Roll band, also known as "De Icco & the Jailgang". Band members at that time were Dieter Libuda (gtr, who also produced and mixed this single), Peter Pansky (bs), Christian Deix (dms), Charlie Furthner (pno), and/or Oliver Jung (pno). Interestingly all of them became well-know Austrian musicians (see the links). Many thanks to studio owner Martin Unterweger for details about this group.
Nadine (3:27) 1991
45: STP Records STP-9111 ? Austria, 1991 (picture sleeve)
This is actually a very goode rockinâ version following the same beat as the original, but has accordion instead of sax and a slide-guitar solo. B-side is a country-rock performance of âRoute 66â, with a little bit of Berry/Stones.
MONALISA TWINS (Austria)
Twin sisters Mona and Lisa Wagner, 20 years of age, from Vienna, Austria, who have always been influenced by the â60s beat music and in the Beatles particularly. They are now living in Liverpool(!), England. They sing, play guitar and write much of their own stuff, in the â60s style.
Johnny B. Goode (3:01) 2013
CD: Play Beatles & More [Woolgoose Records 81004] ? Austria, 2013
They have beautiful voices and sing good but rockânâroll is not their style.
Thursday, September 4. 2014
The Polar Prize Ceremony celebrating Chuck Berry
Next to his induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, the Polar Music Prize is probably the most important award given to Chuck Berry for his lifetime role in creating most of modern rock music.
On Tuesday (August 26th, 2014), the prize ceremony took place in Stockholm, Sweden. Chuck Berry did not attend, neither on stage in Stockholm, nor by use of a video message. The official reason is that due to illness Berry is not able to travel. But not only Berry missed this important event. None of his family did attend either. We would have expected Charles Jr. or Ingrid to at least accept the prize on behalf of their dad. Instead someone choose British singer and producer Dave Edmunds to stand on stage, shake hands with the King of Sweden, and read a three-sentence letter from Berry. Even though Edmunds covered several Berry numbers such as Promised Land (1972) and Run Rudolph Run (1982), Edmunds is not necessarily my first choice for a Berry stand-in.
The video of the ceremony is not yet available at the Polar Music Prize website (www.polarmusicprize.org). However, in case you missed to watch it live, you can view the full ceremony as broadcast by Swedish TV4 from the TV station's website today and until Friday. So if you accept watching (too much) Swedish advertising, go ahead and have yourself an interesting hour.
The link to the broadcast is http://www.tv4play.se/program/polar-music-prize?video_id=2950197.
Do not be confused that the first segment containing interviews on the red carpet and a small film about the manufacturing of the prize statuette are in Swedish language. The full ceremony afterwards is in English!
You will be confused, though, at how easy the Swedish manage to mix Rock 'n' Roll music and classical music into a single program. It's kind of easy this year because the other winner, opera director Peter Sellars, is more of a "modern" classical artist, while Berry is more a "classical" modern artist. In mixing both styles, during the concert you'll see the full orchestra perform a number called "The Guitar Battle of Wartburg" which includes steel and electrical guitars.
There is not a single recent image or video snippet from Berry shown during the whole show. His biography and such is underlaid with segments from the "Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll!" movie. Thus the most recent Chuck Berry is from 1986! While film makers from the committee were in St. Louis during a Berry show at Blueberry Hill, all they show is the announcement outside the doors plus a few sentences by Joe Edwards of Blueberry Hill and by Chuck's son Charles Jr. To me this looks as if there was some other problem besides Berry being ill.
Another video message shown during the ceremony is - as usual - by Keith Richards.
During the one-hour show several Berry numbers are performed, each by well-known Swedish artists from the 1960's 'til today. Some cover version are quite nice, others ... well ... judge yourself. You'll hear:
- Amanda Jenssen - Rock And Roll Music
- Jerry Williams - You Never Can Tell
- Maria Andersson (ex Sahara Hotnights) - Come On
- Nisse Hellberg (Wilmer X) - Little Queenie
- Kim Cesarion - No Particular Place To Go
- Kajsa Grytt (ex Tant Strul) - Memphis, Tennessee
- Dregen and Nicke Andersson (ex Hellacopters) - Johnny B. Goode
Sunday, August 24. 2014
Chuck Berry complete - the Bear Family way
Bear Family, the famous German record company, informs me - and you - about their newest Chuck Berry product:
Rock And Roll Music - Any Old Way You Choose It - The COMPLETE Studio Recordings ... Plus!
