Customer Reviews

His Best : The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection

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Bo Diddley is without a doubt one of the most influential musicians in the history of rock and roll. That trademark "Chunka Chunka" guitar riff of his was probably copied more times, by more bands, than any other guitar line. What I liked about Diddley was not only his ability to make rock and roll, but also his equal talent with making great blues. It's only fitting that his first single was Bo Diddley/I'm A Man, with rock and roll on one side, and the blues of "I'm a Man on the other. This has to rank as the most influential two sided single in history. Although you won't find much more in the way of blues on this compilation, 2 of the songs here were written by Diddley's bass player and blues legend Willie Dixon. The first, recorded in 1955 was "Pretty Thing", which features some good harp work by Billy Boy Arnold, and "You Can't Judge A Book By It's Cover", which has been covered numerous times by rock and blues artists alike. Even on these songs though, Bo gives them a rock and roll slant with his use of right hand rhythm chops. Diddley has been compared over the years to Chuck Berry. The biggest difference I can see in their musical styles was that Bo Diddley used a much deeper african type drum beat, and at times latin rhythms, as heard on the songs "Crackin' Up" and "Bring It To Jerome", which was written by band member Jerome Green, who was soon to become the worlds most famous Maracas player. A couple more of my favorites are "Who Do You Love", which was later covered by Quicksilver Messenger Service in the 60's, and Tom Rush and George Thorogood made a hit out of it in the 70's. The royalities from this song alone should have made Bo a rich man. "Roadrunner" is another song which has been covered many times. With it's "Beep Beep" vocals, I think you could say he even inspired that famous cartoon character that battled Wile E. Coyote. Surprisenly, his biggest pop hit was "Say Man", a different sounding Diddley tune which offered a little hip hop funk with his verbal insults that was known as "Signifying". Bo Diddley, with his trademark homeade square guitar and black rimmed glasses, offered us a little bit of everything in his musicial career. As far as I know, he's still going strong. I had the privalege of seeing him live a few years ago, and the man could still walk the walk. This "Best Of" is a great introduction to Bo Diddley's rock and roll side. Another great compilation by the always reliable Chess Records.

So says the man on "You Can't Judge A Book By Lookin' At The Cover." He's right. Turn this UP. Get it to the point where Bo's guitar is vibrating your entire house. Let it shake all the dust out of the floorboards. Make your neighbors call the police. This music is worth a night in jail.

Seriously, it could be argued that this guy was the forerunner of so many things. None of the British rockers of the 60's would be anywhere without Bo Diddley. The Who and the Stones in particular owe him a great debt, not just for the rockin' Bo Diddley beat but for the macho, right-upfront lyrics and vocals and the total rock-and-roll attitude. Not to mention the huge sense of fun that permeates the whole Bo Diddley experience.

And that guitar! It's safe to say that nobody ever played electric guitar like Bo Diddley. He just turned on every effect available to him and turned it all the way up. It wiggles, it throbs, it bumps and it vibrates. And if you think the White Stripes invented minimal rock and roll, dig Bo Diddley. Some of this stuff is just his guitar and some maracas! Lean, mean, and ready to rumble.

There are so many classic songs and so many innovations on here, it's impossible to pick one out and praise it too much. I'll just point out here that, among other things, Bo invented rap on "Say Man," and that his use of rhythms that head straight back to Africa predate "world fusion" by about, oh, 30 or 40 years. Or the fact that he was one of the first rock musicians to have female instrumentalists in his band. I could go on and on, but you get the point.

You cannot go wrong with this CD. I don't care who you are or where your head is at or what kind of subgenre of rock you dig; Bo Diddley had an influence on it. In many ways he was the "Originator" as he and his fansites claim. You owe it to yourself to pick this up immediately if you haven't experienced the one and only Bo Diddley. All your rock heroes (and heroines) already have!

Everytime I pick up a newspaper or magazine article on Bo Diddley, I read about his bitterness toward being ripped off as a young man in record sales, percentages etc. Well, that's a long time ago, and you know how fast money goes...yet Bo's legacy lives on! This is the best compilation for cuts and sound on Bo I've ever owned. Every one is a rock masterpiece. Bo, I know you feeled ripped off by all the groups who've captured your sound, like The Beatles, Rolling Stones,Yardbirds, plus countless other 1-hit wonders through the years without any dividends. But you were one of the major architects of rock and roll, and long after the money is gone..and long after we're all gone....your contributions to rock history will always live on. You can't put a price on genius and originality.

