I bought this CD because of the songs I didn't already have: "Promised Land," "You Never Can Tell," "Run Rudolph Run," "It Wasn't Me," "County Line," "Oh Yeah," etc. All in all, 10 songs from this 20-song CD are on "The Great 28" package, but looky here: by "rarities" they mean alternate takes, stereo remixes, some chatter before songs--"take 15" "sho 'nuf?"--which makes this a nice companion to your hopefully sturdy Chuck Berry collection. There's a sequel to this album out there and I need that one now. Highly recommended!

This CD is an essential addition to anybody building an already awesome Chuck Berry collection. The alternate takes and occasional brief outtakes on tunes like "Johnny B Good" just hit home his hepness, and the great (and way underappreciated) tunes like "Run, Rudolph, Run" and "Bye Bye Johnny" make this album an absolute pleasure to listen to. This is an absolutely solid collection of unique Chuck Berry music.

That said... if you are just becoming acquainted with Chuck Berry's music, this CD might not be the place to start. There are scores of Five-Star Chuck Berry albums out there, which will likely have you addicted to his legacy in no time. After you have sufficiently primed your ear with a few classic Chuck Berry albums, I advise you add this to your CD rack.

Bottom line, Chuck Berry is the coolest of the pioneering rockers! Don't grab just one Chuck Berry CD for your collection...one is not enough!

The main reason I got this CD was because next to the Chess Box, it is very hard to find "Run Rudolph Run" on any CD. I got this and listened to Chuck Berry put together all of his famous hits with flaws and originals. There is just an even mix of originals and different recordings. "Run Rudolph Run" is an original and some others are or are just stereo remixes, but close to original. This is a unique CD, and any Chuck Berry fan should get it.

I got my first compact disc player in 1984, just about when they first came out. Then I started looking for programming, but there wasn't much available. Some of the things that came on the market rather early were compilations of oldies but goodies. Well, I just loved the old fifties rock 'n' roll so I started picking up these CDs and one of them was Chuck Berry with "Rock 'n' Roll Rarities." Man this stuff was great! I was a bit of an audiophile and I worried that the old monaural recordings such as these might not sound good on my high-end stereo. No so! On most of the cuts, the sound is just excellent, but quality of recording varies quite a bit from cut to cut. In general, I'm quite satisfied, but it takes a bit of effort on the controls.

The songs are just great, but, of course, it's Chuck Berry. He's amazing! His music is more like country and it was not particularly enjoyed by African-Americans at the time. I heard Berry quizzed about this on a talk show one time and he said he wrote these songs because the white people liked them. Well he was spot on and goes down as a major, major figure in the history of rock 'n' roll. On most of these cuts, Berry is backed by his guitar, bass, piano and drums. The mix is quite different on the different cuts. This was not produced as an LP and probably has many different engineers on the different songs. When listening, see if you can't tune in on the piano player. It's worth it! See how ably he follows every Berry nuance. It's amazing! Be sure to follow Berry's guitar also. He's renounced as a guitar player! Gosh, I'm gushing. But if you like Chuck Berry, this is just a great album!

Gary Peterson