Best of the Chess Years

Not Now's budget-priced 2012 box set Best of the Chess Years is a triple-disc, 73-track collection of Chuck Berry's Chess recordings. As this is a collection that skirts around the edges of Europe's public domain laws, it relies on the tracks that are available -- i.e., the big hits from the '50s and some from the early '60s, but nothing from Chuck's 1964 comeback (no "No Particular Place to Go," for instance) and certainly nothing from his return to the label in the late '60s/early '70s. This means the big set gets filled out with some oddities -- instrumentals and blues, some good rockers that don't always get the attention they deserve -- but it is anchored on what's likely the greatest songbook in rock & roll. There are better places to hear these songs, places where the sequencing makes more sense, but there is never a bad time or place to hear this timeless music. That this set is cheap is just icing on the cake. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine|