Chuck Berry's fourth in a five-LP set released during his stay at Mercury is only partly successful, with a handful of genuinely good songs -- the rocking "Misery," the rollicking "Mum's the Word," and the ravishing "Song of My Love" (maybe the prettiest Spanish, or in this case, Mexican-style number that
Berry ever cut) -- interspersed with some far less well-thought-out and executed pieces, such as "The Love I Lost." The album also bore a funny pop culture footnote for containing
Berry's first official release of "My Tambourine," a dirty New Orleans-spawned song about what used to be politely called "self-indulgence" that had been in his concert repertory for at least 12 years, which he eventually redid and released, as part of a live concert recording, as "My Ding-A-Ling." ~ Bruce Eder