The All-TIME 100 Albums: The Great Twenty-Eight by Chuck Berry

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The All-TIME 100 Albums

44 of 101

By Alan Light Published: November 13, 2006

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ALBUM: The Great Twenty-Eight

YEAR RELEASED: 1982 LABEL: MCA ARTIST: Chuck Berry

TIME 100 ALBUMS PODCASTS

PODCAST: Welcome to the All-TIME 100 Albums - the musical compilations of the last half-century that need no introduction. That said, listen in below as music critics Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light introduce the list and talk about the top albums of the 1950s and '60s.

PODCAST: We know. Twenty-nine of the 100 greatest albums of all time come in the 1970s, and Pink Floyd isn't there. Play this podcast to learn why we picked the titles we did, and if you have something to say, tell us about it using the talkback link below.

PODCAST: Maybe it's a Sign O' The Times that you're listening to critics' audio recordings about great music, but this podcast about how we chose the best albums of the 1980s really is a Thriller. Give it a listen below.

PODCAST: Here's music even the younger set will know by heart. Listen to selected clips from the 1990s through present day as music critic Josh Tyrangiel discusses his picks.

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Elvis may have been the King, but without Chuck Berry, the sounds of the Beatles, the Stones, Bob Dylan, and the Beach Boys would all have taken very different paths. Adapting Louis Jordan's jump blues for electrified instruments, Berry created the definitive architecture for the rock and roll band, and shifted the spotlight to the guitar. Most significant was Berry's writing, which placed country-style storytelling in a youth-oriented context that perfectly captured the lives, thoughts, and dreams of baby-boomer teens. The Great Twenty-Eight has all the essential hits, from "Johnny B Goode" to the slyly subversive "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man" to "The Promised Land" — in a better world, our true national anthem.