Ellas McDaniel only had a few hits in the 1950s and early '60s, but Bo Diddley produced greater and more influential music than all but a handful of the best early rockers.
His very first single, "Bo Diddley" b/w "I'm a Man", was not exactly blues, or even straight R&B, but a new kind of guitar-based rock & roll, soaked in the blues and R&B, but owing allegiance to neither. And Diddley quickly became a hero to young white blues and R&B fans like The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, and The Animals - the Stones in particular borrowed a lot from Bo Diddley's pulsating rhythms and galvanizing stage performances.

This MCA/Chess compilation gathers virtually all of Diddley's best and best-known songs, an hour of deep grooves, tough blues, R&B and early rock n' roll which includes "Bo Diddley" (with the fabulous Bo Diddley beat), "I'm A Man", "Who Do You Love", "Crackin' Up", "Mona", "I Can Tell", the sublime blues rocker "Before You Accuse Me", and the underrated "Pills".

Diddley and maraca player Jerome Green lock into a locomotive groove on numbers like "Roadrunner" and "The Story Of Bo Diddley", and the transfers used on this set are exemplary, the majority of them utilizing masters that have a few extra seconds (or more) appended to the fades, which will cause even hardliners to hear these old standards with fresh ears. Especially revelatory are the "long" versions of "I Can Tell" and the Willie Dixon-penned "You Can't Judge A Book By Its Cover".
"The Chess Box" is the ultimate Bo Diddley-collection, but this is one single-disc collection that really hits the bullseye, and it is the perfect way to get started.

this is music I grew up with...I recently attended my 40th HS reunion and we hads this CD along with Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly playing in the background........O, the memories! BD's style has influenced the likes of Peter Frampton, The Eagles, Rolling Stones and Grand Funk RR...In the fifties, I had the good fortune to play/sit in with his band of 4....I have all BD's music some still in wrapper of the 45 rpm variety BUT this disk is the best.....there is a world of good sounds on here and it is VALUE........If you like this artist, then buy this disk.......it is truly his best!!!

If you are a Bo Diddley fan, this package contains eveything that charted or sold well for the man. The original Chess/Checker Masters were used bringing out the best quality possible. There is a little hiss and tape noise on some of the cuts, esspecially "I'm A Man" and "You Can't Judge A Book By It's Cover"....Bo Diddley is a part of American Rock'n Roll culture that can't be forgotten. FOR THE MONEY THIS IS YOUR BEST BET IN A BO DIDDLEY BUY.

Few artists have ever had such an impact as Bo Diddley. He left his mark on all rock that followed. Bo's music really shows the evolution of blues into rock. He often gets tossed in oldies bins, but this stuff is timeless, and some of it has more bite than anything one would expect from the time; for example, the awesome "Pills" is one of rocks' first "drug songs" and one of the best rock songs ever written. So many of these songs have been covered by popular artists, and so many original compositions still owe a large debt to Bo Diddley's work. Diddley was a true pioneer, in fact, the originator of a beat so distinctive that musicians know it as the "Bo Diddley Beat." Bo Diddley is not just music for those wanting to learn about the roots of rock though, it is truly vital and irresistible. For those looking for a good place to start, this is essential Bo Diddley and essential music: PERIOD!

Bo Diddley was an early rock and roll innovator. His hard driving guitar rhythms and blues singing voice made him a big R&B star in the 50's. His songs and styles were copied by later recording artists who made a bundle. Unfortunately Bo never got very far in the pop charts himself and always seemed to be just outside the rock and roll mainstream. His influence far exceeded his personal popularity.Be that as it may, Bo produced some outstanding early rock and roll like "Bo Diddley", "I'm a Man", "Pretty Thing" and "Who do You Love" early in his career. All of Bo's early charted tunes are on this CD as well as others up into the early 60's. These original recordings are a worthwhile addition to any collection of early rock and roll music.

Otha Ellas Bates McDaniels, born December 30, 1928 in McComb, Mississippi, took the stage name Bo Diddley from the name of a one-string African guitar. He only registered eleven R&B hit singles from 1955 to 1967, all for the Checker subsidiary of Chess Records, and just five of those crossed over to the more lucrative Billboard Pop Top/Hot 100 [one more "bubbled under"] - and yet, justifiably so, he was inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame in 1987 - the second year of its existence - and only in 2004 was he so recognized by the Blues Hall Of Fame - some 24 years after they began!

