Of all the early breakthrough ock & roll artists, none is more important to the development of the music than Chuck Berry. He is its greatest songwriter, the main shaper of its instrumental voice, one of its greatest guitarists, and one of its greatest performers. Quite simply, without him there would be no Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, nor a myriad others. There would be no standard "Chuck Berry guitar intro," the instrument's clarion call to get the joint rockin' in any setting. The clippety-clop rhythms of ockabilly would not have been mainstreamed into the now standard 4/4 ock & roll beat. There would be no obsessive wordplay by modern-day tunesmiths; in fact, the whole history (and artistic level) of ock & roll songwriting would have been much poorer without him. Like Brian Wilson said, he wrote "all of the great songs and came up with all the rock & roll beats." Those who do not claim him as a seminal influence or profess a liking for his music and showmanship show their ignorance of ock's development as well as his place as the music's first great creator. Elvis may have fueled ock & roll's imagery, but Chuck Berry was its heartbeat and original mindset. He was born Charles Edward Anderson Berry to a large family in St. Louis. A bright pupil, Berry developed a love for poetry and hard lues early on, winning a high school talent contest with a guitar-and-vocal rendition of Jay McShann's ig band number, "Confessin' the Blues." With some local tutelage from the neighborhood barber, Berry progressed from a four-string tenor guitar up to an official six-string model and was soon working the local East St. Louis club scene, sitting in everywhere he could. He quickly found out that black audiences liked a wide variety of music and set himself to the task of being able to reproduce as much of it as possible. What he found they really liked -- besides the lues and Nat King Cole tunes -- was the sight and sound of a black man playing white hillbilly music, and Berry's showmanlike flair, coupled with his seemingly inexhaustible supply of fresh verses to old favorites, quickly made him a name on the circuit. In 1954, he ended up taking over pianist Johnny Johnson's small combo and a residency at the Cosmopolitan Club soon made the Chuck Berry Trio the top attraction in the black community, with Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm their only real competition. But Berry had bigger ideas; he yearned to make records, and a trip to Chicago netted a two-minute conversation with his idol Muddy Waters, who encouraged him to approach Chess Records. Upon listening to Berry's homemade demo tape, label president Leonard Chess professed a liking for a hillbilly tune on it named "Ida Red" and quickly scheduled a session for May 21, 1955. During the session the title was changed to "Maybellene" and ock & roll history was born. Although the record only made it to the mid-20s on the Billboard pop chart, its overall influence was massive and groundbreaking in its scope. Here was finally a black ock & roll record with across-the-board appeal, embraced by white teenagers and Southern hillbilly musicians (a young Elvis Presley, still a full year from national stardom, quickly added it to his stage show), that for once couldn't be successfully covered by a pop singer like Snooky Lanson on Your Hit Parade. Part of the secret to its originality was Berry's blazing 24-bar guitar solo in the middle of it, the imaginative rhyme schemes in the lyrics, and the sheer thump of the record, all signaling that ock & roll had arrived and it was no fad. Helping to put the record over to a white teenage audience was the highly influential New York disc jockey Alan Freed, who had been given part of the writers' credit by Chess in return for his spins and plugs. But to his credit, Freed was also the first white DJ/promoter to consistently use Berry on his ock & roll stage show extravaganzas at the Brooklyn Fox and Paramo
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Johnny B. Goode: His Complete '50s Chess Recordings
Chuck Berry didn't invent rock and roll, but he may very well have invented rock'n'roll. His songs fueled and inspired the likes of Buddy Holly, the Beach Boys, the Beatles, the Who, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, and just about anybody in his wake who picked up an electric guitar. In the invaluable rock doc Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll, we watch in awe has Berry puts Keith Richards in his place with just a single angry glare, and watch in double-awe as Richards takes it. After all......
