Personnel includes: Chuck Berry (vocals, guitar); Martha Berry (vocals); Matt Murphy (guitar); L.C. Davis (tenor saxophone); Lafayette Leake, Johnny Johnson (piano); Chuck Bernard, G. Smith, Willie Dixon (bass); Fred Below, Eddie Hardy, Odie Payne, Jasper Thomas (drums).
Recorded in Chicago, Illinois between 1957 and 1964.
Personnel: Chuck Berry (vocals, electric guitar); Matt "Guitar" Murphy (guitar); L.C. Davis (tenor saxophone); Johnnie Johnson, Lafayette Leake (piano); Fred Below, Eddie Hardy, Odie Payne, Jasper Thomas (drums).
Recording information: Chicago, IL.
On this follow-up to The Great Twenty-Eight, the songs are familiar, but the versions are not. Delving into the Chess Records archives, producer Steve Hoffman has come up with 20 tracks, many in unreleased or unusual versions. Some are demos, some are stereo recordings of songs usually heard in mono. Hoffman has remixed many of them, bringing up the '50s and '60s sound quality to near-'80s standard. Start with The Great Twenty-Eight, but come to this collection for interesting new ways to hear the old Berry favorites. ~ William Ruhlmann
This is a well-chosen set of selections from Berry's voluminous Chess archives. Rather than going for multiple takes or trying to be complete in any regard, RARITIES presents itself as a well-sequenced program culled from recordings made between 1957 and 1964. It includes unreleased versions, stereo remixes and even a demo of "Reelin' & Rockin'." The sheer breadth of these songs still dazzles decades later. There are occasional solos, but this whole thing churns like a monstrous rhythm section rolling across the American landscape. "County Line" is relentless while "It Wasn't Me" struts on tiptoes. Of course you can't go wrong with Johnnie Johnson as your piano player and Willie Dixon as your bassist. If much of this sounds like the blueprint for everything that followed, it's because it is. minimize