To be issued in a few weeks, this new Berry box contains sixteen CDs plus almost four hundred printed pages.
As we know it from Bear Family, this is to be the definitive Berry collection. There is no better and there never will be.
Here's a first view according to Bear Family's Detlev Hoegen. Be sure I'm going to report details as soon as I have them.
- all the CHESS recordings we know from the three Hip-O-Select boxes - plus those they forgot to include
- all the Mercury recordings we know from the already rare 1980s CDs plus unreleased tracks
- the ATCO studio album and more
- live recordings from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s
- an updated discography by Fred Rothwell
- a biography and other writings from Bruce Pegg, Mike Snow, and Roger Fairhurst
- hundreds of pages with photos by Harry Davis, Chuck's uncle, taken during Berry's early career
- previously unseen photos by Jean-Marie Perrier
- an introduction written by Paul McCartney
- plus plus plus
Thanks to designer Mychael Gerstenberger of Malbuch/Berlin, I can show you early photos of the contents. As with all images on this site, click for a better view.
Bear Family claims that this is everything by Berry you ever wanted to have - and for most collectors they are definitely right. There is some additional studio material and tons of live recordings, but only a completionist like myself will want to have that.
The price for the box will be 299 Euros (appr. $400), thus it's save to say that you better start saving money immediately.
Those who want even more might try to get one of only 88 limited Deluxe Editions of this box. To celebrate Berry's 88th birthday on October 18th, Bear Family packs the contents of the box (16 CDs, 2 hardcover books) into an original-size Gibson ES series guitar case. Price will be 499 Euros (appr. $660).
Friday, August 8. 2014
Sweet Little Eight Variants of Sweet Little Sixteen
In July [2011] I had to correct some common knowledge about Johnny B. Goode. Based on findings by Josep RullĂł of Barcelona/Spain we learned that there were some errors with the so-called "complete" release of Berry's 1950s Chess recordings on HIP-O-Select's 4-CD-set Johnny B. Goode (HIP-O-Select B0009473-02).
Josep had another comment:
Sweet Little Sixteen â There's a lot of takes of this song in the Hip-O-Select set, but I think the one first released on the âAmerica's Hottest Waxâ LP is not there. I haven't heard that album for ages, but I seem to recall it had a false start (guitar intro only) and a complete take, wherein Chuck mixes the lyrics of the last verse with the lyrics from the first verse, and ends with âback in school againâ. This line is not heard on any of the five (well, really four) takes used on the Hip-O CD set.Josep's email started a long discussion about the various versions of Sweet Little Sixteen which can be found on the 4-CD set. And more importantly with the help of Morten Reff and Fred Rothwell we discussed in detail which versions can NOT be found on the 4-CD set.
The first part of Josep's comment was quite easy to solve. Just like with Johnny B. Goode take 2 the engineers at Universal clipped off the false starts when mastering the 2008 CD set. This happened to both the demo version (track 5 on CD2) and the previously unknown alternate take 11 (track 7 on CD 2). To listen to these false starts (and some studio chatter with the demo) you need to go back to records and CDs published in the 1980s.
The second part of Josep's comment lead into some more detailed discussions about the lyrics Berry sings because musically the multiple takes are very similar. Here's Josep again:
There are several lyrical differences between the available takes, but the most prominent one is in verses 1, 4, 5 and 7. On the master, Chuck sings âBoston, Pittsburgh, PAâ in verses 1 and 7, and âBandstand, Philadelphia, PAâ in verses 4 and 5. Taking this as a starting point, you can find several variations. On the demo, take 3 and take 11, he even sings âBandstand, Pittsburgh, PAâ on verse 5, which is wrong not only lyrically, but also geographically !!. Of course, I think Chuck knew the lyrics perfectly, and in most of those takes he was merely trying to get the band together without paying much attention to the words, but this is useful to us today in order to tell one from the other.By "master" Josep refers to the variant which finally made it to Chess single 1683 released January 1958. Given these lyrical variations one can differentiate between the four variants on the HIP-O-Select box easily:
- CD 2, track 5 - the "demo" version with Lafayette Leake on piano. Berry sings about Boston in verses 1 and 7, and about Bandstand in verses 4 and 5, but has the Bandstand mis-placed to Pittsburgh in verse 5.
