Chuck Berry Recordings

Beginning of last year Universal Music enlighted us with the release of Johnny B. Goode - His Complete 50's Recordings. At sufficient demand Andy McKaie of Universal promised a follow-up.
Well, there must have been sufficient demand as Universal's Hip-O-Select label just started pre-sale of a new four-CD box set called You Never Can Tell. 108 tracks presenting Berry's work for Chess records from 1960 to his leave for Mercury in 1966. According to Hip-O-Select, the box contains

18 Previously Unreleased Tracks Including A 45-Minute Live Concert From 1963 & Instrumental Versions Of Berry Classics "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" and "My Mustang Ford"

Right now you can pre-order the set only at Hip-O-Select. It is not listed anywhere else. Shipping date will be February 24th. For more details read the label site here.
According to Universal, the box set will be available only at their web store initially. We have seen with the first set that it takes several weeks until it will be listed at amazon or ebay. This is an interesting way to get higher profits by keeping the dealer margins to yourself for the first wave of buyers. But that's fine if it helps financing the release of recording which would have kept in the vault otherwise.
You will read more about the box set, especially about those parts of interest for us collectors, as soon as I got a copy.

Six weeks ago I told you about the release of the second volume of Morten Reff's Chuck Berry International Directory. I promised to tell more as soon as I read it.
It took a bit more than expected to fulfill this promise. First it took some days for the book to get to my mailbox (Thanks, Morten!), then it took a long time to read through it. Why did it take that long? Not because the contents is boring, it's because there is so much contents in it.
Volume 1 already had some 500 pages full of descriptions of Chuck Berry's official records published in the U.S.A., in England, and everywhere else. Now Volume 2 adds another 500 pages, this time containing much more text and much more detailed information about everything else beside the commercial records.
Let's run through the chapters to see what you are missing if not buying this book:

• Chuck Berry bootlegs:
  Morten describes (and often shows) all known bootlegs either completely dedicated to Chuck Berry or containing rare, usually otherwise unavailable performances. Even if you have read all of the contents of this site, you will certainly find items you don't about.
• Chuck Berry in the movies:
  You probably know the films Berry appeared in, or maybe not. But here you not only get a complete listing but also learn about video cassettes and DVD releases, promotional records and much more. Also included is a description of non-Berry movies containing his songs in the soundtrack.
• Chuck Berry on TV:
  During the last 50 years, Berry appeared on TV all over the world. Appearances range from concert footage over playback to interviews. Trying to get a complete list of all this appearances is probably an impossible task, but Morten found out about some 150 of them, all described in detail here.
• Chuck Berry on the radio:
  Despite this chapter's title, Morten does not list all radio shows Berry music ever appeared on. This would be ridiculous. Instead this chapter lists records and CDs produced exclusively for radio stations. You'll find most of the contents in the chapter on Radio and Promotional Records on this site as well, but not all of it, of course. As with all other records listed, Morten Reff additionally analyzes every record and critically comments each.
• Chuck Berry on Video and DVD:
  As with the records, here's a complete annotated list of all known video and DVD releases covering Chuck Berry.
• Chuck Berry's international tours:
  This chapter could have been omitted in my opinion, but if you want a reference when and where it was that you saw Chuck Berry, here it is - with date, exact location and backing musicians (if available). Missing are Berry's concerts in North America, though.
• Chuck Berry achievements and awards:
  Chuck Berry Number 1 in Billboard in 1972. Ok, you can read this in many places. But here you get Berry's chart positions worldwide, from Brisbane Radio to a Belgian magazine. And then there's the Golden Records, his songwriter awards and all other honors.
• Chuck Berry in print:
  Books about Chuck Berry, books with larger chapters on Chuck Berry, songbooks, magazine articles - 70 pages alone not only with bibliographical data but also comments, recommendations and warnings.
• plus much more:
  Band names derived from Chuck Berry - song lyrics which mention Chuck Berry - all his recordings in alphabetical order - tribute songs, albums, and quotes - songs Berry covered - fan clubs - websites (thanks for mentioning this one here) - and, and, and ...

