Blues for Hawaiians

When he recorded Blues for Hawaiians in 1959, Chuck Berry had already been defining the sound of rock for years with songs like Maybellene or Roll Over Beethoven. But this track stands out as the only unreleased song on Berry Is on Top, the album Chess Records released that same year. While the rest of the tracks on the record were hits that had already been played on American radios, this fresh piece arrived to close the circle with a relaxed air, almost as a nod to the style he himself had helped popularize.

The song was born in the studio, with Leonard and Phil Chess overseeing production, and was recorded in just two minutes and twenty-five seconds. Later, in 2008, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab rescued it for a special reissue alongside St. Louis to Liverpool, and in 2012 Hoodoo included it in another release that combined Berry Is on Top with One Dozen Berrys. It wasn’t the typical single designed to climb charts, but rather a piece that completed an album conceived as a package of his biggest hits.