- not on the set - the "demo" version complete with false start, studio talk and an extra guitar note at the end. This was first released on the bootleg LP "America's Hottest Wax" (Reelin' 001, 1979). The first legal release was on a German budget album called "The Giant's [sic] of Rock'n Roll" (K-tel TG 1367) in 1982, though less the false start. In full it appeared on Chess CXMP 2011 "Chess Masters" in March 1983 and Chess LP 9190 "More Rock'n'Roll Rarities" in August 1986. Note that for some reason the HIP-O-Select box only tells the original US releases.
- CD 2, track 6 - take 3 of the second recording session, the one which leads to the final recording and has Johnny Johnson on piano. This was unreleased until 2008 when it made it to the HIP-O set. Here Berry sings "Boston" in verses 1, 4, and 7, while the only "Bandstand" in verse 5 is mis-placed to Pittsburgh again. The recording ends with some studio talk.
- CD 2, track 7 - take 11, in which Berry puts "Boston" into verses 1 and 4, while verses 5 and 7 are about "Bandstand". Again Berry places the Bandstand to Pittsburgh during verse 5. This recording ends with someone coughing into the microphone. Again this version was unreleased before it was included into the HIP-O set - even though the box booklet incorrectly claims that this version had appeared as an alternate take on "Rock 'n' Roll Rarities" (Chess LP 92521, March 1986).
- CD 2, track 8 - take 14. Finally Berry gets the lyrics right in the way we know it: "Boston, Pittsburgh PA" in the first and last verse, "Bandstand, Philadelphia PA" in between, that is verses 4 and 5. The take ends with Chuck joking that they finally got it. This version of take 14, though without the final studio talk, was first released on the 6-LP set "The Chess Box" (Chess 80001) in 1988.
- CD 2, track 9 - take 14 again, though without the studio chat and accelerated by five per cent. It is this variant which was finally released as a hit single in 1958.
Indeed there is a recording of Sweet Little Sixteen which is very similar to the final take except for the piano solo and Berry singing "school" instead of "class". This was the next-to-final take 13 of the recording session. Josep found it on Chess RCD034-2 titled "Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll", released in Spain in 1991. The take first surfaced on the two-LP set "Rock 'n' Roll Rarities" (Chess LP 92521) in March 1986, though in edited form.
On that double album there is a so-called unreleased version of Sweet Little Sixteen, which is take 13 preceded by a false start. However that false start does not belong to that take! Those who have access to the session tapes tell that the false start actually opens take 11, while take 13 never had a false start. Thus like we have found out with Johnny B. Goode, we must learn that the CHESS/MCA engineers in 1986 created unreleased versions by clipping and pasting parts from multiple takes into what they found to be a reasonable sequence.
This also explains why the HIP-O set contains take 11 and claims that this was a known take: The engineers at HIP-O found the take with the previously known false start (take 11) and included it in the set, without noticing that the take did not continue as known - and in addition they clipped off the false start, which was the only segment of the take known before.
Thus for now we have to add the following variants to our list:
- not on the set - false start of take 11, originally released as the first part of the so-called unreleased version on "Rock 'n' Roll Rarities" (Chess LP 92521, March 1986).
- not on the set - take 13 in which Berry sings "back in school again" during verse 6, originally released as the second part of that unreleased version. In unmodified form released on "Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll" (Chess RCD034-2, Spain 1991)
For the sake of completeness I do not want to forget to tell that there is another studio recording of Sweet Little Sixteen made 1966 for Mercury. You can easily distinguish that one from the 1958 versions by the prominent tambourine playing.
I want to end this long post with another comment from Josep:
Man, can you believe the hours we've all spent listening to those takes? It shouldn't be that difficult to sort this out!!! If this isn't love for the music, then I don´t know what it is...
