Chuck Berry – Christmas With Chuck Berry (2017)

Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the “Father of Rock and Roll”, he refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive with songs such as “Maybellene” (1955), “Roll Over Beethoven” (1956), “Rock and Roll Music” (1957) and “Johnny B. Goode” (1958). Writing lyrics that focused on teen life and consumerism, and developing a music style that included guitar solos and showmanship, Berry was a major influence on subsequent rock music.

Born into a middle-class African-American family in St. Louis, Berry had an interest in music from an early age and gave his first public performance at Sumner High School. While still a high school student he was convicted of armed robbery and was sent to a reformatory, where he was held from 1944 to 1947. After his release, Berry settled into married life and worked at an automobile assembly plant. By early 1953, influenced by the guitar riffs and showmanship techniques of the blues musician T-Bone Walker, Berry began performing with the Johnnie Johnson Trio.[3] His break came when he traveled to Chicago in May 1955 and met Muddy Waters, who suggested he contact Leonard Chess, of Chess Records. With Chess, he recorded “Maybellene”—Berry’s adaptation of the country song “Ida Red”—which sold over a million copies, reaching number one on Billboard magazine’s rhythm and blues chart.

By the end of the 1950s, Berry was an established star, with several hit records and film appearances and a lucrative touring career. He had also established his own St. Louis nightclub, Berry’s Club Bandstand. He was sentenced to three years in prison in January 1962 for offenses under the Mann Act—he had transported a 14-year-old girl across state lines. After his release in 1963, Berry had several more successful songs, including “No Particular Place to Go”, “You Never Can Tell”, and “Nadine”. However, these did not achieve the same success or lasting impact of his 1950s songs, and by the 1970s he was more in demand as a nostalgic performer, playing his past material with local backup bands of variable quality. In 1972 he reached a new level of achievement when a rendition of “My Ding-a-Ling” became his only record to top the charts. His insistence on being paid in cash led in 1979 to a four-month jail sentence and community service, for tax evasion.

Berry was among the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on its opening in 1986; he was cited for having “laid the groundwork for not only a rock and roll sound but a rock and roll stance.” Berry is included in several of Rolling Stone magazine’s “greatest of all time” lists; he was ranked fifth on its 2004 and 2011 lists of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[9] The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll includes three of Berry’s: “Johnny B. Goode”, “Maybellene”, and “Rock and Roll Music”.[10] Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” is the only rock-and-roll song included on the Voyager Golden Record. (wikipedia)

And here are 4 fine Christmas by Chuck Berry, most of them in a sentimental mood … bluesy…

Personnel:
Chuck Berry (guitar, vocals)
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a bunch of unknown studio musicians

Alternate frontcover:

Tracklist:
01. Run Rudolph Run (Single Version) (Marks/Brodel/Berry) 2.43
02. Christmas (unknown) 3.26
03. Merry Christmas Baby (Single Version) (Baxter/Moore) 3:12
04. Spending Christmas (Berry) 2:09

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Out of all the reindeers, you know you’re the mastermind
Run, run Rudolph, Randalph ain’t too far behind
Run, run Rudolph, Santa’s got to make it to town
Santa make him hurry, tell him he can take the freeway down
Run, run Rudolph cause I’m reeling like a merry-go-round

Said Santa to a boy “Child, what have you been longing for?”
“All I want for Christmas is a Rock and Roll electric guitar”
And then away went Rudolph whizzing like a shooting star

Run, run Rudolph, Santa has to make it to town
Santa make him hurry, tell him he can take the freeway down
Run, run Rudolph, reeling like a merry-go-round

Run, run Rudolph, Santa’s got to make it to town
Santa make him hurry, tell him he can take the freeway down
Run, run Rudolph, I’m reeling like a merry-go-round

Said Santa to a girl “Child, what would please you most to get?”
“A little baby doll that can cry, sleep, drink and wet”
And then away went Rudolph, whizzing like a Saber jet

More from Chuck Berry:

Chuck Berry – Is On Top (1959)

Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. Nicknamed the “Father of Rock and Roll”, Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive with songs such as “Maybellene” (1955), “Roll Over Beethoven” (1956), “Rock and Roll Music” (1957) and “Johnny B. Goode” (1958). Writing lyrics that focused on teen life and consumerism, and developing a music style that included guitar solos and showmanship, Berry was a major influence on subsequent rock music.

Born into a middle-class African-American family in St. Louis, Missouri, Berry had an interest in music from an early age and gave his first public performance at Sumner High School. While still a high school student he was convicted of armed robbery and was sent to a reformatory, where he was held from 1944 to 1947. After his release, Berry settled into married life and worked at an automobile assembly plant. By early 1953, influenced by the guitar riffs and showmanship techniques of the blues musician T-Bone Walker, Berry began performing with the Johnnie Johnson Trio. His break came when he traveled to Chicago in May 1955 and met Muddy Waters, who suggested he contact Leonard Chess, of Chess Records. With Chess, he recorded “Maybellene”—Berry’s adaptation of the country song “Ida Red”—which sold over a million copies, reaching number one on Billboard magazine’s rhythm and blues chart.

By the end of the 1950s, Berry was an established star, with several hit records and film appearances and a lucrative touring career. He had also established his own St. Louis nightclub, Berry’s Club Bandstand. He was sentenced to three years in prison in January 1962 for offenses under the Mann Act—he had transported a 14-year-old girl across state lines. After his release in 1963, Berry had several more hits, including “No Particular Place to Go”, “You Never Can Tell”, and “Nadine”. But these did not achieve the same success, or lasting impact, of his 1950s songs, and by the 1970s he was more in demand as a nostalgic performer, playing his past hits with local backup bands of variable quality. In 1972 he reached a new level of achievement when a rendition of “My Ding-a-Ling” became his only record to top the charts. His insistence on being paid in cash led in 1979 to a four-month jail sentence and community service, for tax evasion.

Berry was among the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on its opening in 1986; he was cited for having “laid the groundwork for not only a rock and roll sound but a rock and roll stance.” Berry is included in several of Rolling Stone magazine’s “greatest of all time” lists; he was ranked fifth on its 2004 and 2011 lists of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll includes three of Berry’s: “Johnny B. Goode”, “Maybellene”, and “Rock and Roll Music”. Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” is the only rock-and-roll song included on the Voyager Golden Record.