Maybe half of this book's contents you could find somewhere else if you look hard enough and spend many months searching. The other half I have seen here for the first time. Great job!
Everything Morten writes is well researched and easy to read. I tried hard to spot errors and omissions, but failed to find any other than a few minor things. Along with Volume 1 this is and will be the definitive guide to Chuck Berry's commercial output for many years from now.
Highly recommended. Get your copy immediately! You'll find it in these Internet shops or maybe at your local book store.
And once you have it, you will find that you bought three books in one. Besides all the Chuck Berry contents listed above, there are two additional chapters on pianist Johnnie Johnson and guitarist Eddy Clearwater respectively. Each is again a complete discography of records, videos and movies. Also included is a complete sessionography each, i.e. a list of all recording sessions with personnel, location, and songs. Such a sessionography is omitted from the Chuck Berry part of this book as Fred Rothwell already wrote it in a separate book called Long Distance Information. These two chapters could have been individual books of a hundred pages each. So by buying the Chuck Berry book, you get two additional books for free.

While shopping in second hand record or book shops I tend to buy items related to 1950s music in general or Chuck Berry in detail, as long as they are cheap.
So a 1973 paperback called "Any Old Way You Way You Choose It" grabbed my attention. I had read Robert Christgau before, but not this specific book with its Berry-related title. There's also a newer, expanded edition of this book available.
The book contains a reprint of Christgau's October 1972 Newsday article on Chuck Berry which is very fine contemporary reading covering Berry receiving the Golden Record for My Ding-A-Ling. In his writings, Christgau praises Berry as "the greatest rock lyricist this side of Bob Dylan". And since it is Christgau who wrote "the standard text of sorts, the Berry entry in The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll", his word should be trusted.
Christgau is famous for his often hard critical reviews of recent records. Him praising a musician means a lot. But all in all, you should not expect him to write purely positive on Berry. Quite the contrary! Just read this review of Bio, the album: "Willie Mays was the greatest baseball player who ever lived, but he just can't cut it anymore. He reminds me more of Chuck Berry every time out." Ouch!
If you are interested in Christgau's writing about Berry (and others), you will be astonished to learn that his personal web site www.robertchristgau.com contains many if not all of his writings!
Here are the most interesting things he wrote about Chuck Berry:

• Newsday article "Chuck Berry: Eternal Rock and Roller": http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-aow/berry.php


• Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll 1976 article "Chuck Berry": http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/music/berry-76.php


• Reviews of Berry's 1970s and 1980s albums: http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?id=2421&name=Chuck+Berry


• Review of Berry's "Autobiography" for Village Voice 1987: http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bkrev/berry-87.php

Enjoy reading!

I have not seen it yet, but according to George Groom-White of Music Mentor Press, the second volume of Morten Reff's Chuck Berry International Directory is out now.
This volume covers Chuck Berry Bootlegs and Radio Station Albums, Berry in the movies, TV, and DVD, Berry tours and awards. Also included are tributes and related recordings.
If you read this site, you have to have this book. Get it!
More about this volume as soon as I read it. [Update 19-12-2008: My review is now online here.]

