The London Chuck Berry Sessions is the sixteenth studio album by Chuck Berry, released by Chess Records in October 1972 on LP, 8 track cartridge, and audio cassette. Side one of the album consists of studio recordings, engineered by Geoff Calver; side two features three live performances recorded by the Pye Mobile Unit, engineered by Alan Perkins, on February 3, 1972, at the Lanchester Arts Festival in Coventry, England. At the end of the live section, the recording includes the sounds of festival management trying in vain to get the audience to leave so that the next performers, Pink Floyd, can take the stage; the crowd begins chanting "We want Chuck!" His backing band for that concert included Onnie McIntyre (guitar), Robbie McIntosh (drums), Nic Potter (bass), and Dave Kaffinetti (piano). McIntosh and McIntyre would later form the Average White Band. The studio recordings included pianist Ian McLagan and drummer Kenney Jones from the bands the Small Faces and Faces.
"My Ding-a-Ling", from the live side of the album, was edited to approximately 4 minutes for release as a single. A novelty song based around sexual double entendres, it reached number 1 in both the US and the UK, Berry's only chart-topper in either country.
Contents
Background
In May 1970, Howlin' Wolf traveled to Olympic Sound Studios in London, England, to record songs for The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions. The album was released in August 1971 and peaked at number 28 on Billboard magazine's R&B Albums chart and number 79 on the Billboard 200. Because of Wolf's success, Muddy Waters recorded his own London Sessions album in December 1971, and Berry did the same in 1972.
Critical reception
William Ruhlmann of AllMusic retrospectively called the album Chuck Berry's "commercial, if not artistic, peak". Robert Christgau gave the album a C minus, calling the record lousy. He dubbed the studio side "pure filler" and criticised Berry's vocal performance on the live side as hoarse.
Commercial performance
The album was not even out for a month, when on October 27, 1972, The London Chuck Berry Sessions was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America with sales of 1,000,000 units. It is Berry's only album to be certified by the RIAA, and is his most successful release.
Track listing
All songs written by Chuck Berry except as noted
Side one (studio recordings)
"Let's Boogie" – 3:10
"Mean Old World" (Little Walter) – 5:45
"I Will Not Let You Go" – 2:49
"London Berry Blues" – 5:55
"I Love You" – 3:26
Side two (live recordings)
"Reelin' and Rockin'" – 7:07
"My Ding-a-Ling" (Dave Bartholomew) – 11:33
"Johnny B. Goode" – 4:23
The release on cassette exchanged "I Love You" and "Johnny B. Goode" to create sides of near-equal length.
This version of "Johnny B. Goode" replaces the first verse of the original with the first verse of "Bye Bye Johnny".
Personnel
Musicians
Chuck Berry – vocals, guitar
Derek Griffiths – guitar (side one)
Ian McLagan – piano (side one)
Kenney Jones – drums (side one)
Onnie Owen McIntyre – guitar (side two)
Nic Potter – bass (side two)
David Kaffinetti – piano (side two)
Robbie McIntosh – drums (side two)
Technical
Esmond Edwards – producer
Bob Scerbo – production supervision
Mia Krinsky – album coordination
David Krieger – art director
Tim Lewis – cover art