Chuck Berry Is on Top is the third studio album by rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry, released in July 1959 on Chess Records, catalogue LP 1435. With the exception of one track, “Blues for Hawaiians,” all selections had been previously released on 45 rpm singles, several of which were double-sided and charted twice. (wikipedia)

If you had to sweat all of Chuck Berry’s early albums on Chess (and some, but not all, of his subsequent greatest-hits packages), this would be the one to own. The song lineup is exemplary, cobbling together classics like “Maybellene,” “Carol,” “Sweet Little Rock & Roller,” “Little Queenie,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Around and Around,” “Johnny B. Goode,” and “Almost Grown.” With the addition of the Latin-flavored “Hey Pedro,” the steel guitar workout “Blues for Hawaiians,” “Anthony Boy,” and “Jo Jo Gunne,” this serves as almost a mini-greatest-hits package in and of itself. While this may be merely a collection of singles and album ballast (as were most rock & roll LPs of the 1950s and early ’60s), it ends up being the most perfectly realized of Chuck Berry’s career. (by Cub Koda)

Personnel:
Fred Below (drums)
Chuck Berry (vocals, guitar)
Bo Diddley (guitar)
Willie Dixon (bass)
Jerome Green (maracas)
Ebbie Hardy (drums)
Johnnie Johnson (piano)
Lafayette Leake (piano)
George Smith (bass)
Jaspar Thomas (drums)
+
The Moonglows (background vocals)

Tracklist:
01. Almost Grown 2.23
02. Carol 2.49
03. Maybellene 2.23
04. Sweet Little Rock & Roller 2.23
05. Anthony Boy 1.54
06. Johnny B. Goode 2.42
07. Little Queenie 2.44
08. Jo Jo Gunne 2.48
09. Roll Over Beethoven 2.25
10. Around And Around 2.42
11. Hey Pedro 1.57
12. Blues For Hawaiians 3.25

All songs written by Chuck Berry

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More Chuck Berry:

Various Artists – Pulp Fiction (OST) (1994)

Music from the Motion Picture Pulp Fiction is the soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 film Pulp Fiction. No traditional film score was commissioned for Pulp Fiction. The film contains a mix of American rock and roll, surf music, pop and soul. The soundtrack is equally untraditional, consisting of nine songs from the movie, four tracks of dialogue snippets followed by a song, and three tracks of dialogue alone. Seven songs featured in the movie were not included in the original 41-minute soundtrack.

The album reached No. 21 on the Billboard 200, while Urge Overkill’s cover of the Neil Diamond song “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” peaked at No. 59 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Tarantino used an eclectic assortment of songs by various artists. Notable songs include Dick Dale’s now-iconic rendition of “Misirlou”, which is played during the opening credits. Tarantino chose surf music for the basic score of the film because, “it just seems like rock ‘n’ roll Ennio Morricone music, rock ‘n’ roll spaghetti Western music.”

Many of the songs on the soundtrack were suggested to Tarantino by musician Boyd Rice through their mutual friend Allison Anders, including Dick Dale’s “Misirlou”. Other songs were suggested to Tarantino by his friends Chuck Kelley and Laura Lovelace, who were credited as music consultants. Lovelace also appeared in the film as Laura the waitress.

In addition to the surf-rock rendition of “Misirlou”, other notable songs include “Jungle Boogie” by Kool & the Gang, Dusty Springfield’s version of “Son of a Preacher Man”, “Flowers on the Wall” by the Statler Brothers and “Bustin’ Surfboards” by The Tornadoes, from 1962, which had been one of the first instrumental surf songs to hit the United States music charts after notables such as “Walk–Don’t Run” by the Ventures.

Excerpts of dialogue include Jules’ “Ezekiel 25:17” speech and the “Royale with Cheese” exchange between Jules and Vincent.

A two-disc collector’s edition of the album was issued in 2002 — the first disc contained the songs, including four additional tracks; and the second disc was a spoken-word interview with Tarantino.

Woody Thorne’s 1961 song “Teenagers in Love” and Link Wray’s 1965 single “Rumble” are two of the three songs missing from the collector’s edition soundtrack. The last song is unique to the movie: it is Ricky Nelson’s “Waitin’ In School” as performed by the actor Gary Shorelle, which plays as Vincent and Mia enter Jackrabbit Slim’s.

The soundtrack reached No. 21 on the Billboard 200, and at the time, went platinum (100,000 units) in Canada alone. By November 12, 1994, total sales of more than 1.6 million were reached and by 1996 over 2 million units had been sold. In 1995 the soundtrack reached No. 6 on the charts according to SoundScan.

The soundtrack helped launch the band Urge Overkill, which covered Neil Diamond’s “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” (produced by Kramer) in 1993, into a mainstream market. Sony “received a nice sum” for “Son of a Preacher Man” and Kool & The Gang enjoyed a resurgence when “Jungle Boogie” was released on the soundtrack.

The Orange County Register described why the soundtrack of Pulp Fiction stood out from all the others: “Unlike so many soundtracks, which just seem to be repositories for stray songs by hit acts regardless of whether they fit the film’s mood, Tarantino’s use of music in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction exploded with a brash, Technicolor, pop-culture intensity that mirrored the stories he was telling.” Karyn Rachtman was the music supervisor on both Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.

Analyzing the success of Tarantino’s marketing, Billboard chalked up MCA’s compilation to identifying the market niche: “Pulp Fiction…successfully spoke to those attuned to the hip, stylized nature of those particular films.” The eclectic “mix-and-match strategy” is true to the film. “In some cases, like Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, which were not geared toward any specific demographic, the soundtracks were still very focused albums,” said Kathy Nelson, senior VP/general manager at MCA Soundtracks. “In both cases, the body of work — both the music and the film — has a specific personality.”[12]

In 1997, Gary Thompson of The Philadelphia Inquirer said that Pulp Fiction “reinvigorated surf rock”. That statement would be defining for Del-Fi Records, owned by legendary producer Bob Keane; the Pulp Fiction soundtrack contained two songs that were originally released on Del-Fi: Bullwinkle Pt II by The Centurions, and Surf Rider by The Lively Ones. Del-Fi Records released a compilation CD in 1995 entitled Pulp Surfin’ featuring songs by those bands plus sixteen other surf tracks from the vaults. The cover artwork was yet another parody of the Pulp Fiction movie poster.

Inspired by the soundtrack, advertisers started to use surf music in their commercials “to help sell everything from burritos to toothpaste”, making surf music hugely popular again.

More than two years after the film was released, the influence and monetary success was still being felt in the industry. “Mundane commercials using Dick Dale ’60s surf licks, the kind made popular again by the Pulp Fiction soundtrack…following a trend — in this case, a two-year-old hit movie.” (by wikipedia)

The soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino’s darkly funny crime classic Pulp Fiction manages to re-create the film’s wildly careening sense of style, violence, and humor by concentrating on the surf music that comprises the bulk of the movie’s incidental music and adding a few sexy oldies integral to the film’s story (“Let’s Stay Together,” “Son of a Preacher Man,” “You Never Can Tell”). Of course, the inclusion of dialogue and Urge Overkill’s seductive cover of Neil Diamond’s “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” doesn’t hurt either. /by Stephen Thomas Erlewine)

Okay, boys and girls, this is trash, but what a wonderful trash !