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Johnny B. Goode: His Complete '50s Chess Recordings
Chuck Berry didn't invent rock and roll, but he may very well have invented rock'n'roll. His songs fueled and inspired the likes of Buddy Holly, the Beach Boys, the Beatles, the Who, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, and just about anybody in his wake who picked up an electric guitar. In the invaluable rock doc Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll, we watch in awe has Berry puts Keith Richards in his place with just a single angry glare, and watch in double-awe as Richards takes it. After all...
read more
John Lennon was quoted as saying, "If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry'!"one hell of an endorsement. If taken solely on the merits of the individual tracks on this single disc collection, encompassing two of Berry's classic albums, Lennon was clearly making an understatement. Berry Is On Top (Chess Records, 1959) and St. Louis to Liverpool (Chess Records, 1964) are both jam-packed with hits. Each timeless track features the All-Star Rock 'n' Roll Hal......
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Well I'll be. The inventor of rock and roll hasn't made an album this listenable in fifteen years--no great new songs, but he's never written better throwaways (or covered "Ozymandias," either). Both Berry and Johnny Johnson--the piano half of his sound for a quarter of a century--have tricked up their styles without vitiating or cheapening them, and the result is a groove for all decades. Minor for sure, but what a surprise.
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His style has always been undeniable, but not irresistible--cf. Bio. Here at least its entertainment value is reconfirmed, whether he's remaking "Hi Heel Sneakers" or "You Are My Sunshine," adding blue (notes and lyrics) to "South of the Border," duetting with his daughter, or writin' and rollin' his own....
read more
This wasn't the great Chuck Berry concert if only because his voice is half shot--all those cracks don't ruin the fun, but they don't expose unexpected nuances in it either. Though Julian Lennon and Linda Ronstadt are less obtrusive when you can't see them trying to look like they belong, most of the cameos are still only adequate-to-embarrassing: the sole triumph is Eric Clapton's "Wee Wee Hours," with a typically miraculous solo from the omnipresent Johnnie Johnson. And so what? It's still the......
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Earlier this year MCA acquired a national treasure the catalog of Chess Records, arguably the finest single collection of Chicago blues and early rock & roll, including the classic recordings of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry. Clearly, ownership of these recordings is a serious responsibility; this first release in a planned series of Chess reissues suggests that it's being taken half seriously.At least, Rock'n Roll Rarities does the basics right. Record buyers who kno......
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Maybellene," "Roll Over Beethoven," "Sweet Little Sixteen," "Johnny B. Goode," "Memphis" and "Promised Land" are six damn good reasons a Great Retro Box treatment of Chuck Berry is long overdue. And there are sixty-five more just like them on The Chess Box, the first thorough, quality vinyl examination of Berry's vital Chess Records catalog and his immeasurable contribution to the sound, language and life force of rock & roll. The trademark guitar sting and witty, often barbed lyric narratives w......
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You remember him. He invented rock and roll--in 40 or so utterly indelible songs, with another couple dozen on the cusp. His CD-era standard has been the three-disc, 71-track Chess Box, which sticks a lot of questionable stuff toward the end and retails for around $50. On sale for $20 less and squeezing a 50-song double-CD into the shelf space of one, this is more consumer-friendly. Except that in a typical completist-baiting maneuver, it adds seven forgettable previously uncompileds (OK, "Don't......
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If Elvis Presley was the first great rock & roll singer — fully formed in his integrated roots and delivery on his 1954 Sun Records bow, "That's All Right" — Chuck Berry, a singer, guitarist and composer, was the music's first recording artist. In the two minutes and twenty-three seconds of his Chess debut single, "Maybellene," recorded in May 1955 and a Top Five pop hit that summer, Berry minted the fundamentals of rock guitar-metallic, locomotive strumming; the slashing flourish of his rif......
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His style has always been undeniable, but not irresistible--cf. Bio. Here at least its entertainment value is reconfirmed, whether he's remaking "Hi Heel Sneakers" or "You Are My Sunshine," adding blue (notes and lyrics) to "South of the Border," duetting with his daughter, or writin' and rollin' his own.
read more
Chuck Berry's Sixties work doesn't have the marquee value of 1950s hits such as "Maybellene" and "Johnny B. Goode." But unlike his peers Elvis Presley and Little Richard, Berry didn't experience any real drop-off in quality: Tunes like "Bye Bye Johnny," "Nadine," "No Particular Place to Go," "Promised Land" — all of them on this four-disc follow-up to 2007's Complete '50s Chess Recordings — are timeless killers. You Never Can Tell has an academic feel, with lots of alternate takes most liste......
