What can I say about the music of Chuck Berry that hasn't been said somewhere before? His songs are rock and soul classics, from "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Johnny B. Goode" to "Back in the U.S.A." and "Rock and Roll Music." An architect of rock and roll, his influence served as an inspiration a decade later from surf bands like The Beach Boys to British groups like The Rolling Stones. He is one of the greatest and most copied guitarists of the rock era, and he has entertained millions in movies and in concert with his trademark duck walk. In short, it is almost inconceivable to imagine what the pop landscape would be like if Berry hadn't stepped into the Chess Records recording studio in the 1950s and tinkered with the blues sound he began playing in his native St. Louis, transforming it into the modern basis of rock and roll that exists to this day.

Chuck Berry was almost 30 years old when he cut his first single for Chess Records, the accelerated country-blues number "Maybellene." He had worked the St. Louis blues circuit for years before heading north to Chicago with visions of recording his own songs. Chess Records was a staple of Chicago blues, with seminal blues artists like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Sonny Boy Williamson on the payroll. However, producer Leonard Chess envisioned Berry taking the blues in a different direction, capitalizing on his now famous guitar riffs as well as his excellent ability to craft three minute songs of pent-up teenage abandon ("School Days" and "Almost Grown" being two examples). And the rest, as they say, is rock and roll history.

The Chess Box is a 71 song, 3 CD set that contains all of Berry's best-known songs and hits during his tenure at Chess Records, which stretched from the '50s through 1965 and then again in the early '70s. That means that included among his classics is the insipid "My Ding-a Ling" from 1972, his only number one single. Anybody who is interested in just the cream of the crop should be directed to The Great Twenty-Eight, which concentrates on the hits and serves as a discourse on the early days of rock and roll.

But for those of you inclined to dig a little deeper, The Chess Box offers a few nice surprises. For starters, you get to hear some of Chuck's slow bluesy work on numbers like "Wee Wee Hours" and "Drifting Heart," songs where fellow St. Louis import Jimmie Johnson's piano is the featured instrument and the tracks have the feel of a Nat King Cole session. Cover versions like "Confessin' the Blues" and "House of Blue Lights" kick up the tempo. And for your holiday pleasure, how about "Merry Christmas, Baby" and "Run Rudolph Run" sequenced back to back?

Berry also gets the chance to flex his muscial chops on such instrumentals as "Crying Steel," "Sad Day, Long Night," and "Chuck's Beat," an eleven minute duet with fellow Chess artist Bo Diddley. And he incorporates Latin rhythms in such songs as "Havana Moon" and the first date primer "Thirteen Question Method" (which stops at "Question number twelve/When we're by ourselves").

For a grown man, Berry was certainly able to tap into the youth culture. For example, on "Sweet Little Sixteen" he proves that men and teenage boys equally have an eye on the pretty schoolgirls. But there is more to his songs than the lustings of a dirty, old man. On "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man" he subtly tackles issues of race. "You Never Can Tell" celebrates marital bliss while "Memphis" peers into the heartbreak of a divorced family. His sense of humour is evident in songs like "No Particular Place to Go," where a seat belt foils a romantic encounter, and the aging protagonist who can't keep up with the latest dance steps in "Too Pooped to Pop."

His work from the '70s found him slowing down and mellowing out. On the laid-back "My Dream" he sings about building a big house and settling down. "A Deuce" is a nod to the recreational drug user, of whom I have a suspicion Berry could relate.

Chuck Berry is over 80 years old, yet he still performs once a month at his St. Louis night club. (My brother caught his show as he was passing through the city a few years ago and said that the old man still knows how to excite a crowd.) Berry won't be with us much longer, and his passing will no doubt prompt eulogies from the generation of rock and rollers who grew up on his music. So, before that day arrives, now's the time to appreciate what Chuck Berry means to rock and soul. If you don't own anything by this man, you are doing yourself a great disservice.

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