Kultur International Films recently published a series of 12 DVDs named Songs That Changed The World. Each DVD covers one particular song, e.g. I Want to Hold Your Hand, Heartbreak Hotel, Stayin' Alive or Like a Virgin. Whether these or any other song in fact "changed the world" is strongly doubted ...
The DVDs come from a TV series of same name, according to the Net shown in various countries such as Finland, Australia, Mexico, and on various cable channels such as Discovery Channel. The series was originally produced for Country Music Television (CMT) in Canada and premiered January 2003.
The interesting thing about this DVD series is that one disk concentrates on Chuck Berry's Maybellene. It's interesting to note that the makers of this TV series found that Maybellene as a birthsong to Rock&Roll had more impact than, let's say, Rock Around the Clock or Johnny B. Goode.
As the other disks in this series, Song That Changed The World: Maybellene is a documentary consisting mostly of very brief comments by famous people about Berry, about the song, or about the 1950s at all. Some spoken introductions are underlaid with 1950s footage: cars, people, city views.
You do not see Berry perform the song in question. Instead while the song is playing you see segments from Berry's 1950s movies such as Go, Johnny, Go! or Jazz on a Summer's Day. Included are segments from an interview with Berry, though. I think I have seen this interview somewhere else before, but I don't remember where. It must have been recorded sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s, I guess.
Berry makes some interesting comments on his view of how Maybellene did not change the world: "We played Rock&Roll long before ...", "That's just a label ...", "I had a producer who was a marketing genius ..."
The comments from all the other people interviewed are less interesting, although there are many of them. Next to historians, university professors, and music publishers you see and hear B. B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Paul Anka, Randy Bachman, Mike Love (Beach Boys), Joe Mauldin (Crickets), Bob Weir (Grateful Dead), Robbie Krieger (Doors), Justin Hayward (Moody Blues), Steve Howe (Yes), and very briefly Ron Wood. All this is not of any importance. The only one who really has something to say is director Taylor Hackford (Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll!) who unfortunately did not direct this series.
The DVD is not very expensive and can be purchased here. Buyers should be aware that the running time is just 35 minutes of which more than 10 minutes are excerpts from the remaining DVDs in this series. The documentary alone is no more than 25 minutes, i.e. very short. Fortunately it is not region coded even though offers may tell different.

A Chuck Berry recording available on record or CD for the first time? Sounds interesting, doesn't it?
Browsing the Net I recently found out about this CD:

Rock n' Roll Commercials of the 1950s was published by Lady Goose Productions of Inverness, Florida in 2007. Catalogue number is 32105. The item is labeled Volume 1, but the second volume is about the 1960s thus having a different title (#32106). The 1950s CD has 50 radio commercials sung or spoken by 1950s artists such as Sinatra, Crosby, Cole and so on. Despite the title, most are not Rock'n'Roll at all, but among the artists are Little Richard, Elvis, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley and Alan Freed.
Track 49 is a radio commercial for Applebee's Restaurants and is sung by Chuck Berry - as the track listing makes us believe. Indeed this spot includes a version of No Particular Place to Go with modified text to fit to the restaurant. It has a Chuck Berry beat, but no lead guitar and the voice does not sound like Berry at all. So I asked around and none of the Berry experts believed this to be Berry singing.
If you want to check out by yourself: The only place I found listing the CD was this eBay offer. Amazon is selling the CD contents as MP3 files. Go to this page to listen to almost the complete commercial.
The CD sound quility is pretty bad, but there are some very interesting commercials by your favorite artist which you haven't heard before. And, with most tracks the artist is correctly listed, indeed.

By accident I recently found a book on Rock music published in 1977 which has some interesting comments about Johnny B. Goode.
Rolling Stone Magazine recently voted it the Greatest Guitar Song of All Times. See here: http://www.crlf.de/ChuckBerry/blog/archives/40-The-Greatest-Guitar-Song-of-All-Times.html. What a difference...

In Rockmusik (ed. Wolfgang Sander) the editor himself and his three co-authors each wrote a one-page academical review of the song. As the book is in German language, here's what you can read:

• Tibor Kneif (musicologist, author of various books on rock music, professor FU Berlin): ... unoffending-lighthearted text ... artless music ... not bad, but no better than any other mass-produced title
• Hans-Jürgen Feurich (musicologist, professor Universities Hildesheim, Chemnitz, Leipzig): ... not a number on the playbill, but a closing ritual ... simple identification mark [Prof. Feurich reviewed the abbreviated version at the end of the Live at the Fillmore album.]
• Wolfgang Sandner (musicologist, professor University Frankfurt, journalist, FAZ): ... unpretentious rock and roll ... a rude blank mould for rock art ... coarse, raw ... prototype of rock and roll
• Ulrich Olshausen (journalist, FAZ): ... agitated, but monotonous beat ... no dynamics ... instrumental break which does not add anything new other than some rhythm intermissions ... out of the ordinary only due to the text

To me this only proves that as with any art form, critics can have a huge variety of opinions. So let's get back to the facts. And there are two undisputed facts about Johnny B. Goode:

• The guitar intro to Johnny B. Goode is one of the main themes every guitar player has at least tried to reproduce.
• Its guitar licks and the text telling a poor guy's way to become a rock star have made Johnny B. Goode one of the most covered songs of all times.

And if you need another proof, look here: http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=lfiTeaZjAvQ&feature=related - thanks, Carmelo.

Rolling Stone Magazine today announced their selection of the "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Times".
And the Number One is ...
Johnny B. Goode
What else?!?
Read the full cover story here: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/20947527

I finally finished to read Morten Reff's Chuck Berry International Directory book.
I am collecting Chuck Berry music for more than 30 years now, though I never had the money or the will to collect (all of) Chuck Berry's records. While I have more than 500 Chuck Berry records and approximately the same number of CDs, I never tried to find each and every pressing or version of a record. Often the ones in my collection are cheaper re-issues. So when readers ask me about a special label or cover variant, my typical reply was that I don't know.
That's no excuse any more. Morten Reff's book answers maybe not all, but most of your questions. Now we finally know that there are five different versions of the Dutch variant of Berry's On Stage album, just in case you try to collect all of them. I found it astonishing to see how much I did not know about Berry's records. I will have to rewrite some comments on this web site, probably.
Morten has documented Chuck Berry's released records world-wide to a much greater extend than anyone ever before. According to his writing, the listings for the US and the UK are complete. The ones for most of Central and Northern Europe also look fairly complete to me. There's only one record documented to be published in Peru, so there may be room for extensions. If you know Chuck Berry records not yet listed in Morten's book, both Morten and I would be glad to hear from you.
Some details you may be looking for you will not find in Morten's book. For instance it seems to be impossible to document all the typeface and type size differences for those records pressed in millions. Too many pressing plants, too many printers, too many variants. Morten wisely choose not to go into details here.
But on the other hand you get many more details than you probably expect. For instance Morten has actually listened to all the records and therefore comments on sound quality, the use of mono, stereo, and electronically altered versions, and much more.
Many, yes: many of the records Morten shows I have never seen before. And this does not only cover the more obscure Korean, Taiwanese or Philippinian releases. Even some of the Dutch or English records I have not seen before. Where available Morten has listed year of release, track listing, correct and incorrect composer credits, song variants, and more. Often he shows cover and label, including variants such as promotional copies. Best reading are his comments on the worse records such as "Nobody wants or needs this record."
Volume 1 covers the officially released records. So all the more interesting ones such as bootlegs, radio station records, soundtracks, and more will be in Volume 2, due hopefully soon.
There is little I don't like about this book. One thing are the images which I have two problems with: First there are too few images. Half of the records are shown visually, but the other half is not. Having helped Morten with scanning and photographing dozens of covers and labels, I know how much work is in the images shown. But especially where Morten writes about an interesting picture, I wish he would have shown it.
Secondly all the images should, no: must have been in color. I know color print would have made the book more expensive. But I really doubt any buyer would care if the book would cost 40 Pounds instead of 30. Either you need this book, or you don't. I personally think color images would have made the book twice as good.
Finally I miss, at least according to my wishes, some kind of pricing guide. While Morten tells about the relative rarity of an item at some places, a general value or rarity index would have been helpful. But hey, this opens an opportunity for someone to come up with a pricing guide. Let me know when you're done.
Until then I cannot wait to see Volume 2. Write, Morten, write!