Sunday, May 11. 2014
Setting the parameters of rock music
The parameters of rock music were set one day in May 1955, when Chuck Berry recorded his debut single âMaybelleneâ. Chuck Berry was the rockânâroll pioneer who turned the electric guitar into the main instrument of rock music. Every riff and solo played by rock guitarists over the last 60 years contains DNA that can be traced right back to Chuck Berry. The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and a million other groups began to learn their craft by playing Chuck Berry songs. Chuck Berry is also a superb songwriter. In the course of three minutes he conjures up an image of the everyday life and dreams of a teenager, often with the focus on cars. Chuck Berry, born in 1926, was the first to drive up onto the highway and announce that we are born to run.These are the reasons why Chuck berry is going to be honored with the Polar Music Prize 2014 on August 26th by His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden in Stockholm.
Besides being honored with a great ceremony and given a prize money of 1,000,000 Swedish Kroner (appr. $150,000), which Berry will appreciate more, this prize puts Berry in one line not only with other renowned popular artists, but with exceptional composers and performers of classical music as well.
The Polar Music Prize is a legacy from Stig Anderson (1931-1997), one of the most famous figures in the Swedish music industry. A songwriter himself with an output of around 3,000 published titles, many of them chart hits, Anderson managed some of the biggest Swedish artists of the 1960s and then in the early 1970s became manager, co-writer, and producer of Sweden's most important pop group, ABBA. Anderson's record company Polar Music released all the original ABBA albums.
[Since 1992] the Polar Music Prize is an international music prize, which is awarded to individuals, groups or institutions in recognition of exceptional achievements in the creation and advancement of music. The Polar Music Prize awards two Laureates in order to celebrate music in all its various forms and to emphasize the original intention of the Polar Music Prize: To break down musical boundaries by bringing together people from all the different worlds of music.To learn more about the prize, visit their website at polarmusicprize.org. The site also contains videos of the ceremonies, so expect to see Berry there as well. Along with their press release, the Prize Committee published a nice and almost correct brief biography of Berry at http://polarmusicprize.org/announcement/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/PMP_biografi_CB.pdf
Monday, April 21. 2014
CBID - Berry Covers from 2013
CBID is never complete as new records and CDs appear and some old rarities are discovered. This section presents interesting additions and corrections to CBID.
Today: Four additional cover versions, three of them quite recent, to be added to the chapter on Chuck Berry covers in Volume 3.
Correction over post dated March 5th, 2014: Biographical details about Kelly Clarkson
KELLY CLARKSON (USA)
Kelly Brianne Clarkson, born 1982 in Fort Worth, Texas. Sheâs an American singer-songwriter who in 2002 won the first season of American Idol. Her debut single âA Moment Like Thisâ topped the Billboard Hot 100, and her album âThankfulâ in 2003 was certified double platinum. Her manager is Narvel Blackstock who is the husband of Reba McEntire, and Kelly is married to Brandon Blackstock, son of Narvel. Itâs all the family (!)
Run Rudolph Run (2:27) 2013
CD: Wrapped In Red [RCA 77623-2] ? USA, 2013
Not my favourite version, far from it actually. It does not rock and roll, itâs too staccato in the rhythm which leaves us at the stamp of rock music without a beat.
NEW DANGERS (Italy)
Beat quintet.
Maybellene [âPiantalaâ] ( : ) 1966
45: Robinson Records RR-17 ? Italy, 1966 (picture sleeve)
WILD ANGELS (UK)
See Volume 3, page 1603 for biographical info.
Little Queenie ( : ) 2013
CD: The Wild Angels Ride Again [Foot Tapping FT-141] ? UK, 2013
The guy who started the band back in 1967, Mitch Mitchell, has gathered some former members and relaunching the band: Keith Read, Rusty Lupton and Wild Bob Burgos.
WHITNEY WOLANIN (USA)
Sheâs a pop singer/songwriter, born 1990 in Albany, New York, growing up in Florida. Released her debut album âFunkology XIIIâ in 2005.
Run Rudolph Run (3:01) 2013
CD EP: Run, Run Rudolph [Top Notch Records, unk. cat no] ? USA, 2013
5 song EP. Now this a better version which has some rock & roll feeling and beat to it. On this special EP it comes in three different mixes, Up-Tech, Sing Along and Country. The song reached #2 on the US Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, December 2013. Whitney and her sister Victoria operate the Top Notch Record label.
Thursday, April 17. 2014
CBID - more vinyl from Belgium and Spain
CBID is never complete as new records and CDs appear and some old rarities are discovered. This section presents interesting additions and corrections to CBID.
