"Sounds nice," Bo Diddley tongue-in-cheekily observes of his music in "The Story of Bo Diddley," one of three self-named tunes on this 20-track examination of his classic '50s and '60s Checker Records sides. Not only was the former Ellas McDaniels rhythmically sharp enough to have a beat named after himself; he had a great guitar sound and a seemingly endless supply of shaggy-dog stories, lover-man boasts, silly jokes, and complaints with which to fuse them. His Best boils down the two-CD Chess Box, including signature pieces like "Bo Diddley" and "You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover" alongside unjustly obscure tunes such as "Pills" (later covered by the New York Dolls) and "Dearest Darling." Great. --Rickey Wright
