Chuck Berry spent much of 1962 and all of 1963 in jail after being convicted on a Mann Act charge. When he emerged in January of 1964, the popular music landscape had been forever changed by the British Invasion. Fortunately artists like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones worshipped the founding father of rock 'n' roll. [The stones included "Carol" on their 1964 debut, and the Beatles included a cover of "Roll Over Beethoven" the same year on their second U.S. album.] Berry used this momentum to go into the studio to cut one of the strongest albums of his career. In addition to the hits "No Particular Place to Go" (No. 10), "You Never Can Tell" (No. 14), and "Little Marie" (a sequel to "Memphis" that went to No. 54), it also includes the standard "Promised Land." To some extent, this is Berry's final hurrah. A year after the album's release, he turns forty, and the elder statesman of rock seems to have lost much of his drive. He has one final hit (the double entendre novelty song "My Ding-A Ling" goes No. 1 in 1972), but by then Berry seems content to spend the remainder of his career on the oldies circuit. But ST. LOUIS TO LIVERPOOL is classic Berry, and it's made even better with the addition of three bonus tracks: "Fraulein," "The Little Girl From Central" and "O'Rangutang." If you need proof that Berry was still a vital artist after the British Invasion, this album proves it beyond a doubt.
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Track Listings
1. Little Marie
2. Our Little Rendezvous
3. No Particular Place to Go
4. You Two
5. Promised Land
6. You Never Can Tell
7. Go Bobby Soxer
8. Things I Used to Do
9. Liverpool Drive
10. Night Beat
11. Merry Christmas, Baby
12. Brenda Lee
13. Fraulein[*]
14. Little Girl from Central[*]
15. O'Rangutang
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