Johnny B. Goode: His Complete '50s Chess Recordings

CD Edition limited to 5000 non-numbered copies. Chuck Berry's legendary breakthrough 1950s Chess recordings has gotten their first thorough presentation anywhere via a 4-CD, 103-song box set on Chess/Hip-O Select Records. These are the groundbreaking recordings by the first poet laureate of rock 'n' roll that set the tone lyrically and musically for all that came after. To paraphrase John Lennon, if they didn't call it rock 'n' roll, they'd call it Chuck Berry music, and this remarkable new set shows why. Digitally remastered from the original Chess masters, the collection features not only such oft-covered classics as "Maybellene," "Roll Over Beethoven," "Rock And Roll Music," "Memphis," "Sweet Little Sixteen," "Johnny B. Goode," "Carol," and "Little Queenie," but it also shows the evolution of the artist and his songs, while presenting a surfeit of rarities, including 16 previously unreleased tracks.

All of this remarkable music is elaborated on by tidbits of studio dialog, complete session by session credits, a '50s Chuck Berry singles discography, period photos, and comprehensive liner notes by Chuck Berry's discographer/biographer Fred Rothwell, author of Long Distance Information: Chuck Berrys Recorded Legacy, who also compiled the set with Universal's reissue producer Andy McKaie.