AMG Review of Guitar Legends

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music Guide

Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley's Guitar Legends contains five tracks apiece from the legendary rock & rollers, all culled from their classic recordings for Chess Records. There is a fair share of hits here, but not as many as you may expect -- Diddley's theme song "Bo Diddley" is nowhere to be found, nor is "Say Man" or "Crackin' Up," while any number of Chuck Berry tunes, including "Johnny B. Goode" and "Maybelline," are missing. That said, only the atrocious "My Ding-A-Ling" interrupts the flow (some may tire of complaining about how this offensively stupid novelty was Berry's only number one hit, but not everyone), and the rest of the compilation is very good indeed. It's hard to argue with "I'm a Man," "Who Do You Love," "Road Runner," "You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover," "Carol," "Thirty Days," "Roll over Beethoven" and "Almost Grown," even if not all of them burned up the charts. The result is a very, very entertaining sampler that's worth its budget price.