Videocassettes : ****Excellent***Good**Fair*Poor : <i> Recent releases, reviewed by Times critics </i>
<i> Compiled by Terry Atkinson </i>
*** 1/2 “Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll.” MCA. $79.95. PG.
This 1987 film of Chuck Berry’s 60th birthday concert, held in St. Louis’ Fox Theater--which was off-limits to blacks in Berry’s youth--finds the legendary singer-guitarist-writer joined by Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Linda Ronstadt, Etta James, Julian Lennon, Robert Cray and Berry’s old piano accompanist Johnnie Johnson. The music and movie pound with life’s beat, passion’s pulse. Director Taylor Hackford spices the show with interviews with Berry’s family, friends and fellow ‘50s rockers. And though the “bad” side of “Johnnie B. Goode” goes largely unexplored, it’s still a terrific show: one of the saltiest, most stirring rock documents ever.