The only mystery is why he was not among those honoured in their first first years since, to my mind anyway, he was every bit as influential as any of those who were brought in at that time, despite the comparative low hit totals. Indeed, almost all the original inductess in the R&R Hall Of Fame adapted a Bo Diddley tune in their repertoire at one time or another.

His first - the double-sided Bo Diddley [# 1 R&B for two weeks] and I'm A Man [a "follow-along" # 1] - peaked on those charts in the early summer of 1955, but it was the driving rhythm of the A-side that captured everyone's attention at a time when the film Blackboard Jungle was re-introducing the world to Bill Haley's (We're Gonna) Rock Around The Clock. That had first come out a year before with little fanfare but now, coupled with Bo Diddley, the world was on notice. A new sound had arrived.

But, whereas Haley's # 1 signature tune also did very well on the R&B charts [# 3], Bo Diddley made no impression on the Billboard Pop Top 100. The same held true for his follow-up Diddley Daddy which, with The Moonglows doing backing vocals, reached # 11 R&B in late July b/w She's Fine, She's Mine [not included], as well as his next immediate hit, Pretty Thing, # 4 R&B in January 1956 b/w Bring It To Jerome.

He then experienced a 3-year gap before his fourth hit, I'm Sorry, which peaked at # 17 R&B in April 1959 with the vocal backing of The Carnations and Oh Yea on the flipside. Neither, for some reason known only to the producer, is included in this volume, but his next two from 1959 are here, beginning with Crackin' Up which became his first Pop Hot 100 crossover, reaching # 62 that August [and # 14 R&B] b/w The Great Grandfather [not here].

That was followed in October by his best crossover, Say Man, in which he trades insults with maracas player Jerome Green. That topped out at # 3 R&B/# 20 Hot 100 b/w The Clock Strikes Twelve [another omission]. Also overlooked in this volume is the sequel hit Say Man, Back Again which reached # 23 R&B and # 106 Hot 100 "bubble under" in late December, and its flipside, She's Alright.

In April 1960 one of my Diddley favourites, Road Runner, made it to # 20 R&B/# 75 Hot 100 featuring the great Otis Spann on piano, with the B-side shown as My Story [in here it's listed at track 15 as The Story Of Bo Diddley]. Another I especially liked was You Can't Judge A Book By The Cover which, in September 1962, became his second-best crossover, reaching # 48 [and # 21 R&B] b/w I Can Tell. There would then follow a 5-year gap before his eleventh and final hit single, Ooh Baby [# 17 R&B/# 88 Hot 100] b/w Back To School [not included].

The digitally re-mastered sound is flawless, there is a complete discography of the contents, and the eight pages of liner notes by the noted music writer Don Snowden (who, with Willie Dixon, also co-authored the book I Am The Blues: The Willie Dixon Story) are quite informative. But I still had to deduct one star for the omission of those two hit singles [which would have been better choices than tracks 7 and 13 which are obscure cuts] and SIX of the flipsides. A strange way to approach a 50th Year Anniversary compilation titled "His Best."

Another legend was taken from us on June 2, 2008. One of the greatest and most influential bluesmen has left us at the age of 79. The breadth of his influence can hardly be described in a few words. It is best heard in the music he left behind for us to share and in the musicians who were inspired and influenced by it. The first big hit for the Rolling Stones, after all, was a Buddy Holly song revved up with that Bo Diddley beat. The song was "Not Fade Away." The Stones also covered some of Bo's originals like "Crackin' Up" and "Mona" and again, utilized that beat on their own "Please Go Home." George Thorogood has made a career out of "Who Do You Love" and what bar band in the world has not run through "Roadrunner" a half a million times? Creedence and Clapton covered "Before You Accuse Me" and The New York Dolls did "Pills." I guess my point is that Bo Diddley was a major musical giant in the world of blues and rock. These musicians as well as those I did not mention are indebted to him for life as well as the fans.

Of course, to hear these songs in all their original glory is the best and most rewarding way to go. We have lost you, Bo, but not your music. That is what you gave to the world and the world is forever grateful for it. Time may have claimed your life, but you'll always be larger than life to me. You ARE the "Diddley Daddy."