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Well I'll be. The inventor of rock and roll hasn't made an album this listenable in fifteen years--no great new songs, but he's never written better throwaways (or covered "Ozymandias," either). Both Berry and Johnny Johnson--the piano half of his sound for a quarter of a century--have tricked up their styles without vitiating or cheapening them, and the result is a groove for all decades. Minor for sure, but what a surprise....
read more
You remember him. He invented rock and roll--in 40 or so utterly indelible songs, with another couple dozen on the cusp. His CD-era standard has been the three-disc, 71-track Chess Box, which sticks a lot of questionable stuff toward the end and retails for around $50. On sale for $20 less and squeezing a 50-song double-CD into the shelf space of one, this is more consumer-friendly. Except that in a typical completist-baiting maneuver, it adds seven forgettable previously uncompileds (OK, "Don't...
read more
This wasn't the great Chuck Berry concert if only because his voice is half shot--all those cracks don't ruin the fun, but they don't expose unexpected nuances in it either. Though Julian Lennon and Linda Ronstadt are less obtrusive when you can't see them trying to look like they belong, most of the cameos are still only adequate-to-embarrassing: the sole triumph is Eric Clapton's "Wee Wee Hours," with a typically miraculous solo from the omnipresent Johnnie Johnson. And so what? It's still the...
read more
sprofondare verso il basso.Il gorgo creato dai tanti eccessi di quell'ambiente ha fatto piazza pulita dell'enorme impianto musicale e scenografico che lo seguiva, lasciando ovviamente spazio ad altre realtà.Una considerazione a parte voglio farla: la cosa veramente incredibile, pensateci, è come ogni tipo di musica moderna sia nata dalla mente e dal groove dei neri ma portata al vero successo/eccesso dai bianchi. Dai Beach Boys che rubano Sweet Little Sixteen a Chuck Berry e ne fanno Surfin' Usa in poi ... read
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, after March 1975 it now took 60 senators to halt a filibuster instead of 67. And yet the Rockefeller ruling remained -- and remains to this day -- in place. A majority of senators may -- at their pleasure -- send the filibuster flying full force into the fires of Hell. The filibuster could be, as Chuck Berry might say: "Gone like a cool breeze." All thanks to the legacy of Nelson Rockefeller. That was 35 years ago. Now, in 2010, we see a federal government stymied by obstructionism in a Senate where ... read
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Click here to go to "Rock God Cred"...the blog that re-visits the lost gems from Classic Rock...Plus a ton of classic rock tunes get covered by your current indie/alt rock bands. Good stuff! Check it out! Tell a friend! Make sure you check the archives... Some of the latest posts....Annie Lennox covers Neil Young, Bob Seger covers Chuck Berry, a big batch of classic rock covers by the Decemberists, The Points North cover Bob Dylan, Opeth covers Robin Trower, 80's lost gem from Rod Stewart ... read
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heard. The rest of the first side is a mixed bag: The title track is a weird amalgam of a Bo Diddly beat, a Chuck Berry riff, a synthesizer and programmed drums. The big hit is a little too MOR to be the "Fly Like an Eagle" update that Miller obviously was aiming for. Two of the other tracks, "Slinky" and "Maelstrom," are extended instrumental filler. But the second side is where the album takes a turn for the better, following through on Miller's repeated promise to make a record of only blues ... read
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has played Holly in numerous productions both in film and on stage, put together this fine tribute show in 1999 and has been touring with it ever since. Although no one knows for sure what the set list was for that tour, or even if there was one, Mueller has pieced together a kind of "greatest hits" that combines Holly's music with covers of other musicians of the time such as Chuck Berry, Paul Anka, and Little Richard. Having played with several members of Holly's band (Tommy Allsup, Carl Bunch ... read
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Mansfield, MA 8/28/89. Listen for a handful of Westerberg zingers directed at Petty along the way. I guess Petty got him back by lifting the "rebel without a clue" line from "I'll Be You". Get the artwork here. Other highlights - "Talent Show", one of my favorite late-period Mats' songs, just explodes in the live setting. Three great covers - Chuck Berry's "Around & Around", The Only Ones' "Another Girl, Another Planet" (a live fixture of theirs for years), and Big Stars' "September Gurls". When ... read
