You Never Can Tell: His Complete Chess Recordings 1960-66
Chuck Berry's Sixties work doesn't have the marquee value of 1950s hits such as "Maybellene" and "Johnny B. Goode." But unlike his peers Elvis Presley and Little Richard, Berry didn't experience any real drop-off in quality: Tunes like "Bye Bye Johnny," "Nadine," "No Particular Place to Go," "Promised Land" — all of them on this four-disc follow-up to 2007's Complete '50s Chess Recordings — are timeless killers. You Never Can Tell has an academic feel, with lots of alternate takes most listeners could do without. But it also includes some great blues covers and a live set that finds Berry joking it up onstage and kicking major ass in Detroit Rock City.