Today: Two additional entries to the country-specific discographies published in Volume 1:
SPAIN
ROCKINâ AT THE HOPS
Zafiro [Charly] 301 12367 ? 1988
Same cover and contents as the reissue UK Charly (Green Line) LP GCH-8041 (1986).
BELGIUM
I think we can now assume that all the Rock Revival singles with picture sleeves which came out in France in 1968/69 also were released in Belgium, prefix BE (same pictures but different colours), although so far I have only seen two: the one listed here on February 24, 2014 and the one below.
ROCK REVIVAL (VOLUME 6)
Nadine / Carol
Chess BE-169528 ? 1969
Picture sleeve. This sleeve is red compared to the French one on page 294 (in CBID Vol. 1) which is orange.
Tuesday, April 15. 2014
CBID - a 78 from South Africa
CBID is never complete as new records and CDs appear and some old rarities are discovered. This section presents interesting additions and corrections to CBID.
Today: Hereâs a 78 from South Africa. Finally we have a record by Chuck from this country released in the â50s.
SOUTH AFRICA
Sweet Little Sixteen / Reelinâ And Rockinâ
London PD. 8182 ? 1958 (78 rpm)
Black label,with silver print. It says on the label: âŚby arrangement with the Decca Record Co. Ltd. England.
Saturday, April 12. 2014
CBID - a Stuck Herry cover version
CBID is never complete as new records and CDs appear and some old rarities are discovered. This section presents interesting additions and corrections to CBID.
Today: a new cover version which is quite interesting in the way of the name of the band in the first place:
STUCK HERRY (Netherlands)
Rockânâroll quartet led by Peter de Haan (guitar-vocals), Ep Oosting (vocals-guitar), Martin Tuinte (bass), Theo Dijkstra (drums-vocals). Their influences are Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eddie Cochran and the Kinks. However, no doubt about it that they got their name from Chuck Berryâs.
Back In The USA (1:39) 2013
EP: Rock And Roll E.P. Volume 1 [Primrose Prod. EKS-0290] ? Netherlands, 2013
They are pictured on the cover with acoustic instruments, but the Berry track has an el. guitar solo. I had to look at my stop-watch twice to check if the time was right. It was! The music is ok but I donât fancy the vocals, especially not the oh yeahs. They also cover Cochran/John D. Loudermilkâs âSittinâ In The Balconyâ (not good) and Cochranâs âJeannie, Jeannie, Jeannieâ (better), plus âJustineâ from Don & Dewey.
Friday, April 11. 2014
CBID - New 2013 CDs, unfortunately poor ones
CBID is never complete as new records and CDs appear and some old rarities are discovered. This section presents interesting additions and corrections to CBID.
Today: Two 2013 CDs. which you can easily do without:
Netherlands
LET IT ROCK â Just About As Good As It Gets [2 CD]
Smith & Co. SCCD-2492 ? 2013
CD 1: Let It Rock / Johnny B. Goode / Thirty Days / Maybellene / Sweet Little Rock And Roller / Rock And Roll Music / Carol / Sweet Little Sixteen (original speed) /You Canât Catch Me /Little Queenie /Back In The USA / Rock At The Philarmonic (instr) / Almost Grown / Roll Over Beethoven / I Got To Find My Baby+ / Around And Around /No Money Down / House Of Blue Lights+ / Do You Love Me / Mad Lad (instr) / Too Much Monkey Business / Donât You Lie To Me+ / Come On / Childhood Sweetheart / Too Pooped To Pop+ / Oh Baby Doll / Rock And Roll Music (demo) /County Line / Wee Wee Hours / Rip It Up+.
CD 2: Down The Road A Piece+ (faded) / Reelinâ And Rockinâ / School Day / Go Go Go / 21 Blues (Vacation Time) / Iâm Talking About You / Memphis, Tennessee / Bye Bye Johnny (stereo) / Guitar Boogie (instr) / Jaguar And The Thunderbird / Run Rudolph Run+ / Confessinâ My Blues+ / Betty Jean / Johnny B. Goode (alt. take) / In-Go (instr) / Brown Eyed Handsoime Man / Run Around / Come On (alt. take stereo) / Route 66+ (alt. take stereo) / Beautiful Delilah / Say Youâll Be Mine+ -The Equadors / Worried Life Blues+ / One OâClock Jump+ (instr) / Let Me Sleep Woman+ -The Equadors / Merry Christmas Baby+ / Sweet Little Sixteen (alt. take) / Reelinâ And Rockinâ (alt, take) / Down Bound Train / Sweet Sixteen+ / Down The Road A Piece (stereo).