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of first division heavyweights including the Stones, James Brown, Chuck Berry, and the Beach Boys - the Barbarians were invited to record an album on Laurie; their predictably self-titled debut hit the racks in 1965. Although it featured the off-handedly cool (excuse the pun) "Are You A Boy, Or Are You a Girl ?", the LP itself is merely interesting. The real jewel in their crown of thorns is the autobiographical, "Moulty", apparantly recorded during the album sessions as throwaway filler ... read
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. Jackie Wilson - (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher 38. Wilson Pickett - Land Of 1000 Dances 39. The Kingsmen - Louie Louie 40. Chuck Berry - No Particular Place To Go 41. The Small Faces - All Or Nothing 42. The Yardbirds - For Your Love 43. Fleetwood Mac - Man Of The world 44. Donovan - Sunshine Superman 45. The Cascades - The Rhythm Of The Rain 46. Herman's Hermits - There's A Kind Of Hush 47. Peter And Gordon - A World Without Love 48. Billy J Kramer And The Dakotas - Little ... read
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Rockers Flogging Molly The Chuck Berry and Flogging Molly concerts at the Pageant are sold out. Chuck Berry is March 27. Flogging Molly is March 10, with Frank Turner on the bill, along with the Architects. Get more information at www.thepageant.com.... ... read
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The Byrds- Draft Morning Bob Dylan- Nashville Skyline Rag Chuck Berry- Memphis Bo Diddley- Cadillac Detroit Cobras- Hittin on Nothin Captain Beefheart- Dropout Boogie Citay- Secret Breakfast Ducktails- Neptune City, NJ Thee Oh Sees- Sugar Boat Issac Hayes- Joy Part II Stevie Wonder- Joy (Takes Over Me) 1st Hour 2nd Hour 3rd Hour ... read
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. Wilson Pickett - Mustang Sally 39. Booker T And The MG's - Green Onions 40. Otis Redding - My Girl 41. Chuck Berry - You Never Can Tell 42. Eddie Cochrane - Three Steps To Heaven 43. Love Affair - Everlasting Love 44. The Turtles - Elenore 45. The Walker Brothers - Make It Easy On Yourself 46. P.P. Arnold - The First Cut Is The Deepest 47. Dionne Warwick - Walk On By 48. The Mindbenders - A Groovy Kind of Love 49. Thunderclap Newman - Something In The Air 50. Fleetwood Mac - Albatross ... read
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Of all the early breakthrough ock & roll artists, none is more important to the development of the music than Chuck Berry. He is its greatest songwriter, the main shaper of its instrumental voice, one of its greatest guitarists, and one of its greatest performers. Quite simply, without him there would be no Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, nor a myriad others. There would be no standard "Chuck Berry guitar intro," the instrument's clarion call to get the joint rockin' in any setting. The clippety-clop rhythms of ockabilly would not have been mainstreamed into the now standard 4/4 ock & roll beat. There would be no obsessive wordplay by modern-day tunesmiths; in fact, the whole history (and artistic level) of ock & roll songwriting would have been much poorer without him. Like Brian Wilson said, he wrote "all of the great songs and came up with all the rock & roll beats." Those who do not claim him as a seminal influence or profess a liking for his music and showmanship show their ignorance of ock's development as well as his place as the music's first great creator. Elvis may have fueled ock & roll's imagery, but Chuck Berry was its heartbeat and original mindset. He was born Charles Edward Anderson Berry to a large family in St. Louis. A bright pupil, Berry developed a love for poetry and hard lues early on, winning a high school talent contest with a guitar-and-vocal rendition of Jay McShann's ig band number, "Confessin' the Blues." With some local tutelage from the neighborhood barber, Berry progressed from a four-string tenor guitar up to an official six-string model and was soon working the local East St. Louis club scene, sitting in everywhere he could. He quickly found out that black audiences liked a wide variety of music and set himself to the task of being able to reproduce as much of it as possible. What