Tracklist:
01.1. Amanda Plummer + Tim Roth: Pumpkin And Honey Bunny (dialogue) (Tarantino)
01.2. Dick Dale & His Del-Tones: Misirlou (Wise/Leeds/Roubanis/Russell) 2.30
02. John Travolta + Samuel L. Jackson: No Artist Royale With Cheese (dialogue) (Tarantino) 1.45
03. Kool & The Gang: Jungle Boogie (Smith/Thomas/Boyce/Brown/Westfield/Robert Bell/Mickens/Ronald Bell) 3.07
04. Al Green: Let’s Stay Together (Mitchell/Green/Jackson Jr.) 3.17
05. The Tornadoes: Bustin’ Surfboards (G.Sanders/JSanders/Delaney/N.Sanders) 2.29
06. Ricky Nelson: Lonesome Town (Knight) 2.15
07. Dusty Springfield: Son Of A Preacher Man (Hurley/Wilkins) 2.28
08.1. Bruce Willis + Marie De Medeiros: Zed’s Dead, Baby (dialogue) (Tarantino)
08.2. The Centurians: Bullwinkle Part II  (Rose/Furrow) 2.31
09.1. Rabbit Slims: Twist Contest (dialogue) (Tarantino)
09.2. Chuck Berry: You Never Can Tell (Berry) 3.14
10. Urge Overkill: Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon (Diamond) 3.10
11. Maria McKee: If Love Is A Red Dress (Hang Me In Rags) (McKee) 4.57
12.1. Duane Whitaker + Peter Greene: Bring Out The Gimp (dialogue) (Tarantino)
12.2. The Revels: Comanche (Hafner) 2.12
13. The Statler Brothers: Flowers On The Wall (DeWitt) 2.25
14. John Travolta + Samuel L. Jackson: Personality Goes A Long Way (dialogue) (Tarantino) 1.03
15. The Lively Ones: Surf Rider (Wilson/Edwards/Bogle) 3.20
16. Samuel L. Jackson: Ezekiel 25 – 17 (dialogue) (Tarantino) 0.52

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Chuck Berry – St. Louis To Liverpool (1964)

St. Louis to Liverpool is the seventh studio album and tenth album overall by rock and roll artist Chuck Berry, released in 1964 on Chess Records, catalogue number 1488. It peaked at number 124 on the Billboard album chart, the first of Berry’s studio albums to appear on the chart. Music critic Dave Marsh named it “one of the greatest rock & roll records ever made”.

On October 18, 1963, Berry was released from prison after having spent 20 months incarcerated owing to conviction on a charge under the Mann Act. During his time in prison, emerging rock groups had found inspiration in his work. The Beach Boys had based their number 3 hit single “Surfin’ U.S.A.” on his “Sweet Little Sixteen”; the Beatles had included “Roll Over Beethoven” on their second American album;[5] the debut single in the United Kingdom by the Rolling Stones was their cover of “Come On,” and they had included “Carol” on their first American album, England’s Newest Hitmakers.

Wishing to capitalize on his popularity during the British Invasion, Berry and Chess Records fashioned this album to appeal to young buyers. St. Louis to Liverpool includes four of the five charting singles he enjoyed in 1964, the final year he would have multiple records appearing on the Billboard Hot 100: “No Particular Place to Go,” “You Never Can Tell,” “Promised Land,” and “Little Marie,” a sequel to “Memphis, Tennessee.” The additional eight tracks included the four b-sides of those singles; “Our Little Rendezvous,” a b-side from 1960; a previously unreleased alternate take of his 1958 Christmas single “Merry Christmas Baby”; an instrumental outtake from a 1950s session; and “Liverpool Drive,” a recent instrumental.

On April 13, 2004, the Chronicles division of the Universal Music Group remastered the album for compact disc with three bonus tracks as part of its 50th anniversary commemorative of Chess Records, including “O’Rangutang,” the flip side of the fifth of his 1964 charting singles “Nadine (Is It You?),” and a track that had appeared on the 1990 rarities album Missing Berries. In 2008, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab reissued the album with Chuck Berry Is on Top on an Ultradisc II Gold compact disc. (by wikipedia)

This album puts the lie to the popular myth that Chuck Berry’s music started to fade away around the same time that the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, et al. emerged covering his stuff. His songwriting is as strong here as ever — side one is packed with now-familiar fare like “Little Marie” (a sequel to “Memphis, Tennessee”), “No Particular Place to Go,” “Promised Land,” and “You Never Can Tell,” but even filler tracks like “Our Little Rendezvous” and “You Two” are among Berry’s better album numbers, the latter showing off the slightly softer pop/R&B side to his music that many listeners forget about. Side two includes a bunch of tracks, including the hard-rocking “Go Bobby Soxer” and the even better “Brenda Lee,” the slow blues “Things I Used to Do” (with a killer guitar break), and the instrumentals “Liverpool Drive” and “Night Beat,” one fast and the other slow, that never get reissued or compiled anywhere. (by Bruce Eder)

Personnel:
Fred Below (drums on 10, + 11.)
Chuck Berry (vocals, guitar)
Leroy C. Davis (saxophone on 02., 06., 13, + 14.)
Willie Dixon (bass on 02., 06., 13. + 14.)
Ebby Hardy or Jaspar Thomas (drums on 02.)
Johnnie Johnson (piano on 02., 06., 08., 11. 13. – 15.)
Lafayette Leake (piano on 05., 10. + 12.)
Matt “Guitar” Murphy (guitar on 02.)
Odie Payne (drums)
James Robinson (saxophone on 06., 13. – 14.)
Paul Williams (piano on 03., 04. + 09.)

Tracklist:
01. Little Marie (Berry) 2.37
02. Our Little Rendezvous (Berry) 2-03
03. No Particular Place To Go 2.44
04. You Two (Berry) 2.11
05. Promised Land (Berry) 2.24
06. You Never Can Tell (Berry) 2.43
07. Go Bobby Soxer (Berry) 3.00
08. Things I Used To Do (Jones) 2.42
09. Liverpool Drive (instrumental) 2.56
10. Night Beat (instrumental) 2.46
11. Merry Christmas Baby (Baxter/Moore) 3:14
12. Brenda Lee (Berry) 2.15
+
13. Fraulein (Williams)  2.51
14. O’Rangutang (instrumental) (Berry) 3.02
15. The Little Girl From Central (early version of “Brenda Lee”)  (Berry) 2.39

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Chuck Berry – The London Chuck Berry Session (1972)

The London Chuck Berry Sessions is an album of studio recordings and live recordings by Chuck Berry, released by Chess Records in October 1972. Side one of the album consists of studio recordings, engineered by Geoff Calver; side two features three live performances recorded by the Pye Mobile Unit, engineered by Alan Perkins, on February 3, 1972, at the Lanchester Arts Festival in Coventry, England. At the end of the live section, the recording includes the sounds of festival management trying in vain to get the audience to leave so that the next performers, Pink Floyd, can take the stage; the crowd begins chanting “We want Chuck!”

“My Ding-a-Ling”, from the live side of the album, was edited to approximately 4 minutes for release as a single. It was Berry’s first and only single to reach number 1 in both the US and the UK.

In May 1970, Howlin’ Wolf traveled to Olympic Sound Studios in London, England, to record songs for The London Howlin’ Wolf Sessions. The album was released in August 1971[6] and peaked at number 28 on Billboard magazine’s R&B Albums chart and number 79 on the Billboard 200. Because of Wolf’s success, Muddy Waters recorded his own London Sessions album in December 1971, and Berry did the same in 1972.