Donât know what it is, but I donât approve of this CD release. The sound is not good enough as of todays standard. And why include both âCounty Lineâ and âJaguar And The Thunderbirdâ as they are almost the same songs. And both versions of âCome Onâ? And âDown The Road A Pieceâ twice? âRip It Upâ? Give me a break. The text says âVacation Timeâ but it is â21 Bluesâ. There is enough material to choose from his â50s and early â60s stuff so this 2 CD set is a waste of money. The liner notes in the booklet written by Dave Travis are straight forward and quite okay.
Available at amazon.com: Click here
CD plus free MP3s available from amazon.de: Click here
USA
SAN FRANCISCO DUES
Geffen [Chess] GET-54058-CD ? 2013
This digipack is the same as original US album Chess (GRT) CH-50008 from 1971. No extra tracks, BUT they (who?) have used the slow version of âLonely Schooldaysâ instead of the rockin version thatâs on the original album. Always something!
Available at amazon.com including free MP3s: Click here
Wednesday, March 26. 2014
CBID - The missing Dutch
CBID is never complete as new records and CDs appear and some old rarities are discovered. This section presents interesting additions and corrections to CBID.
Today: The missing Dutch - For some reason, this 45 from 1975 missed to make it into Volume 1. So here it is:
NETHERLANDS
Shake Rattle And Roll / Baby What You Want Me To Do
Chess CH-2169 ? 1975 (picture sleeve)
Tuesday, March 11. 2014
Is this a Stones record?
Do you know anything about the record shown?
As you see there is nothing mentioned on the label who this is. It sounds like the Rolling Stones, but itâs probably not. Same song on both sides. Morten bought this 45 on eBay from Canada in early 2012.
The Stones did actually play in Toronto 4-5 March 1977 in a small club but according to their set list they didnât perform âLittle Queenieâ (though they did âAround And Aroundâ).
Itâs live all right, and although the singer tries his best to sound like Mick Jagger, towards the end the guitarist plays riffs that are very different from Keith or Ronnie.
So, is this a bootleg of some sort pretending to be the Stones or is it a Stones cover band trying to fool us, or what? Can anyone help out there?
Monday, March 10. 2014
Welcome to Morten Reff writing for the Chuck Berry Collectors Blog
Who is this guy, you may ask.
If you are collecting Chuck Berry records, you will not even think to ask this question. But for the one newbie reading these pages, let me briefly introduce Morten.
Morten Reff is a (or probably the) world expert on Chuck Berry records. He's the one who knows everything about when a specific record was released in a specific country, what the cover looked like and what's special about its contents.
Like me, Morten is a second-hand Berry fan. When Berry had his first hits, Morten was only recently born, and I wasn't even that. So we were never touched by the original hype.
Morten started collecting Berry records when his hits were re-released during the early British Beat craze. He bought his first single on PYE Let it Rock b/w Memphis, Tennessee. I encountered Berry during the early 1970s, when his greatest hits were already marketed as "Golden Oldies".
Both of us then started to collect more and more Berry recordings and records, trying to find even less known or more strange songs. While I was happy to get some cheap French reprint of a Chess mono album, Morten ordered the old U.S. albums and got the then modern "enhanced stereo" versions. In any case we tried to get more and more, especially after having noticed that versions differed on some albums or singles.
Though not formally trained as a music historian, in this specific field Morten worked like one. His research became a huge stack of publishing data. Consequently when Howard DeWitt in 1981 published the first English-language book about Chuck Berry, Morten directly wrote to the author about how faulty the included discography was. Due to this the 1985 printing of DeWitt's book came with a much better and much longer discography - written by Morten Reff.
During the last few years, Morten has published the essence of his 40+ year research on Berry recordings and Berry-related recordings in a series of books called The Chuck Berry International Directory (CBID).