I got it!
Morten Reff's new book on Chuck Berry is finally out! Yesterday I received my copy from Morten, signed and with a personal dedication. Thank you, Morten!
I spent all night reading but had to stop at around page 150. And I still wasn't through the US releases chapter alone. Could you imagine you can write so much about the releases of a single artist in a single country? And Morten even omitted most of the Various Artists records and - by intention - many of the cheap CD re-issues.
The Chuck Berry International Directory, Volume 1, or CBID, Vol.1 for short, lists and explains all official Chuck Berry records ever released in the US, in the UK, and in many other countries. Every record has a complete song listing and some explanation including comments on the versions included, the sound quality, and variants. For many records Morten shows cover or label, often comparing certain versions such as promos or re-issues.
There is a ton of information never published anywhere else. So if you are collecting Chuck Berry records, this is THE SOURCE. Get it! Now!
I will write a more detailed review within the next few weeks when I find time to do so. And I am already waiting to see Volume 2 which will cover the more obscure records such as bootlegs, radio shows, soundtracks and more.

I encourage you to review Morten's descriptions and lists. If you find some omission or correction, send it to me and I will both forward it to Morten and publish it here. According to Morten, especially the listings for countries with smaller record sales might need some rework. Although the International Directory already is the best description of Chuck Berry's records ever published, help to make it even better and in the end hopefully complete!

I finally got my copy of the new 4 CD set containing Chuck Berry's complete 1950s recordings (HIP-O-Select B0009473-02), so it's time for a small review. It took some time for the box to reach me, but I do only write about items I own or at least have physically seen.
The title
Let's start with one of the most disappointing items about this CD box, right on the top: its title! How could anyone come up with Johnny B. Goode to be used as yet another CD title. I have not counted, but there must be at least half a dozen CDs out there titled the same. A bit more creativity, please. This item deserves better than to get lost between all the other albums of same name.
From the outside
The next thing you notice is the funny way this CD box is designed. Looking like a 1950's mailing envelope, it is closed with a rope surrounding two hooks. You have to untie the rope/thread to open the box. While this design is funny, just using cardboard for a four CD set is fairly weak. I have heard of several copies which were damaged in mailing. I would have preferred a hardcover book-like packaging as with Charly's 1994 Poet of Rock'n'Roll 4-CD set.
From the inside
The nice design continues on the inside. All four CDs look like (different) 1950's CHESS labels. If you remove a CD, underneath you'll find one of the original album covers. The box is completed with nice photos, and the partial lyrics to Johnny B. Goodeare spread over different parts. The 24 page booklet is a fine work, though the reading direction is a bit strange: you have to flip pages up and down instead of left and right. Fred Rothwell wrote both a summary of Berry's 50's work and details on the specialties of the set. The track listing thoroughly tells about the musicians, recording date and much more. It also lists on which record the take appeared first - in the U.S.! Tracks previously published e.g. in Europe are listed as "previously unreleased in the U.S." instead of telling the true origin. With a collector's item like this, it should be clear even to the people at Universal that U.S. borders do not matter for collectors. We don't care if a song was first published in the U.S. in 1990 when it has been available elsewhere more than a decade earlier.
What's on the CDs
Very simple: The four CDs include each and every recording Chuck Berry made for Chess Records between May 1955 and December 1959 which either has been published before or was found to be worth not keeping in the vault. This includes all the singles, all the LP tracks, some demo recordings, a large number of alternate takes, plus studio jams and studio talk. In addition the first CD also has the two live tracks from Allan Freed's 1956 CBS broadcast. For details about the original releases, read the corresponding section of this site. All in all these are 103 "little records, all rock, rhythm, and jazz" as Fred claims it.
What's new
What interests me most is the material previously not available. The most important two tracks are the long jams on disk 3. While we have found lengthy jams on the Two Great Guitars and Concerto in B. Goode albums, these two jams are more Johnnie Johnson recordings than Chuck Berry's. One wonders why the band went through these, and more importantly why an engineer such as Phil Chess would record them to tape. But he did and we are glad to be able to listen to them now.
In addition to these jams, there are 14 previously unknown alternate takes, in addition to the alternate takes already on records such as Rock 'n' Roll Rarities. On this CD set we newly find additional takes of Sweet Little Sixteen, Night Beat, Time Was (slow version), Reelin' and Rockin', Around and Around, Ingo, 21, Almost Grown (two different takes), Blue on Blue, Betty Jean, I Just Want to Make Love to You, Broken Arrow, and Too Pooped to Pop. Also to be noted is that the version of Around and Around which was only to be heard on the strange Marble Arch 12-instead-of-10 song record is included as well, of course. Everything else has been available even on CD before.
All 103 songs come in chronological order. This results in CD 2 playing five different versions of Sweet Little Sixteen in a row. If the listener is interested in Chuck Berry's music, he can nicely hear how the song develops. People who only want to listen to Berry's greatest hits will be annoyed by such repetitions, but those should better buy a compressed sampler.
What's not on the CDs
Unfortunately, there are no alternate takes of songs recorded before December 1957. As the liner notes tell, Chess recycled the tapes once a master was selected. What a pity! What's also missing are takes which are very similar or simply too bad for release. Probably we are about to see some of these in later years as no record company will ever want your collection to be complete.
While the two CBS live tracks are included, though not recorded for Chess, the 1958 Newport recordings are missing. Also not included are the two Joe Alexander tracks. Luckily both have been released on CD just a few weeks ago.