he found they really liked -- besides the lues and Nat King Cole tunes -- was the sight and sound of a black man playing white hillbilly music, and Berry's showmanlike flair, coupled with his seemingly inexhaustible supply of fresh verses to old favorites, quickly made him a name on the circuit. In 1954, he ended up taking over pianist Johnny Johnson's small combo and a residency at the Cosmopolitan Club soon made the Chuck Berry Trio the top attraction in the black community, with Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm their only real competition. But Berry had bigger ideas; he yearned to make records, and a trip to Chicago netted a two-minute conversation with his idol Muddy Waters, who encouraged him to approach Chess Records. Upon listening to Berry's homemade demo tape, label president Leonard Chess professed a liking for a hillbilly tune on it named "Ida Red" and quickly scheduled a session for May 21, 1955. During the session the title was changed to "Maybellene" and ock & roll history was born. Although the record only made it to the mid-20s on the Billboard pop chart, its overall influence was massive and groundbreaking in its scope. Here was finally a black ock & roll record with across-the-board appeal, embraced by white teenagers and Southern hillbilly musicians (a young Elvis Presley, still a full year from national stardom, quickly added it to his stage show), that for once couldn't be successfully covered by a pop singer like Snooky Lanson on Your Hit Parade. Part of the secret to its originality was Berry's blazing 24-bar guitar solo in the middle of it, the imaginative rhyme schemes in the lyrics, and the sheer thump of the record, all signaling that ock & roll had arrived and it was no fad. Helping to put the record over to a white teenage audience was the highly influential New York disc jockey Alan Freed, who had been given part of the writers' credit by Chess in return for his spins and plugs. But to his credit, Freed was also the first white DJ/promoter to consistently use Berry on his ock & roll stage show extravaganzas at the Brooklyn Fox and Paramo
read more
Of all the early breakthrough rock & roll artists, none is more important to the development of the music than Chuck Berry. He is its greatest songwriter, the main shaper of its instrumental voice, one of its greatest guitarists, and one of its greatest performers. Quite simply, without him, there would be no Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, nor a myriad others. There would be no standard "Chuck Berry guitar intro," the instrument's clarion call to get the joint rockin' in any setting. The clippety-clop rhythms of rockabilly would not have been mainstreamed into the now standard 4/4 rock & roll beat. There would be no obsessive wordplay by modern-day tunesmiths; in fact, the whole history (and artistic level) of rock & roll songwriting would have been much poorer without him. Like Brian Wilson said, he wrote "all of the great songs and came up with all the rock'n'roll beats." Those who do not claim him as a seminal influence or profess a liking for his music and showmanship show their ignorance of rock's development as well as his place as the music's first great creator. Elvis may have fueled rock & roll's imagery, but Chuck Berry was its heartbeat and original mindset.
He was born Charles Edward Anderson Berry to a large family in St. Louis. A bright pupil, Berry developed a love for poetry and hard blues early on, winning a high school talent contest with a guitar-and-vocal rendition of Jay McShann's big band number, "Confessin' the Blues." With some local tutelage from the neighborhood barber, Berry progressed from a four-string tenor guitar up to an official six-string model and was soon working the local East St. Louis club scene, sitting in everywhere he could. He quickly found out that black audiences liked a wide variety of music and set himself to the task of being able to reproduce as much of it as possible. What he found they really liked -- besides the blues and Nat King Cole tunes -- was the sight and sound of a black man playing white hillbilly music, and Berry's showmanlike flair, coupled with his seemingly inexhaustible supply of fresh verses to old favorites, quickly made him a name on the circuit. In 1954, he ended up taking over pianist Johnny Johnson's small combo and a residency at the Cosmopolitan Club soon made the Chuck Berry Trio the top attraction in the black community, with Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm their only real competition.
