New Juke Box Hits

Description

Artist:

Chuck Berry

Label:

PAN AMERICAN

Genre:

Rock & Roll

Format:Vinyl LPReleased:17th May 2019Catalogue No:9152312Barcode:8436563182600

Description:

This essential collectors edition includes the largely forgotten yet outstanding LP New Juke Box Hits, which was originally released by Chess Records in March 1961. Although the album was recorded in the midst of the legal difficulties that would put him in jail the following year, that distraction did not prevent Berry from composing top-flight material. It features him celebrating the work of contemporaries B.B. King, Nat King Cole, and Little Richard, alongside nine of his own tunes. Theres a quaintness to early rock & rolls lyrics, but Berrys guitar work (his distinctive, trebly licks and the straight forward single coil chords atop that driving shuffle rhythm) shows us why he was such a great influence. All of the songs boast the classic Berry guitar sound, yet each tune is unique. The immortal Route 66 was a big hit for Nat King Cole in the mid-40s, and has been a semi-standard ever since. One of the highlights of the album is Berrys cover of Little Richards Rip It Up, because the song has been pared down from the heavy brass of the original to its rock & roll essence: guitar, bass and drums. New Juke Box Hits is a perfect album to delve a little deeper into Chuck Berrys superlative legacy. In addition to this original masterpiece, we have included 4 bonus tracks, consisting of sides from the same period: Come On (which would be covered by The Rolling Stones for their debut single two years later), County Line, Go Go Go, and Back in the U.S.A.