Chuck Berry - Ultimate Chuck Berry

Fantabulous three CD collection featuring the best tracks from three of Rock 'N' Roll's forefathers: Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly. Disc One features 20 brilliant Berry nuggets including 'Roll Over Beethoven', 'Maybelline', 'Rock And Roll Music', 'Sweet Little Sixteen and more. Disc Two features 20 electric Jerry Lee Lewis cuts including 'Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On', 'Great Balls Of Fire', 'Big Boss Man' and 'Breathless'. Disc Three contains 19 happenin' Holly hits including 'Oh Boy', 'Peggy Sue', 'Heartbeat', 'That'll Be The Day' and more. 59 tracks total. Spectrum. 2007. Album Description

GREAT COLLECTION, BUT IGNORE THE WACKY AMAZON PRODUCT DESCRIPTION ABOVE

Contrary to the product description above, this is a three-disc CHUCK BERRY-ONLY compilation. The tracklist above, however, is correct.

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. October 8, 2007

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