But Berry had bigger ideas; he yearned to make records, and a trip to Chicago netted a two-minute conversation with his idol Muddy Waters, who encouraged him to approach Chess Records. Upon listening to Berry's homemade demo tape, label president Leonard Chess professed a liking for a hillbilly tune on it named "Ida Red" and quickly scheduled a session for May 21, 1955. During the session the title was changed to "Maybellene" and rock & roll history was born. Although the record only made it to the mid-20s on the Billboard pop chart, its overall influence was massive and groundbreaking in its scope. Here was finally a black rock & roll record with across-the-board appeal, embraced by white teenagers and Southern hillbilly musicians (a young Elvis Presley, still a full year from national stardom, quickly added it to his stage show), that for once couldn't be successfully covered by a pop singer like Snooky Lanson on Your Hit Parade. Part of the secret to its originality was Berry's blazing 24-bar guitar solo in the middle of it, the imaginative rhyme schemes in the lyrics, and the sheer thump of the record, all signaling that rock & roll had arrived and it was no fad. Helping to put the record over to a white teenage audience was the highly influential New York disc jockey Alan Freed, who had been given part of the writers' credit by Chess in return for his spins and plugs. But to his credit, Freed was also the first white DJ/promoter to consistently use Berry on his rock &
read more
Of all the early breakthrough rock & roll artists, none is more important to the development of the music than Chuck Berry. He is its greatest songwriter, the main shaper of its instrumental voice, one of its greatest guitarists, and one of its greatest performers. Quite simply, without him there would be no Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, nor a myriad others. There would be no standard "Chuck Berry guitar intro," the instrument's clarion call to get the joint rockin' in any setting. The clippety-clop rhythms of rockabilly would not have been mainstreamed into the now standard 4/4 rock & roll beat. There would be no obsessive wordplay by modern-day tunesmiths; in fact, the whole history (and artistic level) of rock & roll songwriting would have been much poorer without him. Like Brian Wilson said, he wrote "all of the great songs and came up with all the rock & roll beats." Those who do not claim him as a seminal influence or profess a liking for his music and showmanship show their ignorance of rock's development as well as his place as the music's first great creator. Elvis may have fueled rock & roll's imagery, but Chuck Berry was its heartbeat and original mindset.
He was born Charles Edward Anderson Berry to a large family in St. Louis. A bright pupil, Berry developed a love for poetry and hard blues early on, winning a high school talent contest with a guitar-and-vocal rendition of Jay McShann's big band number, "Confessin' the Blues." With some local tutelage from the neighborhood barber, Berry progressed from a four-string tenor guitar up to an official six-string model and was soon working the local East St. Louis club scene, sitting in everywhere he could. He quickly found out that black audiences liked a wide variety of music and set himself to the task of being able to reproduce as much of it as possible. What he found they really liked -- besides the blues and Nat King Cole tunes -- was the sight and sound of a black man playing white hillbilly music, and Berry's showmanlike flair, coupled with his seemingly inexhaustible supply of fresh verses to old favorites, quickly made him a name on the circuit. In 1954, he ended up taking over pianist Johnny Johnson's small combo and a residency at the Cosmopolitan Club soon made the Chuck Berry Trio the top attraction in the black community, with Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm their only real competition.