The album was not even out for a month, when on October 27, 1972, The London Chuck Berry Sessions was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America with sales of 1,000,000 units. It is Berry’s only album to be certified by the RIAA  (by wikipedia)

One-half of this album is a studio recording featuring Ian McLagan and Kenny Jones of the Faces. The other half is a live recording from the Lancaster Arts Festival in Coventry, England, featuring performances of “My Ding-a-Ling” and “Reelin’ and Rockin'” that, in edited form, became the first hit singles for Chuck Berry in many years. (“My Ding-a-Ling” went gold and hit #1.) This gold-selling, Top Ten album represents Berry’s commercial, if not artistic, peak. (by William Ruhlmann)

But .. on this album we can hear the best version of “Reelin’ And Rockin'” … a male fantasy of omnipotence …

And his version of “My Ding-a-Ling” is another song by Chuck Berry … and his version is very hot:

The lyrics with their sly tone and innuendo (and the enthusiasm of Berry and the audience) caused many radio stations to refuse to play it. British morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse tried unsuccessfully to get the song banned. “One teacher,” Whitehouse wrote to the BBC’s Director General, “told us of how she found a class of small boys with their trousers undone, singing the song and giving it the indecent interpretation which—in spite of all the hullabaloo—is so obvious … We trust you will agree with us that it is no part of the function of the BBC to be the vehicle of songs which stimulate this kind of behaviour—indeed quite the reverse.”

In Icons of Rock, Scott Schinder calls the song “a sophomoric, double-entendre-laden ode to masturbation”. Robert Christgau remarked that the song “permitted a lot of twelve-year-olds new insight into the moribund concept of ‘dirty'”.

Berry refers to the song on the recording as “our alma mater

Personnel:
Chuck Berry (vocals, guitar)
Derek Griffiths (guitar on 01. – 05.)
Kenney Jones (drums on 01. – 05.)
Dave Kaffinetti (piano on 06. -09.)
Robbie McIntosh (drums on 06. – 09.)
Onnie Owen McIntyre (guitar on 06. – 09.)
Ian McLagan (piano on 06. – 09.)
Nic Potter (bass on 06. – 09.)

Tracklist:

Side one (studio recordings):
01. Let’s Boogie (Berry) 3.11
02. Mean Old World (Walter) 5.48
03. I Will Not Let You Go (Berry) 2.51
04. London Berry Blues (Berry) 6.00
05. I Love You (Berry) 3.26

Side two (live recordings):
06. Reelin’ And Rockin’ (Berry) 7.07
07. My Ding-a-Ling (Bartholomew) 11.34
08. Johnny B. Goode (& Closing) (Berry) 4.21
+
09. My Ding-a-Ling (single edition) (Bartholomew) 4.22

(This version of “Johnny B. Goode” replaces the first verse of the original with the first verse of “Bye Bye Johnny”.)

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Various Artists – Jingle Bell Rock (1987)

And here´s a nice sampler withRok N Roll and Soul songs about Christmas, publish  by Time Life. And this sampler was a part of the “The Rock N Roll Era”.

Time-Life’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Era: Jingle Bell Rock collects 25 classic tracks of the holiday genre including “Run, Rudolph, Run” (Chuck Berry), “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” (the Jackson 5), “Jingle Bell Rock” (Bobby Helms), “Sleigh Ride” (the Ventures) and “Step into Christmas” (Elton John). Many of these artists will appeal to a broad range of ages, making it perfect for family gatherings. (by Al Campbell)

in 1987, I guess I was bitten by the same CD buying bug that many were: I bought into the Time-Life “Rock ‘n’ Roll Era” series of CDs. Thankfully I found that the musical selection on these were fine for my purposes, although the sound often suffered a bit. It did enable me to amass a good collection of “oldies” that I otherwise never would have bought. One surprising favorite came my way during the holidays–the compilation Jingle Bell Rock. A couple of the Motown tracks need to be skipped (the Temptations’ “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” is narcoleptic at best), but for the most part it is a very enjoyable and crowd-pleasing collection of holiday favorites.

On here are tracks by Jan and Dean (“Frosty the Snowman”, rescued from obscurity), The Ventures (“Sleigh Ride”), Jack Scott (“There’s Trouble Brewin’”), The O’Jays (“Christmas Ain’t Christmas Without The One You Love”) and Dodie Stevens (“Merry, Merry Christmas Baby”). The usual suspects are here also (“JIngle Bell Rock”, “Run, Rudolph Run” and “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”) and Elton John’s “Step into Christmas” finishes out the disc with the most recent song in the collection. (by rudyscorner.com)

Tracklist:
01. Bobby Helms: Jingle Bell Rock (Boothe/Beal) 2.08
02. Chuck Berry: Run, Rudolph, Run (Berry) 2.43
03. Otis Redding: Merry Christmas Baby (Moore/Baxter) 2.29
04. Smokey Robinson And The Miracles: Go Tell It On The Mountain (Traditional) 3.40
05. The Supremes: My Favorite Things (Hammerstein/Rodgers) 2.45
06. The Drifters: White Christmas (Berlin) 2.35
07. The Beach Boys: The Man With All The Toys (Wilson) 1.30
08. Booker T. And The MG’s: Jingle Bells (Pierpont) 2.27
09. The Temptations: Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (Marks) 2.55
10. Carla Thomas: Gee Whiz, It’s Christmas (Thomas/Cropper) 2.38
11. The Jackson 5: Someday At Christmas (Wells/Mills) 2.38
12. Jan And Dean: Frosty The Snow Man (Rollins/Nelson) 2.04
13. King Curtis: The Christmas Song (Tormé/Wells) 2.55
14. Brenda Lee: Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree (Marks) 2.03
15. Smokey Robinson And The Miracles: Medley: Deck The Halls / Bring A Torch (Traditional) 3.55
16. Marvin & Johnny: It’s Christmas (Josea/Phillips) 2.14
17. The Temptations: My Christmas Tree (Webb) 3.05
18. The Ventures: Sleigh Ride (Anderson) 2.20
19. The O’Jays: Christmas Ain’t Christmas Without The One You Love (Gamble/Huff) 2.12
20. The Jackson 5: I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (Connor) 2.59
21. Jack Scott: There’s Trouble Brewin’ (Veronica) 2.22
22. Dodie Stevens: Merry, Merry Christmas Baby (Lopez/Sylvia) 2.11
23. Aretha Franklin: Winter Wonderland (Smith/Bernard) 2.09
24. Donny Hathaway: This Christmas (Hathaway/McKinnor) 3.26
25. Elton John: Step Into Christmas (John/Taupin) 4.22

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Chuck Berry – After School Session (1957)

Chuck Berry, who with his indelible guitar licks, brash self-confidence and memorable songs about cars, girls and wild dance parties did as much as anyone to define rock ’n’ roll’s potential and attitude in its early years, died on Saturday. He was 90.

The St. Charles County Police Department in Missouri confirmed his death on its Facebook page. The department said it responded to a medical emergency at a home and he was declared dead after lifesaving measures were unsuccessful.

While Elvis Presley was rock’s first pop star and teenage heartthrob, Mr. Berry was its master theorist and conceptual genius, the songwriter who understood what the kids wanted before they did themselves. With songs like “Johnny B. Goode” and “Roll Over Beethoven,” he gave his listeners more than they knew they were getting from jukebox entertainment.

