Johnnie Johnson – Johnnie B Bad Audio Cassette (1991)

It’s feasible that you won’t have heard the name Johnnie Johnson, but if you’ve ever heard one of Chuck Berry’s best known hits, you’ll have heard him play the piano. Johnnie Johnson, however, was far more than just Chuck Berry’s pianist. Johnson actually formed the band, and ran it as a trio before involving Berry as an extrovert frontman. Much of Chuck Berry’s guitar playing (and certainly the bits most people now associate with him having brought to the world) was highly reminiscent of Johnnie Johnson’s piano work. Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards was of the view that Chuck had essentially adapted Johnnie’s piano playing for the guitar, thus hitting upon a novel and exciting style, which came to define rock ‘n’ roll lead guitar. That, I feel, is a pretty fair synopsis.

The Very Best of Dexys Midnight Runners (Cassette)

Dexys Midnight Runners emerged in 1979 as a British band from the Birmingham area, timing their arrival perfectly to coincide with a mod revival, and the rise of Two-Tone. True, Dexys were not a ska band, or for that matter specifically a ‘mod’ band, but their sound and style appealed to both camps. Add to that the fact they they had some remarkable songwriting skills, and you had a recipe for major public attention.

BASF LH Extra I Audio Cassette (1984)

BASF were very well known for their high bias chrome formulation cassettes (see the Blank Tapes category for numerous posts relating to those), but they also made some very nice normal bias Type I tapes. A case in point was this, the LH Extra I, probably made in 1984.