The Chuck Berry Discography - All his records, all his songs

This Web site presents you with a complete guide to the music written and recorded by Chuck Berry, one of the fathers of Rock 'n' Roll. This chapter starts a detailed and annotated discography which will guide you through Chuck Berry's recording career.

Between 1954 and 2008 Chuck Berry recorded almost 300 songs, many of them in various versions or mixes. If you're a Chuck Berry fan or if you're just interested in how his work started much of what popular music is today, you'll find yourself looking for albums, CDs and rarities containing yet another song or variant. So did I, more than fourty years ago.

On this site I list and describe all the Chuck Berry albums and CDs you need to get each and every song Chuck Berry ever recorded. Every record or CD is shown by its picture cover. Clicking on the image gives you a larger version. You won't find much about Chuck's biography or other topics not of musical interest. I suggest you have a look at the Chuck Berry Bibliography for that kind of information. For specific information about individual songs you must read Fred Rothwell's book, which explains each Chuck Berry recording and the origins of every song.

Chuck Berry's Recording

Chuck Berry's work can be divided into several eras of recording. Each of these periods has a section on its own on this site. Within each section you'll find both the records published during that era as well as songs recorded during that time but released later.

The Chess Era (1955-1966) Intermediate Live Recordings (1969) Late Recordings (1975-1986) Latest Recordings (since 1986)

The Pre-Chess Era (until 1954) The Mercury Era (1966-1969) The Back-At-Chess Era (1969-1975) Chuck's 60th Birthday Celebrations (1986)

The Pre-Chess Era (1926-1954) The Chess Era (1955-1966) The Mercury Era (1966-1969) Intermediate Live Recordings (1969) The Back-At-Chess Era (1969-1975) Late Recordings (1975-1986) Chuck's 60th Birthday Celebrations (1986) Latest Recordings (since 1986)

Click on a label above or click here for a list of the sections

Separated from this chronological order is a chapter on Radio Station Albums and Promotional Records.

Your Chuck Berry Records Collection

When you start building your Chuck Berry records collection, you will find that some songs and recordings are very easy to get since they are on almost every Chuck Berry record or CD. Others however are almost impossible to find. The Starter's Collection displays the most important Chuck Berry albums to start with.

Chuck Berry Music

Chuck Berry influenced many generations of musicians. Johnny B. Goode alone has been recorded more than 700 times. It is almost impossible to completely list all cover versions of Chuck Berry songs, but Morten Reff still tries. Together with Morten I describe the most important ones at Chuck Berry-related albums (What other artists play). This section also includes Morten's most recent counts of all known cover versions of Berry's songs.

Rarities and Obscurities

I'm always interested in listening, seeing and buying rare and strange Chuck Berry items. So if you have something to share, contact me at cbguide@crlf.de

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No part of this document (images and text) may be used or published outside of www.crlf.de without written consent by the author.
Last modified: 13.03.2024