His guitar lines wired the lean twang of country and the bite of the blues into phrases with both a streamlined trajectory and a long memory. And tucked into the lighthearted, telegraphic narratives that he sang with such clear enunciation was a sly defiance, upending convention to claim the pleasures of the moment.

In “Sweet Little Sixteen,” “You Can’t Catch Me” and other songs, Mr. Berry invented rock as a music of teenage wishes fulfilled and good times (even with cops in pursuit). In “Promised Land,” “Too Much Monkey Business” and “Brown Eyed Handsome Man,” he celebrated and satirized America’s opportunities and class tensions. His rock ’n’ roll was a music of joyful lusts, laughed-off tensions and gleefully shattered icons. (by Jon Parles, The New York Times)

Chuck Berry’s music has transcended generations. He earns respect to this day because he is truly an entertainer. Berry, also known as “The Father of Rock & Roll,” gained success by watching the audience’s reaction and playing accordingly, putting his listeners’ amusement above all else. For this reason, tunes like “Johnny B. Goode,” “Maybellene” and “Memphis” have become anthems to an integrated American youth and popular culture. Berry is a musical icon who established rock and roll as a musical form and brought the worlds of black and white together in song.

Born in St. Louis on October 18, 1926 Berry had many influences on his life that shaped his musical style. He emulated the smooth vocal clarity of his idol, Nat King Cole, while playing blues songs from bands like Muddy Waters. For his first stage performance, Berry chose to sing a Jay McShann song called “Confessin’ the Blues.” It was at his high school’s student musical performance, when the blues was well-liked but not considered appropriate for such an event. He got a thunderous applause for his daring choice, and from then on, Berry had to be onstage.

Berry took up the guitar after that, inspired by his partner in the school production. He found that if he learned rhythm changes and blues chords, he could play most of the popular songs on the radio at the time. His friend, Ira Harris, showed him techniques on the guitar that would become the foundation of Berry’s original sound. Then in 1952, he began playing guitar and singing in a club band whose song list ranged from blues to ballads to calypso to country. Berry was becoming an accomplished showman, incorporating gestures and facial expressions to go with the lyrics.

It was in 1953 that Chuck Berry joined the Sir John’s Trio (eventually renamed the Chuck Berry Combo), which played the popular Cosmopolitan Club in St. Louis. Country-western music was big at the time, so Berry decided to use some of the riffs and create his own unique hillbilly sound. The black audience thought he was crazy at first, but couldn’t resist trying to dance along with it. Since country was popular with white people, they began to come to the shows, and the audience was at some points almost 40 percent white. Berry’s stage show antics were getting attention, but the other band members did their parts as well. In his own words: “I would slur my strings to make a passage that Johnnie (Johnson) could not produce with piano keys but the answer would be so close that he would get a tremendous ovation. His answer would sound similar to some that Jerry Lee Lewis’s fingers later began to flay.”

Later in 1955, Berry went on a road trip to Chicago, where he chanced upon a club where his idol, Muddy Waters, was performing. He arrived late and only heard the last song, but when it was over he got the attention of Waters and asked him who to see about making a record. Waters replied, “Yeah, Leonard Chess. Yeah, Chess Records over on Forty-seventh and Cottage.” Berry went there on Monday and discovered it was a blues label where greats like Howlin’ Wolf and Bo Diddley recorded. He didn’t have any tapes to show, but Chess was willing to listen if he brought some back from St. Louis. So Berry went home and recorded some originals, including the would-be “Maybellene,” then called “Ida May,” and drove back to Chicago later that week to audition. Much to Berry’s surprise, it was that hillbilly number that caught Chess’ attention. Berry was signed to Chess Records and in the summer of 1955, “Maybellene” reached #5 on the Pop Charts and #1 on the R&B Charts. Through Chuck Berry, Chess Records moved from the R&B genre into the mainstream and Berry himself was on his way to stardom.

Berry continued his success with such hits as “Brown-Eyed Man,” “Too Much Monkey Business,” “Memphis,” “Roll Over, Beethoven!” and “Johnny B. Goode.” “Johnny B. Goode” is Berry’s masterpiece, as it brought together all the elements of Berry’s unique musical sound. It cemented his place in rock history and led to fame in the 1950s. His popularity garnered him television and movie appearances and he toured frequently.

Berry’s incredible success is due to his ability to articulate the concerns and attitudes of his audience in his music. At the height of his success, Berry was a 30-year-old black man singing to a mostly white, teenage audience. Dubbed the “Eternal Teenager,” Chuck Berry’s knowledge of the pop market made it possible for him to break color barriers and play to an integrated audience.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Berry’s music was the inspiration for such groups as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Berry had a number of comeback recordings and in 1972 had the first and only #1 Pop Chart hit of his career with “My Ding-A-Ling. 1986 fittingly saw him inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the very first inductee in history. As a tribute to his pervasiveness in the realm of rock, a clip of “Johnny B. Goode” was chosen played in the Voyager I spacecraft, proving Chuck Berry and his rock legacy are truly out of this world. (taken from his Website)

After School Session is Chuck Berry’s debut album, released in May 1957 (see 1957 in music) by Chess Records as LP 1426. It was the second LP record released by Chess.

The first song on the original version of After School Session to be released was “Wee Wee Hours”, the B-side of “Maybellene”, issued in July 1955. It peaked at number 10 on Billboard magazine’s R&B Singles chart. The next song to be released was “Together We Will Always Be”, the B-side of “Thirty Days”, in September 1955. The next two songs released were “No Money Down” backed with “Down Bound Train”, in December 1955, the former peaking at number 8 on the R&B Singles chart. In May 1956, “Drifting Heart” was released as the B-side of “Roll Over Beethoven”. Berry’s next single, “Too Much Monkey Business” backed with “Brown Eyed Handsome Man”, was released in September 1956; these songs reached number 4 and number 5 on the R&B Singles chart, respectively. “Havana Moon”, the B-side of “You Can’t Catch Me”, was released in November 1956. The last single from the album to be released was “School Day (Ring Ring Goes the Bell)” backed with “Deep Feeling”, in March 1957, with the former reaching number 1 on the R&B Singles chart and number 3 on the Hot 100.

