The two classic cuts that bookend this album should be enough to attract the uninitiated --
Berry at his best wrote danceable little "vest-pocket" screenplays dealing with teen life, of which "Bye Bye Johnny" and "Let It Rock" were two of his best; but because they've been so heavily anthologized, those two cuts don't have the pulling power here that they would have had 40-some years back. So get this record for everything else that's on it --
Rockin' at the Hops not only has no filler, but it's chock full of records that show off a bluesy side of
Berry's output that was never fully appreciated at the time. His version of
Big Maceo's "Worried Life Blues" shows how good a bluesman
Berry might've been had he been more the
Muddy Waters-type player and singer that Chess had been looking for; "Down the Road a Piece," a song written by
Don Raye (of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" fame), is a lost
Berry single that could've rated right up there with "Roll Over Beethoven," except that its roadhouse ambience and story line were more mature than a lot of kids might've embraced in 1959; and
Walter Brown's "Confessin' the Blues" and "Driftin' Blues" fit into the same category,
Berry the adult bluesman rather than the teen-oriented teaser. "Childhood Sweetheart" is a sequel to "Wee Wee Hours,"
Berry's very first blues side, lifting a fragment or two from
Elmore James' "Dust My Broom" for its guitar break. "Too Pooped to Pop" and "Betty Jean," by contrast, are a pair of enjoyably upbeat rock & roll numbers, each featuring uncharacteristic elements, a sax solo on the former, and a male chorus on the latter; in between them is "Mad Lad," an instrumental that presents
Berry drifting into what would later be defined as a surf guitar mode -- a quicker tempo would have done it (and does anyone want to bet that a young
Carl Wilson didn't wear out a copy or two listening to this track?). ~ Bruce Eder