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Chuck Berry - Ultimate Chuck Berry Audio CD

A fair review of the Chuck Berry "Ultimate Chuck Berry" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Chuck Berry reviews here, or go back to the Chuck Berry tabs.

Chuck Berry Band: Chuck Berry
Title: Ultimate Chuck Berry
Rating:
Release Date: 2007-05-14
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Maybellene 2: Wee Wee Hours 3: Thirty Days 4: No Money Down 5: Down Bound Train 6: Roll over Beethoven 7: Too Much Monkey Business 8: Brown Eyed Handsome Man 9: You Can't Catch Me 10: Havana Moon 11: School Day (Ring Ring Goes the Bell) 12: Oh Baby Doll 13: Rock and Roll Music 14: Sweet Little Sixteen 15: Reelin' and Rockin' 16: House of Blue Lights 17: Johnny B. Goode 18: Around and Around 19: Beautiful Delilah 20: Carol 21: Sweet Little Rock and Roller 22: Joe Joe Gunn 23: Merry Christmas Baby 24: Run Rudolph Run 25: Anthony Boy 26: Little Queenie 27: Almost Grown 28: Memphis Tennessee 29: Back in the U.S.A. 30: Childhood Sweetheart 31: Too Pooped to Pop 32: Let It Rock 33: Bye Bye Johnny 34: Mad Lad 35: Betty Jean 36: Down the Road Apiece 37: Jaguar and Thunderbird 38: I'm Talking About You 39: Route 66 40: Go Go Go 41: Come On 42: Nadine 43: No Particular Place to Go 44: You Never Can Tell 45: Go Bobby Soxer 46: Little Marie 47: Promised Land 48: Things I Used to Do 49: Dear Dad 50: Lonely School Days 51: It Wasn't Me 52: Tulane 53: Club Nitty Gritty 54: It Hurts Me Too 55: My Ding-A-Ling 56: Reeling and Rocking [1972 Re-Recording]

GREAT COLLECTION, BUT IGNORE THE WACKY AMAZON PRODUCT DESCRIPTION ABOVE
The tracklist above, however, is correct.
Contrary to the product description above, this is a three-disc CHUCK BERRY-ONLY compilation.

The audio on the Ultimate discs is virtually identical to that on the 2000 Anthology 2CD set, and the 2004 Chess remasters; it's very good.

However, on the "One Dozen Berrys" tracks, Universal's approach to the audio mastering, vs. BGO's mastering on their Berry 2-fer, could only be described as a chasm.

The Universal discs have the inherent reverb in the recordings toned down, which cuts into the highs, but isolates and emphasizes Berry's vocals a bit more.

The BGO discs are much brighter in sound, and the tick of the drumstick against the cymbal is more prevalent, but the reverb effect is much greater across the entire spectrum of sound; some people may find this tiring to the ear after a while.

More surprisingly, when the BGO comes to the "Juke Box Hits" portion of the disc, the audio is almost exactly the same as the Universal mastering, with a nod to the BGO for slight additional clarity.

So, for the "Dozen" tracks, it's a toss-up between the two mastering methodologies, and will ultimately come down to personal preference.

Back to this Ultimate set: In total number of tracks, it has six more than Anthology, and while there's much commonality between both sets, there are several songs that only appear on either (most notably, the two famous Christmas hits, are sorely missing on Anthology):

Anthology-only tracks:
Guitar Boogie
Do You Love Me
I Got To Find My Baby
Don't You Lie To Me
Confessin' The Blues
I Want To Be Your Driver

Ultimate-only tracks:
Merry Christmas Baby
Run Rudolph Run
Anthony Boy
Mad Lad
Route 66
Go Go Go
Go Bobby Soxer
Little Marie
Things I Used To Do
Lonely School Days
It Wasn't Me
Club Nitty Gritty

At this writing, the "used & new" price for the Ultimate 3CD set is actually lower than the Anthology set, which is now OOP. So, with the inclusion of the two Christmas hits, it's definitely the better deal.


You can see a complete list of all Chuck Berry discography, or go back to the Chuck Berry tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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