When Chess Data stored Chuck Berry’s launch schedule of the early Sixties lively with a brand new stay album, it was a tactic that paid dividends. Chuck Berry On Stage had already turn out to be his first US chart album, a few months earlier, when it entered the UK chart on October 5, 1963 on its approach to turning into his first High 10 LP there.
Surprisingly, the good rock’n’curler from St. Louis had made his UK LP chart debut earlier than his American one, reaching No.12 with a self-titled set launched by Chess earlier that 12 months. It’s each a travesty and a thriller that his first run of scintillating lengthy gamers, together with After Faculty Session, One Dozen Berrys, and Chuck Berry On High, didn’t chart on both facet of the Atlantic. In equity, these appeared within the days when the shiny new 45 rpm single was king, and albums often of secondary significance.
Vitality, stay or not
Chuck Berry On Stage was a set of lots of his best-known songs to that time, together with “Maybellene,” “Memphis, Tennessee,” “Sweet Little Sixteen,” and “Brown Eyed Handsome Man.” It presupposed to be recorded on the Tivoli Theatre in Chicago, however whereas observers have since famous that the applause has the overdubbed really feel of many “live” releases of the time, it nonetheless captures the sheer power of Berry’s songcraft and guitar brilliance.
The album, which peaked at No.29 within the US, entered the UK chart at No.13. It went on to spend 5 weeks within the High 10, twice reaching No.6. The unique 13-track launch was later augmented into the 25-track version under. Within the week of the LP’s British debut, Chuck additionally arrived on the now much less publicized EP chart with the Pye launch of his mixed providing together with his fellow rock’n’roll frontiersman Bo Diddley, Chuck and Bo.
As Chuck additionally ready for a significant High 10 hit within the UK with the double-headed “Let It Rock” and “Memphis, Tennessee,” Document Mirror noticed that he was “one of the spearheads of the R&B rage, which is exploding chart-wise.”
Store for Chuck Berry’s music on vinyl or CD now.