The songs on After School Session were taken from Berry’s first five sessions for Leonard and Phil Chess. “Wee Wee Hours” was the first to be recorded, on May 21, 1955. “Together (We’ll Always Be)” was recorded in September 1955. At the next session, on December 20, 1955, Berry recorded “Roly Poly” (also known as “Rolli Polli”), “No Money Down”, “Berry Pickin'”, and “Down Bound Train”. The third session was on April 16, 1956, when he recorded “Too Much Monkey Business”, “Brown Eyed Handsome Man”, and “Drifting Heart”. “Havana Moon” was recorded on October 29, 1956. The last session took place on January 21, 1957, when he recorded “School Days” and “Deep Feeling”.(by wikipedia)

Chuck Berry’s debut LP (60 years old !!!) is fairly strong musically, as well as having a really cool cover (a still shot of Berry, guitar slung in front of him, from the movie Rock, Rock, Rock!). After School Session was just the second long-player ever issued by Chess — only the soundtrack to the movie Rock, Rock, Rock! preceded it. This May 1957 release made Berry something of a late-bloomer among rock & roll’s foundation performers — he’d had his first recording session two years earlier, in May of 1955, and by the spring of 1957, Bill Haley already had a handful of LPs to his credit, Elvis Presley was gaining on him, and Clyde McPhatter’s version of the Drifters was represented on album, with numerous others soon to join their ranks. Berry had actually enjoyed only two major pop (i.e. rock as opposed to R&B) chart hits at the time: “Maybellene” in the summer of 1955, and “Roll Over Beethoven,” which had just made the Top 30 in the summer of 1956. It was “School Day,” the lead-off track here, that heralded his successful 18-month assault on the Top 40, opening a string of hits that included “Rock and Roll Music,” “Sweet Little Sixteen,” “Johnny B. Goode,” and “Carol,” and resulted in the release of After School Session — the title offers curious multiple meanings, incidentally, intended to attract Berry’s teen audience in the most innocent of terms (in connection with the rock & roll cuts), but also subtly invoking more daring “extra-curricular” activity in its blues and ballads, and older, post-teen concerns.

In those days, as a policy, Chess’ rock & roll and blues LPs were comprised of previously existing single sides, and, thus, beyond the current single, the songs leap wildly across different sounds and styles — impromptu blues (“Deep Feeling”), and dance (“Roly Poly,” “Berry Pickin'”), instrumentals are interspersed with a trio of rock & roll jewels, “Too Much Monkey Business” and “No Money Down,” with their accents on the joys and textures of teenage life, which somehow didn’t catch on among mainstream listeners as singles, and the piercing, provocative “Brown Eyed Handsome Man,” which showed how easily Berry could broach sensitive or provocative material if it were masked by a hot enough beat and loud enough guitar, bass, and drums; and we take detours into blues (“Wee Wee Hours,” “Downbound Train”), ballads (“Together (We’ll Always Be),” “Drifting Heart”), and even calypso music (“Havana Moon”). All of it was recorded in four separate sessions spread across almost two years; the rock & roll numbers and the guitar-driven instrumentals out-class most of the blues and ballads, but there’s nothing here that could be classed as “filler,” either — a lot of British Invasion bands wore out copies of these same sides learning their basic repertory, and domestic roots rockers could have done worse than to listen to “Downbound Train” or “No Money Down.” (by Bruce Eder)

Personnel:
Fred Below (drums)
Chuck Berry (guitar, vocals, steel guitar on 02.)
Willie Dixon (bass)
Ebby Hardy (drums)
Johnnie Johnson (piano)
Jimmy Rogers (guitar)
Otis Spann (piano)
Jasper Thomas (drums)
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L. C. Davis (saxophone on 03. + 12.)
Jerome Green maracas  on 15.)

Tracklist:
01. School Days 2,43
02. Deep Feeling 2.21
03. Too Much Monkey Business 2,56
04. Wee Wee Hours 3.05
05. Roly Poly (aka Rolli Polli) 2.51
06. No Money Down 2.59
07. Brown Eyed Handsome Man 2.19
08. Berry Pickin’ 2.33
09. Together (We Will Always Be) 2.39
10. Havana Moon 3.09
11. Downbound Train 2.51
12. Drifting Heart”  2:50
+
13. You Can’t Catch Me 2.44
14. Thirty Days (To Come Back Home) 2.25
15, Maybellene 2.19

All songs written by Chuck Berry.

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R.I.P.:
Charles Edward Anderson “Chuck” Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017)

We all had to thank !

Various Artists – The Many Faces Of The Rolling Stones (2015)

This is a great sampler from Mexico !

The Rolling Stones have become the reincarnation of rock itself, being the representation, both musically and in terms of image and behavior, what rock & roll represents. In The Many Faces Of The Rolling Stones, we will highlight their side-projects, their roots, their favorite songs and even a brand new song, which becomes and event in itself, for all the Stones’ fans around the world. The idea sounds wonderful right?. Well, The Many Faces Of The Rolling Stones will meet the expectations of even the most demanding Stones fan. We have a lost recording by Leslie West (Mountain’s guitarist) with Mick Jagger playing guitar, a duet by Keith Richards with Ian McLagan (Faces’ keyboardist), and also the hard-to-find single versions of Bill Wyman’s solo hits.

Also we have Mick Jagger and Keith Richards all time favorite songs (handpicked by themselves), and an extremely rare track titled Catch As Catch Can, that was released only in a limited edition in France as a 7″ and never previously available on CD single, by musician and producer Robin Millar (Eric Clapton, Peter Gabriel, Sade) recorded in 1973 along with Mick Taylor, Bobby Keys and Mick Jagger!!!.

Finally, we have the originals versions of the best songs the Stones covered during his long and illustrious career. This is a marvelous project that with remastered sound, beautiful cover art extended liner notes is an essential addition to your collection. (promo text)

Yes, yes, yes … a real great and intersting Project … Listen and discover the many faces of The Rolling Stones !

Tracklist:

CD 1:
The Adventures Of The Stones:

01. Leslie West feat. Mick Jagger:High Roller (Jagger/Richards/Laing/Palmer) 4.13
02. Ron Wood & Ian McLagan: She Stole It (McLagan) 3.45
03. Bill Wyman: Monkey Grip (single edition) (Wyman) 3.17
04. Ian McLagan & Keith Richards: Truly (McLagan) 5.58
05. Toots & The Maytals feat. Keith Richards:- Careless Ethiopians (Hibbert) 3.22
06. Ron Wood & The Jones Gang: Had Me A Real Good Time (Lane/Wood) 4.45
07. Ian McLagan feat. Bobby Keys: Somebody (McLagan) 3.00
08 .British Invasion All-Stars feat. Dick Taylor: Gimme Some Loving (Winwood) 4.15
09. Bill  Wyman: (Si Si) Je Suis Un Rock Star (single edit) (Wyman) 3.23
10. Robin Millar feat. Mick Taylor, Nicky Hopkins & Bobby Keys: Catch As Catch Can (Millar)  3.33
11. John Phillips feat. Mick Jagger, Mick Taylor & Keith Richards:- Zulu Warrior (Phillips/Jagger) 3.30
12. Ron Wood & The Jones Gang: Stay With Me (Wood/Stewart) 5.09
13. Chris Farlowe produced by Mick Jagger: Out Of Time (Jagger/Richards) 3.15
14. Johnny Winter: Jumpin’ Jack Flash (Jagger/Richards) 4.42

CD 2:
Mick & Keith’s Favourite Tracks:

01. Little Walter: I Go To Go (Walter)  2.41
02. Muddy Waters: Forty Days And Forty Nights (Roth) 2.50
03. Robert Johnson: Stones In My Passway (Johnson) 2.28
04. Ray Charles: Lonely Avenue (Pomus) 2.34
05. Z.Z. Hill: Everybody Knows About My Good Thing (Grayson /Horton) 4.57
06. Blind Willie Johnson: Dark Was The Night (Cold Was The Ground) (Johnson) 3.20
07. Howlin’ Wolf: Forty Four (Burnett) 2.48
08. Jesse Fuller: Stagolee (Traditional) 3.44
09. Bill Broonzy: When Did You Leave Heaven (Bullock/Whiting) 3.29
10. Elmore James:- It Hurts Me Too (Red/James/London)  3.19
11. Little Walter: Key To The Highway (Segar) 2.45
12. Erna Franklin: Piece Of My Heart (Ragovoy/Berns) 2.38
13. Chuck Berry: Memphis (Berry) 2.14
14. Robert Johnson: 32-20 Blues (Johnson) 2.52

CD 3:
The  Originals:

01. Chuck Berry: Around And Around (Berry) 2.40
02. Larry Williams: She Said Yeah (Jackson/Williams) 1.50
03. Nat King Cole Trio: Route  66 (Troup) 3.01
04. Muddy Waters:  Just Want To Make Love To You (Dixon) 2.51
05. Howlin’ Wolf: Little Red Rooster (Burnett/Dixon) 2.26
06. Buddy Holly: Not Fade Away (Holly/Petty) 2.23
07. Jimmy  Reed: Honest I Do (Reed/Abner) 2.42
08. Dale Hawkins: Suzie Q (Hawkins/Lewis/Broadwater)  2.19
09. The Coasters: Poison Ivy (Leiber/Stoller) 2.42
10. Jim Harpo: I’m A King Bee (Harpo) 3.04
11. Robertt Johnson: Love In Vain (Johnson) 3.20
12. Bo Diddley: Mona (McDaniel) 3.39
13. Gene Allison: You Can Make It If You Try (Jarrett) 2.09
14. Eric Donaldson: Cherry Oh, Baby (Donaldson) 3.07

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Various Artists – American Graffiti (OST) (1973)

Hey, boys and girls…let´s have a üarty tonigh and this is an excellent soundtrack for such a night !

American Graffiti is a 1973 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed and co-written by George Lucas starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Harrison Ford, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips, Bo Hopkins, and Wolfman Jack. Suzanne Somers and Joe Spano have cameos. Set in Modesto, California in 1962, the film is a study of the cruising and rock and roll cultures popular among the post–World War II baby boom generation. The film is told in a series of vignettes, telling the story of a group of teenagers and their adventures over a single evening.

The genesis of American Graffiti was in Lucas’ own teenage years in early 1960s Modesto. He was unsuccessful in pitching the concept to financiers and distributors but found favor at Universal Pictures after United Artists, 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Bros., and Paramount Pictures turned him down. Filming was initially set to take place in San Rafael, California, but the production crew was denied permission to shoot beyond a second day.

American Graffiti premiered on August 2, 1973 at the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland and was released on August 11, 1973 in the United States. The film received widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Produced on a $777,000 budget, it has become one of the most profitable films of all time. Since its initial release, American Graffiti has garnered an estimated return of well over $200 million in box office gross and home video sales, not including merchandising. In 1995, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

A sequel, More American Graffiti, was released in 1979.

In early September 1962 in Modesto, California at the tail end of summer vacation, recent high school graduates and longtime friends, Curt Henderson and Steve Bolander, meet John Milner and Terry “The Toad” Fields at the local Mel’s Drive-In parking lot. Despite receiving a $2,000 scholarship from the local Moose lodge, Curt is undecided if he wants to leave the next morning with Steve to go to the northeastern United States to begin college. Steve lets Toad borrow his 1958 Chevrolet Impala for the evening and while he’s away at college until Christmas. Steve’s girlfriend, Laurie, who also is Curt’s sister, is unsure of Steve’s leaving, to which he suggests—to Laurie’s surprise—they see other people while he is away to “strengthen” their relationship. She is not happy with his proposal.

Curt, Steve, and Laurie go to the local back to school sock hop, while Toad and John begin cruising. En route to the dance, at a stoplight, Curt sees a beautiful blonde girl in a white 1956 Ford Thunderbird. She says, “I love you” before disappearing around the corner. After leaving the hop, Curt is desperate to find the mysterious blonde, but is coerced by a group of greasers (“The Pharaohs”) to participate in an initiation rite that involves hooking a chain to a police car and ripping out its back axle. Curt is told rumors that “The Blonde” is either a trophy wife or prostitute, which he refuses to believe.

Following a series of arguments, Steve and Laurie split, and John inadvertently picks up Carol, an annoying teenybopper who seems fond of him. Toad, who is normally socially inept with girls, successfully picks up a flirtatious, and somewhat rebellious, girl named Debbie. Meanwhile, Curt learns that the DJ Wolfman Jack broadcasts from just outside Modesto. Inside the radio station, Curt encounters a bearded man he assumes to be the manager. Curt hands the man a message for “The Blonde” to call or meet him. As he walks away, Curt hears the voice of The Wolfman, and, having just seen The Wolfman broadcasting, he realizes he had been speaking with The Wolfman himself.

The other story lines intertwine until Toad and Steve end up on “Paradise Road” to watch John race his yellow deuce coupe against the handsome, but arrogant, Bob Falfa. Earlier, Bob had picked up Laurie, who is now sitting shotgun in his black ’55 Chevy. Within seconds of the finish, Bob loses control of his car after blowing a front tire, plunges into a ditch and rolls his car. Steve and John run to the wreck, and a dazed Bob and Laurie stagger out of the car before it explodes. Distraught, Laurie grips Steve tightly and tells him not to leave her. He assures her that he has decided not to leave Modesto after all. The next morning Curt is awakened by the sound of a phone ringing in a telephone booth, which turns out to be “The Blonde”. She tells him she might see him cruising tonight, but Curt replies that is not possible, because he will be leaving. At the airfield he says goodbye to his parents, his sister, and friends. As the plane takes off, Curt, gazing out of the window, sees the white Ford Thunderbird belonging to the mysterious blonde.

Prior to the end credits, an on-screen epilogue reveals that John was killed by a drunk driver in December 1964, Toad was reported missing in action near An Lộc in December 1965, Steve is an insurance agent in Modesto, California, and Curt is a writer living in Canada (implying that he may be there as a draft dodger).

Lucas’s choice of background music was crucial to the mood of each scene, but he was realistic about the complexities of copyright clearances and suggested a number of alternative tracks. Universal wanted Lucas and producer Gary Kurtz to hire an orchestra for sound-alikes. The studio eventually proposed a flat deal that offered every music publisher the same amount of money. This was acceptable to most of the companies representing Lucas’s first choices, but not to RCA—with the consequence that Elvis Presley is conspicuous by his absence from the soundtrack. Clearing the music licensing rights had cost approximately $90,000, and as a result there was no money left for a traditional film score. “I used the absence of music, and sound effects, to create the drama,” Lucas later explained.

A soundtrack album for the film, 41 Original Hits from the Soundtrack of American Graffiti, was issued by MCA Records. The album contains all the songs used in the film (with the exception of “Gee” by the Crows, which was subsequently included on a second soundtrack album), presented in the order in which they appeared in the film. (by wikipedia)

Okay ..let´s start the party !

