I'm in the process of going over some of my CDs of oldies that I purchased just about the time that CD players were coming on the market. I got mine in 1984. Then, I started adding discs to my collection. I did my shopping at Tower Records (remember them?) and one of the CDs I picked up was "Chuck Berry - 20 Greatest Hits. It was recorded on Spectrum, a Holland company. The CD was made in France. Now, I think this is the same music CD as listed here, but I can't be certain because not enough information is given. This one is probably a later "reprint." The cover on my disc is different, I should add.

In any case, my Spectrum CD is a wonderful collection of Berry songs and I cherish it. The production on these records is very uneven from song to song. Well, remember these songs were originally singles, not part of an album. Probably each song had somewhat different musicians, different sound engineers, different recording studios. No wonder they seem like an uneven collection. No matter, a purchaser of a disc like this probably wants an original collection of Chuck Berry music, and this disc provides it. The quality of sound varies from song to song. Some is quite good. Also remember that recording in these days was rather primitive and post popular songs were recorded live. It might take ten or more times, but when a good version was turned out, that was it!! Roll the presses! Some of them have a real nice spontaneous feeling, and I like that. In any case, if you have a question, just leave me a comment and I'll try to handle it as best as possible.

Gary Peterson