When describing the outcome of Chuck Berry's recording session 9 of January 1957, Fred Rothwell writes about two different takes of a song listed as Lajaunda (Española). One take is listed as the B side of CHESS 1664, Oh Baby Doll. The other take is to be found on the One Dozen Berrys LP (CHESS LP-1432) and all subsequent releases. Fred wrote:

The second voice on the Chess 1664 single is a multi-tracked single vocal track, whilst the LP release includes an alternative cut with a true second vocal that is not multi-tracked. The LP version is more appealing because the voices are not perfectly synchronised.

When I saw the track listing of Johnny B. Goode - His Complete '50s Chess Recordings (Hip-O Select / Geffen Records B0009473-02) on which Fred collected all Berry recordings including the most interesting alternate takes, I noticed that this recording is on the 4CD-set only once. So where is the alternative take, Fred? His reply:

After careful listening to both I decided that they were the same take. There is some aural difference but this I put down to mastering differences.

Given this, I sat down with the single, the LP, and a series of CDs. In the end I must confirm Fred's remarks. If you listen carefully, you can definitely hear that both versions have a true second voice track and except for differences in loudness, both versions are exactly the same. There is no alternative take.
While I was at it, I also wondered about this song's name. On the original Chess single, the song is listed as LAJAUNDA - one word. On the One Dozen Berrys LP (CHESS LP-1432) the same spelling is used, though now in two words: La Jaunda. On most reissues there are also two words, but it's La Juanda now, ua instead of au.
So what is correct, I thought. I asked my brother who runs a linguistic services business (Euglottia) if either Juanda or Jaunda has any meaning. He said that neither has any direct relation to a Spanish word. It's just a name. However, while Juanda is a known name similar to Juan or Juanita, the other form Jaunda is not used as a name. In fact if you google for Jaunda, the Berry song lyrics is the only result you will get. When you listen to what Berry sings, it's also clear that Juanda is the girl's name. Finally one can note that the BMI repertoire (Broadcast Music, Inc. licenses Berry's songs e.g. for radio airplay) also lists this song as La Juanda. So we can conclude that the original spelling Lajaunda simply was a typing error by someone who did not know enough Spanish.
Did Chuck Berry know enough Spanish at that time? Probably not. Just listen to the end of the first verse: "Hablo solo en Español y no comprendo Ingles" does not translate to "I only speak English" but instead to "I only speak Spanish". In the other two verses, the Spanish text matches the English one correctly.

In 1954 Chuck Berry used the alias "Chuck Berryn" when performing in and around St. Louis. Concert announcement posters such as the one shown on pages 92/93 of Berry's Autobiography prove this.
Likewise, American Federation of Musicians' recording contracts show that in 1954 someone by the name of Chuck Berryn played guitar during a recording session for Oscar Washington's Ballad label in St. Louis.
Chuck Berry has never acknowledged that it was him who recorded for Ballad at that time. He always states that his first recording sessions took place in May 1955 for Chess Records of Chicago. However, nowadays most experts such as Fred Rothwell count the Ballad session as Berry's first recording.
Of the unknown number of songs recorded, Washington released two under the name of Joe Alexander and the Cubans: Oh Maria b/w I Hope These Words Will Find You Well.
A recently published CD by Music Productions b.v. of Utrecht, the Netherlands contains these two hard-to-find recordings. Chuck Berry Rocks (Digimode Entertainment GTR39508) was released as part of a series of low-cost CDs covering Rock&Roll legends such as Elvis Presley, Bill Haley, Little Richard, or Gene Vincent.
The CD contains Berry's first six Chess singles, thus twelve early Chess numbers ranging from Maybellene to You Can't Catch Me, though in no particular order. As bonus tracks the CD comes with the two Joe Alexander recordings. Both are in perfect sound quality.
While Oh Maria could be found on the CD Cruisin' Classics Volume 1 (MR DJ 101) before, I Hope These Words Will Find You Well is to be heard on CD for the first time here.
If you plan to buy Chuck Berry Rocks, be aware that its listings in web shops are next to inexistent. Even on amazon you have no chance to locate the CD and ensure that it's the correct item you order. Click here to go to the correct pages on amazon to purchase this CD.

The following discussion on the various versions of "Betty Jean" took place in email first. It is worth repeating here:
Rick Bergemann asked:

The identical version of "Betty Jean" is included in the "Anthology" and "Rock´n´Roll Rarities" cd´s, and that version differs from the version included on the 1987 cd re-issue of "Rockin´ At The Hops". I asked about this discrepancy long ago and was told that the "Rarites" version was an alternate take and that the "Anthology" version was the originally released version. Obviously that answer was incorrect, because those two versions are the same. And the fact that neither "Rarities" nor "Anthology" lists that particular version as an alternate take (while specifically noting all other alternate takes) leads me to believe that their version is actually the original. Therefore I have strong suspicion that the odd version (included in the "Hops" re-issue) is actually the alternate take. I know that this site is mainly for people who collect vintage vinyl and bootlegs and such and probably won´t think twice about what´s included on recently mass produced cd´s. But if someone of knowledge has a copy of the aforementioned cd´s, can you please listen to the versions of "Betty Jean" and explain the discrepancy clearly. Thank you.

The version on Rarities is known as the alternate version, simply because it´s the one released later. You can distinguish the two best by listening to the Little-Richard-style Oooh´s and Aaah´s both after the first verses and best at the end of the song. In the original the first verse ends with something that sounds like Whoo Ha Oh Baby, Whooo Whooo - while in the alt. version the same part sounds like Oh oh oh Baby, Oh oh oh oh Baby. The 2:25 minute alt version ends with three identical repetitions of Whoo Ha Baby I´m in love with, while the 2:30 minute original ends with Whoo Ha Baby I´m in love with - Whoo Baby I´m in love with YOU - Whoooo I´m in love with you - Whoo Baby (...fading...)
Follow up from Rick Bergemann:

Thank you for the detailed answer. You made it very easy for me to compare the two and confirm which was which. However it leads me to a second question: do you have any knowledge as to why the later version has been included on "Rarities" and "Anthology" without proper notation? "Rarities" includes demos and alt versions as well as originals, yet it does not mention "Betty Jean" as being anything else besides a "stereo remix". "Anthology" compiles only originally released versions (with a couple of entirely unreleased songs thrown in), yet this second version of "Betty Jean" has somehow been included there too. And like "Rarities", the "Anthology" liner notes also fail to note that "Betty Jean" is not the originally released version. Due to the lack of notation on either cd´s liner notes, I can only assume that MCA thought they were putting the original version of "Betty Jean" on both of those compilations.

You are probably correct. Already in 1973 someone at Chess took the wrong tape when collecting the contents for Chuck Berry´s Golden Decade Vol. 2 (Chess LP 60023). This is where the alt. version first appeared, not noted on the cover, too.