By the summer of 1959, the careers of some of the first great wave of rock’n’rollers had already run into the buffers, as increasingly safe teen idols were wheeled out by the corporations for public inspection. ‘All you could hear was Bobby this…,’ Jerry Lee Lewis once recalled. ‘Bobby Vee, Bobby Vinton, Bobby Darin… weren’t nuthin’ but Bobbys on the radio…’ However, in July, Chess Records issued what was arguably the hardest-hitting Chuck Berry LP of them all, Chuck Berry Is On Top. The man himself started the year appearing as both a performer and actor in the Hollywood feature film Go, Johnny, Go, which was named after a line in one of his own songs. The latest of Alan Freed’s hugely successful rock’n’roll pictures, it was shot in January 1959, and released in June – just one month before the appearance of Chuck Berry Is On Top. The film showcased Chuck singing Memphis Tennessee, Little Queenie and Johnny B Goode, the latter two of which could be found on his new LP. Chuck also appeared on the July 18 episode of the Dick Clark Show on singing Almost Grown and Back in the USA (when one of the other guests, as if to prove Jerry Lee’s point, was the new teen idol Bobby Rydell). In his introduction, Dick held up a copy of Chuck’s new LP towards the camera and said, ‘You know, I wish we had colour TV tonight, because this is one of the most delicious-looking album jackets I’ve ever seen. It’s called Chuck Berry Is On Top.’ This was the kind of promotion that most record companies would kill for. The oldest song on the album was from May 1955, the newest from February 1959, but nine out of the twelve came from 1958, and indeed, any Chuck Berry fan who had been religiously buying each Chess 45 and EP would have owned every track already, except for the instrumental, Blues For Hawaiians. Nevertheless, viewed as a collection of songs it was one of the all-time great 1950s party LPs. Today what stands out is the sheer quantity of landmark hits contained here, many of which went on to become serious chart material a second time around in the hands of other artists. At the time of the album’s release, Chuck Berry really was on top, but even then, the authorities were slowly building a case against him. The year would end with two plainclothes policemen appearing after his show and taking him in for questioning about a girl who had come from El Paso to work at his country club, Berry Park. As Chuck later recalled, the police finished by asking, “‘Do you want to make a phonecall?’ I did and seconds later sat quietly in a cell awaiting bond on charges of white slavery.” The year that had started so well, ended in deep uncertainty. Chuck would eventually be back on top, but the beginning of the new decade was going to be rough. Max Décharné

Chuck Berry – guitar, lead vocals, Fred Below – drums, Bo Diddley – guitar, Willie Dixon – bass, Jerome Green – maracas, Ebbie Hardy – drums Johnnie Johnson – piano, Lafayette Leake – piano, The Moonglows – backing vocals, George Smith – bass, Jaspar Thomas – drums.

• Remastered, Limited edition coloured vinyl with free CD.
• With Liner notes by renowned author and music journalist Max Decharne
• Design by Sophie Lo.