But Berry had bigger ideas; he yearned to make records, and a trip to Chicago netted a two-minute conversation with his idol Muddy Waters, who encouraged him to approach Chess Records. Upon listening to Berry's homemade demo tape, label president Leonard Chess professed a liking for a hillbilly tune on it named "Ida Red" and quickly scheduled a session for May 21, 1955. During the session the title was changed to "Maybellene" and rock & roll history was born. Although the record only made it to the mid-20s on the Billboard pop chart, its overall influence was massive and groundbreaking in its scope. Here was finally a black rock & roll record with across-the-board appeal, embraced by white teenagers and Southern hillbilly musicians (a young Elvis Presley, still a full year from national stardom, quickly added it to his stage show), that for once couldn't be successfully covered by a pop singer like Snooky Lanson on Your Hit Parade. Part of the secret to its originality was Berry's blazing 24-bar guitar solo in the middle of it, the imaginative rhyme schemes in the lyrics, and the sheer thump of the record, all signaling that rock & roll had arrived and it was no fad. Helping to put the record over to a white teenage audience was the highly influential New York disc jockey Alan Freed, who had been given part of the writers' credit by Chess in return for his spins and plugs. But to his credit, Freed was also the first white DJ/promoter to consistently use Berry on his rock & roll stage show extravaganzas at the Brooklyn F
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Charles Edward Anderson “Chuck” Berry (born October 18, 1926) is an immensely influential American guitarist, singer, and composer, and one of the pioneers of rock & roll music. Berry was born in St. Louis, Missouri and was part of the first group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on its opening in 1986. Though playing what was considered Rhythm & Blues (R & B), in retrospect Berry is now seen by many as more of a rockabilly (rather than R & B) singer. However, he was the real poet of 1950s rock ‘n’ roll. While he was African American, white teenagers of the 1950s identified greatly to his lyrics, which contributed to the success of his songs during that time period. Many performers have recorded his work from the 1950s onwards, from Elvis through Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Emmylou Harris and others. Berry’s ‘Come On’ became one of the Rolling Stones first hits, the Beatles famously recorded his ‘Rock and Roll Music’, among other songs, and even Bob Dylan could be said to have amended Berry’s ‘Too Much Monkey Business’ for his ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’. Humble Pie clearly took their hit ‘Natural Born Boogie’ direct from Berry’s ‘Little Queenie’. While Berry may be best known by many for ‘Johnny B Goode’ (if we ignore perhaps his biggest seller, ‘My Ding-A-Ling’), his sequel to ‘Johnny B Goode’, another probably autobiographical song ‘Bye Bye Johnny’, became the closing song for the live set of many British groups of the early to mid-1960s. Though faced with imitators, Berry was still able to achieve hits himself in the 1960s with ‘No Particular Place to Go’ and ‘Nadine’.
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Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry (born 18 October 1926, St. Louis, Missouri) is an iconic and influential American guitarist, singer and songwriter.
Chuck Berry is an influential figure and one of the pioneers of rock & roll music. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's website, "While no individual can be said to have invented rock and roll, Chuck Berry comes the closest of any single figure to being the one who put all the essential pieces together." Cub Koda wrote, "Of all the early breakthrough rock & roll artists, none is more important to the development of the music than Chuck Berry. He is its greatest songwriter, the main shaper of its instrumental voice, one of its greatest guitarists, and one of its greatest performers." John Lennon was more succinct: "If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry'."
Of all the early breakthrough rock & roll artists, none is more important to the development of the music than Chuck Berry.
He is its greatest songwriter, the main shaper of its instrumental voice, one of its greatest guitarists, and one of its greatest
performers. Quite simply, without him there would be no Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, nor a myriad others.
There would be no standard "Chuck Berry guitar intro," the instrument's clarion call to get the joint rockin' in any setting.
The clippety-clop rhythms of rockabilly would not have been mainstreamed into the now standard 4/4 rock & roll beat. There
would be no obsessive wordplay by modern-day tunesmiths; in fact, the whole history (and artistic level) of rock & roll songwriting
would have been much poorer without him. Like Brian Wilson said, he wrote "all of the great songs and came up with all the
rock & roll beats." Those who do not claim him as a seminal influence or profess a liking for his music and showmanship show
their ignorance of rock's development as well as his place as the music's first great creator. Elvis may have fueled rock
& roll's imagery, but Chuck Berry was its heartbeat and original mindset.
He was born Charles Edward Anderson Berry to a large family in St. Louis. A bright pupil, Berry developed a love for poetry
and hard blues early on, winning a high school talent contest with a guitar-and-vocal rendition of Jay McShann's big band
number, "Confessin' the Blues." With some local tutelage from the neighborhood barber, Berry progressed from a four-string
tenor guitar up to an official six-string model and was soon working the local East St. Louis club scene, sitting in everywhere
he could. He quickly found out that black audiences liked a wide variety of music and set himself to the task of being able
to reproduce as much of it as possible. What he found they really liked -- besides the blues and Nat King Cole tunes
-- was the sight and sound of a black man playing white hillbilly music, and Berry's showmanlike flair, coupled with his seemingly
inexhaustible supply of fresh verses to old favorites, quickly made him a name on the circuit. In 1954, he ended up taking
over pianist Johnny Johnson's small combo and a residency at the Cosmopolitan Club soon made the Chuck Berry Trio the top
attraction in the black community, with Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm their only real competition.
But Berry had bigger ideas; he yearned to make records, and a trip to Chicago netted a two-minute conversation with his
idol Muddy Waters, who encouraged him to approach Chess Records. Upon listening to Berry's homemade demo tape, label president
Leonard Chess professed a liking for a hillbilly tune on it named "Ida Red" and quickly scheduled a session for May 21, 1955.
During the session the title was changed to "Maybellene" and rock & roll history was born. Although the record only made it
to the mid-20s on the Billboard pop chart, its overall influence was massive and groundbreaking in its scope. Here was finally
a black rock & roll record with across-the-board appeal, embraced by white teenagers and Southern hillbilly musicians (a young
Elvis Presley, still a full year from national stardom, quickly added it to his stage show), that for once couldn't be successfully
covered by a pop singer like Snooky Lanson on Your Hit Parade. Part of the secret to its originality was Berry's blazing 24-bar
guitar solo in the middle of it, the imaginative rhyme schemes in the lyrics, and the sheer thump of the record, all signaling
that rock & roll had arrived and it was no fad. Helping to put the record over to a white teenage audience was the highly
influential New York disc jockey Alan Freed, who had been given part of the writers' credit by Chess in return for his spins
and plugs. But to his credit, Freed was also the first white DJ/promoter to consistently use Berry on his rock & roll stage
show extravaganzas at the Brookl
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1957: After School Session (Chess). 1958: One Dozen Berrys (Chess). 1959: Chuck Berry Is on Top (Chess). 1960: Rockin' at the Hops (Chess). 1961: New Juke Box Hits (Chess). 1962: Chuck Berry Twist (Chess). 1963: Chuck Berry on Stage, Live (Chess). 1964: St. Louis to Liverpool (Chess). 1965: Chuck Berry in London (Chess). 1965: Fresh Berry's (Chess). 1967: Chuck Berry in Memphis, Live (Mercury). 1967: Live at the Fillmore Auditorium (Mercury). 1968: From St. Louie to Frisco (Mercury). 1969: Concerto in B Goode, Live (Mercury). 1969: Rock Rock (Chess). 1970: Back Home (Chess). 1971: Home Again (Chess). 1971: San Francisco Dues (Chess). 1972: The London Chuck Berry Sessions (Chess). 1973: Back in the U.S.A. (Philips). 1973: Bio (Chess). 1975: Chuck Berry 75 (Chess). 1979: Rock It (Atco). 1981: Tokyo Session, en directo (East World, Toshiba). 1987: Hail! Hail! Rock 'N Roll (MCA). 1991: Chuck Berry (Bella). 1991: The Collection (MCA US). 1991: The Very Best of Chuck Berry (Bellaphon). 1994: The Best of Chuck Berry (Music Club). 1995: That Good Old Times: Chuck Berry in Concert (Bellaphon). 1996: The Best of Chuck Berry (Ar-Express). 1997: Super Stars (Super). 2002: Star Power (Intermedia). 2006: Sidy by Side (Newsound). (read less)
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