His Best, Vol. 1 [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

Chuck Berry

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 25, 1997)
• Original Release Date: March 25, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Chess
• ASIN: B000005KQI
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #24,395 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Chuck Berry, already 29 when he scored his first hit with 1955's "Maybellene," drew on his own experiences at school and behind the wheel to fashion many of the classics that made him one of rock & roll's earliest great songwriters. Linking country boogie to jump-blues licks from the likes of Louis Jordan, Berry was both in touch with the past and totally new, as proto-protests ("School Day") and odes to the freshly flourishing teen lifestyle ("Sweet Little Sixteen," "Oh Baby Doll") make clear. While His Best (and its companion volume) provide a more expensive alternative to the now out-of-print Great Twenty-Eight, there's no getting around the fact that Berry's music is as essential as it comes. --Rickey Wright

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars not a curioso, January 18, 2000

By	Sam Browning (Ithaca, NY) - See all my reviews

This album is great not just from a historical standpoint. It doesn't sound dated and it's good to rock out or boogie down to anytime. Even though the lyrics seem trivial they sound so right for the music and make you think that nobody could have said it better. No More Monkey Business is my favorite, since he ends lots of his lyrical lines with this really cool gutteral "ha!" Really fun and brilliant.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Half of Chuck's greatest hits, February 23, 2004

By	Candace Scott (Lake Arrowhead, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

If you buy this disc in tandem with "Greatest Hits II" then you will have almost all of Chuck Berry's greatest hists. The sound quality is very good, there are no live versions (which mar other Berry "greatest hits" packages), and there is nothing but great music here.

It's a shame that Chuck Berry is not universally recognized as one of the greatest rock lyricists and most innovative figures. This CD will convince even skeptics of his brilliance. Without Chuck Berry, there would be no Beatles, Rolling Stones or Kinks, or at least in the forms they eventually took.

This CD contains all of Berry's original early recordings, pristine and beautifully remastered. Who can deny that his way with words was umatched: "He never, ever learned to read or write so well, but he could play a guitar just like a-ringing a bell..." It's a tragedy that most people have grown up listening to inferior musicians do paltry cover versions of the songs Berry wrote and performed better than anyone else.

This set is an absolutely essential component of any collection, of any genre. Chuck Berry was a pioneer with words and music and his influence is sorely underestimated today. Had Chuck Berry been born white, he would be regarded as a rock God instead of being neglected and virtually forgotten in many circles. These 28 magnificent songs just about cover his catalogue of hits. This is a great sampling, but incomplete, so if you want to experience Berry's real genius, branch off into his lesser known songs. But for the money, this one rocks!

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST FROM ONE OF THE FATHER's OF ROCk-N-ROLL, April 17, 2000

By	[e-mail] "mistermaxxx" (usa) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

CHuck Berry with His Signature Style of Guitar Playing&Duck Walk is One Of The FOunding Ground-Breaking Musicians of Rock-N-Roll.His Music Here Represents His GreatNess&Importance to the World of Music.Maybellene,Johnny B.Goode,Roll Over Beethoven etc.. are timeless Classics.