Tracklist:

LP 1:
01. Bill Haley And The Comets: Rock Around The Clock (DeKnight/Freedman) 2-08
02. The Crests: Sixteen Candles (Dixon/Khent) 2.48
03. Del Shannon: Runaway (Shannon/Crook) 2.16
04. Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers: Why Do Fools Fall In Love (Lymon/Levy) 2.17
05. Buddy Holly: That’ll Be The Day (Allison/Petty/Holly) 2:15
06. Buster Brown. Fanny Mae (Lewis/Levy/Glasco) 2.55
07. Flash Cadillac & The Continental Kids: At The Hop (Singer/Medora/White) 2.25
08. Flash Cadillac & The Continental Kids: She’s So Fine (Moe/Phillips) 2.20
09. The Diamonds: The Stroll  (Otis/Lee) 2.26
10. The Tempos:See You In September (Edwards/Wayne) 2.07
11. The Beach Boys: Surfin’ Safari (Wilson/Love) 2.04
12. The Fleetwoods: He’s The Great Imposter (DeShannon/Sheeley) 2.10
13. Chuck Berry: Almost Grown (Berry) 2.19
14. The Platters: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes (Kern/Harbach) 2.36
15. The Platters: Little Darlin’ (Williams) 2.07
16. Joey Dee & The Starlighters: Peppermint Twist (Henry/Glover) 2.01
17. The Regents: Barbara Ann (Fassert) 2.11
18. The Monotones: Book Of Love (Davis/Patrick/Malone) 2.17
19. Buddy Holly: Maybe Baby (Petty /Holly) 2.00
20. Lee Dorsey: Ya Ya (Lewis/Levy) 2.24
21. The Platters: The Great Pretender (Ram) 2.37

LP 2:
01. Fats Domino: Ain’t That A Shame (Domino/Bartholomew) 2.24
02. Chuck Berry: Johnny B. Goode (Berry) 2.38
03. The Flamingos: I Only Have Eyes For You (Warren/Dubin) 3.20
04. The Silhouettes: Get A Job (The Silhouettes) 2.45
05. The Five Satins: To The Aisle (Wiener/Smith) 2.42
06. Bobby Freeman: Do You Wanna Dance Freeman) 2.32
07. Buddy Knox: Party Doll (Bowen/Knox) 2.11
08. The Del-Vikings: Come Go With Me (Quick) 2.39
09. Johnny Burnette: You’re Sixteen – You’re Beautiful (And You’re Mine) (B.Sherman/D.Sherman) 1.55
10. The Clovers: Love Potion No.9 (Leiber/Stoller) 1.50
11. The Skyliners: Since I Don’t Have You (Rock/Skyliners) 2.35
12. The Clovers: Chantilly Lace (The Big Bopper) (Richardson) 2.19
13. Mark Dinning: Teen Angel (Surry) 2.39
14. Sonny Till & The Orioles: Crying In The Chapel (Glenn) 3.01
15. The Heartbeats: A Thousand Miles Away (Sheppard/Miller) 2.24
16. The Cleftones: Heart And Soul (Carmichael/Loesser) 1.50
17. Booker T. & The M.G.’s: Green Onions ( (Jones/Cropper/Jackson/Steinberg) 2.26
18. The Platters: Only You (And You Alone) (Ram/Rand) 2.38
19. The Spaniels: Goodnight, Well It’s Time To Go (Hudson/Carter) 2.42
20. The Beach Boys: All Summer Long (Wilson) 2.06

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Chuck Berry – One Dozen Berrys (1958)

One Dozen Berrys is Chuck Berry’s second studio album. It was released in 1958 under Chess Records.

This album published in both UK and US only as LP record in 1958.

Chuck Berry’s second album is ever so slightly more sophisticated than its predecessor. Although One Dozen Berrys is hooked around a pair of hit singles, “Sweet Little Sixteen” and “Rock & Roll Music,” most of what’s here doesn’t really sound too much like either of those songs — rather, the other ten tracks each constitute a close-up look at some individual component of the types of music that goes into brewing up the Chuck Berry sound. Thus, the slow instrumental “Blue Feeling” is a look at the blues sound that Berry initially proposed to bring to Chess Records; “How You’ve Changed” presents him in a slow ballad, singing in a manner closer to Nat “King” Cole than to any rock & roller of the era; and “Lajaunda” shows off his love of Latin music. “Rocking at the Philharmonic” is a rippling guitar/piano workout, a compendium of the sounds that lay beneath those hit singles, and a killer showcase not only for Berry, but also for Lafayette Leake at the ivories, and also a decent showcase for Willie Dixon’s bass playing. “Oh Baby Doll” is a return to the beat of “Maybellene,” this time carrying a lyric that’s more sensual (in a bluesy sense) than rollicking fun, though it comes out that way amid the pounding beat and Berry’s crunchy, angular guitar solo. “Guitar Boogie” is yet another guitar instrumental, one of four on this album, leading one to wonder if he was running short of first-rate lyrics in mid-1957, amid his frantic pace of recording and touring — no matter, for the piece is a killer track, a pumping, soaring working out for Berry’s guitar that had some of the most impressive pyrotechnics that one was likely to hear in 1957; what’s more, the track was good enough to form the template for Jeff Beck’s more ornate adaptation, “Jeff’s Boogie,” from the 1966 album Roger the Engineer (aka The Yardbirds aka Over Under Sideways Down). The best of the album’s tracks is easily “Reelin’ & Rockin’,” which is also just about the dirtiest song that Berry released in all of the 1950s (and for many years after that), essentially a blues-boogie recasting, on a more overt level, of the extended feats of sexual intercourse alluded to in Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock.” The one totally weird track here is “Low Feeling,” which is nothing but “Blue Feeling” doctored in the studio by Leonard and Phil Chess, slowed down to half speed and edited to create a 12th track — doing that to the original was bad enough, but sticking it on the same LP with the original was downright bizarre. And the album’s closer, “It Don’t Take But a Few Minutes,” is a reminder of just how much Berry owed to country music for his sound, and explains, to anyone coming in late, how he could have been mistaken for a white hillbilly in those early days, based on the sound of this song and “Maybelline.” (by Bruce Eder)

Personnel:
Fred Below (drums)
Chuck Berry (vocals, guitar)
Willie Dixon (bass)
Ebbie Hardy (drums)
Johnnie Johnson (piano)
Lafayette Leake (piano)
Hubert Sumlin (guitar)

Tracklist:
01. Sweet Little Sixteen 3.03
02. Blue Feeling 3.04
03. La Jaunda 3.14
04. Rockin’ At The Philharmonic 3.23
05. Oh Baby Doll 2.37
06. Guitar Boogie 2.21
07. Reelin’ And Rockin’ 3.18
08. In-Go 2.29
09. Rock And Roll Music 2.34
10. How You’ve Changed 2.49
11. Low Feeling” (same recording as “Blue Feeling”, but with the tape playback slowed) 3.09
12. “It Don’t Take But A Few Minutes 2.31

All songs written by Chuck Berry

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