Morten and I got into contact 18 years ago when an early print version of this blog was distributed to Berry collectors all over Europe by help of a British record seller, Hugh McCallum. Since then we continue to exchange news and findings on Berry rarities. We share a lot: We both like Berry's music, but don't care for his personal life stories. We're from Europe, and we both hate to accept that My Ding-A-Ling became Berry's greatest hit. And finally we are convinced that a true collector must also be an extensive researcher. We both encourage other collectors to join in and share their knowledge with us.
With the print version of his over 2.000 pages of Berry's musical legacy finished, Morten agreed to post further findings (new records, new covers) in blog articles here. If you own the books, you might therefore bookmark this blog and print out the CBID additions.
If you want Morten (or me) to write about a specific Berry-related subject, feel free to send an email to cbguide@crlf.de. We promise to at least think about it.
Main Page
This weblog is an addition to my Chuck Berry fansite called "A Collector's Guide to the Music of Chuck Berry" which describes all books and records of interest to everyone enjoying Chuck Berry's music.
Categories
What You Missed
Some earlier but important entries:
- Unanswered questions about the recording of Memphis, Tennessee
- Sweet Little Eight Variants of Sweet Little Sixteen
- The Johnny B. Goode Session
- Chuck Berry in Stereo
- Chuck Berry's Recording Session for Volkswagen
- Chuck Berry's Recording Session for Dr Pepper
- Tim McFarlin Introduces the Berry-Johnson Test into American Copyright Law
- Chuck Berry's Early Recording Locations
- Run! Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer â and the copyright mystery
- Chuck Berry live in New York 1956
- The very first Chuck Berry LP album
- The Chuck Berry On Stage (Chess LP-1480) confusion continues
- The Chuck Berry Vinyl Bootlegs, Vol. 1: Rare Berries
- Rocksmuk album - bootleg or not?
- 6034 cover versions of Chuck Berry songs
- Chuck Berry's Greatest Hits (Chess LP-1485) variants
Recent Entries
- The very first Chuck Berry LP album
- Tuesday, September 2 2025
- CBID - Chuck Berry covers online, live, and on record
- Monday, July 28 2025
- CBID - Maybellene versions and other covers
- Wednesday, April 23 2025
- CBID - More Berry Covers and other thingsâŚ
- Saturday, March 15 2025
- CHUCK100 Tribute EP Series
- Thursday, January 16 2025
- CBID - Corrections, Additions, New Covers
- Friday, January 10 2025
- Rhythm and Rhyme - Chuck Berryâs poetic heartbeat
- Sunday, December 22 2024
- CBID - 6034 and counting ...
- Friday, November 1 2024
- CBID - 6034 cover versions of Chuck Berry songs
- Friday, July 5 2024
- CBID - The Never Ending Story - pt. 9
- Monday, June 10 2024
- CBID - The Never Ending Story - pt. 8
- Tuesday, June 4 2024
- CBID - The Never Ending Story - pt. 7
- Monday, April 22 2024
- Peter OâNeilâs So-Called Disorder
- Friday, April 12 2024
- The Chuck Berry Sound according to Atomicat
- Wednesday, April 10 2024
- CBID - The Never Ending Story - pt. 6
- Wednesday, April 3 2024
- CBID - The Never Ending Story - pt. 5
- Saturday, March 16 2024
- CBID - The Never Ending Story - pt. 4
- Monday, February 19 2024
- CBID - The Never Ending Story - pt. 3
- Monday, February 5 2024
- CBID - The Never Ending Story - pt. 2
- Monday, January 22 2024
- The Chuck Berry Vinyl Bootlegs, Vol. 3: America's Hottest Wax
- Tuesday, January 16 2024
- Chuck Berry in Fake Stereo
- Friday, January 12 2024
- CBID - The Never Ending Story
- Thursday, January 11 2024
- CBID - 5639 cover versions of Chuck Berry songs
- Tuesday, October 31 2023
- CBID - Covers, Chart Listings, and Not-Covers
- Monday, August 28 2023
- CBID - And they play Chuck Berry music - final part 10
- Monday, March 27 2023
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Copyright and Disclaimer
© Dietmar Rudolph
No part of this document may be used or published without written consent by the author.
Impressum/Haftungsausschluss/Datenschutz/Disclaimer
To contact the authors, email to cbguide@crlf.de.