Comprehensive information and links about Chuck Berry

Chuck Berry (born October 18, 1926Chuck Berry is an immensely influential African 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. He received Kennedy Center Honors in 2000.

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Biography

Born in St.Louis, Missouri, Chuck Berry was a third child in a family of six. He grew up in an area of St.Louis known as the Ville, one of the few areas of the city where blacks could own property, which consequently made it synonymous with black prosperity. His father was a contractor and a deacon of a nearby baptist church, his mother a qualified schoolteacher. His middle class upbringing allowed him to pursue his interest in music from an early age and he made his first public performances while still in high school. Before he could graduate he was arrested and convicted for attempted burglary in 1944, after taking a joy ride with his friends to Kansas City, and sentenced to 10 years in reform school of which he served three. He was released on his 21st birthday. Chuck Berry had been playing a form of the "blues" since his teens and by early 1953 was performing with "Sir John's Trio," a band that played at a popular club in St. Louis. In May of 1955, he traveled to Chicago where he met Muddy Waters who suggested he contact Chess Records. Signed to a contract, that September he released a unique version of the Bob Wills song, "Ida Red," under the title, "Maybellene." The song eventually peaked at #5 on the charts. In the autumn of 1957, Berry joined the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, and other rising stars of the new rock and roll to tour the United States.

Berry's early LP records sometimes contained well-delivered blues standards to round out the customary dozen tracks.

In December 1959, Berry had legal problems after he invited a 14-year-old Apache waitress he met in Mexico to work as a hat check girl at Berry's Club Bandstand, his nightclub in St. Louis. The girl was arrested on a prostitution charge and Berry was arrested under the Mann Act (transporting a minor across state lines for sexual purposes). Berry was convicted, fined $5,000, and sentenced to five years in prison. At the time of his release in 1963, his musical career enjoyed a resurgence due to many of the British Invasion acts of the '60's (most notably the Beatles and the Rolling Stones) releasing cover versions of classic Berry hits.

Berry toured for many years carrying only his Gibson guitar, confident that he could hire a band that already knew his music no matter where he went. Among the many bandleaders performing this backup role were Bruce Springsteen and Steve Miller. Springsteen backed Berry again when he appeared at the Concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.

After traveling the "oldies" circuit in the 1970s, Berry was in trouble with the law again in 1979, when he pled guilty to income tax evasion and was sentenced to four months imprisonment and 1,000 hours of community service, doing benefit concerts.

In the late 1980s, Berry owned a restaurant in Wentzville, Missouri, called The Southern Air. Berry also owns an estate in Wentzville called Berry Park. For many years, Berry hosted rock concerts throughout the summer at Berry Park. He eventually closed the estate to the public due to the riotous behavior of many guests.

Although in his late 70s, Berry continues to perform regularly, playing both throughout the United States and overseas. He performs one Wednesday each month at Blueberry Hill, a restaurant and bar located in the Delmar Loop neighborhood in St. Louis.

A documentary

Influence

A pioneer of rock and roll, Chuck Berry was a significant influence on development of early rock and roll guitar techniques and a major catalyst in rhythm and blues to rock roll transition. His guitar skill is legendary, and many later guitar musicians acknowleged it as a major influence in their own . When Keith Richards inducted Berry into the Hall of Fame, he said, "It's hard for me to induct Chuck Berry, because I lifted every lick he ever played!". John Lennon, another devotee of Berry, borrowed a line from Berry's "You Can't Catch Me" for his song "Come Together," and was subsequently sued by Berry's management, namely Morris Levy. Nevertheless, they became good friends, and played together on more than one occasion. Lennon once commented: "If you tried to give Rock DC, who has cited Berry as one of his biggest influences, is famous for using Berry's duckwalk as one of his gimmicks. Berry was also a large influence on Elvis Presley.

While there is debate about who recorded the first rock and roll record, Chuck Berry's early recordings, including "Maybellene" (1955) fully synthesized the rock and roll form, combining blues and country music with teenaged lyrics about girls and cars, with impeccable diction alongside distinctive electric guitar solos and an energetic stage persona. Chuck Berry also popularized use of the boogie in rock and roll.

Most of his famous recordings were on Chess Records with pianist Johnnie Johnson from Berry's own band and legendary record producer Willie Dixon on bass, Fred Below on drums, and Berry's guitar, arguably the epitome of an early rock and roll band. It should be noted, however, that Lafayette Leake, not Johnnie Johnson, played the piano on "Johnny B. Goode", "Reelin' and Rockin'", "Sweet Little Sixteen", and "Rock Roll Music". Additionally, Otis Spann played the piano on "You Can't Catch Me" and "No Money Down".

Producer Leonard Chess recalled laconically:

dlI told Chuck to give it a bigger beat. History the rest, you know? The kids wanted the big beat, cars, and young love. It was a trend and we jumped on it.While Elvis was a country boy who sang "black" to some degree ... Chuck Berry provided the mirror image where country music was filtered through an R

Berry's musical influences included Nat King Cole, T-Bone Walker, Louis Jordan, and Muddy Waters — who was both the singer and guitarist vital in the transformation of Delta blues into Chicago blues and the man who introduced Berry to Leonard Chess at Chess Records.

Throughout his career Berry recorded both smooth ballads like "Havana Moon" and blues tunes like "Wee Wee Hours." but it was his own mastery of the new form that won him fame. He recorded more than 30 Top Ten records, and his songs have been covered by hundreds of blues, country, and rock and roll performers.

Rolling Stone recently named him the 6th Greatest Guitarist in their (admittedly controversial and highly questionable) list of the top 100. His compilation album "The Great Twenty-Eight" was also named 21st on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

"Johnny B. Goode" - the autobiographical saga of a country boy who could "play a guitar just like ringing a bell". It was chosen as one of the greatest achievements of humanity for the Voyager I collection of artifacts. The song was also prominently featured in the feature film "Back to the Future.""Roll Over Beethoven" - ("tell Tchaikovsky the news"), a cheeky announcement if ever there was one, refered to in AC"School Days" - its chorus, "Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll", was chosen as the title of the documentary concert film organized by Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones as his tribute to Chuck, who appears in the film with many others."Let It Rock" - fantasia of gambling railroad workers that lives up to the title, written under the pseudonym E. Anderson."Maybelline" - car, girl, rival, jealousy—based on the country tune "Ida Red" performed originally by Bob Wills "Too Much Monkey Business" - teenaged attitudes, predecessor to rap, "Same thing every day, gettin' up, goin' to school, no need of me complaining, my objection's overruled". Also inspired the Bob Dylan song, "Subterranean Homesick Blues", Johnny Thunders' "Too Much Junky Business" play on title"Memphis" - unique beat, sweet story. Lonnie Mack and Johnny Rivers both built entire careers starting with this song."My Ding-a-Ling" - his only #1, a New Orleans novelty song that he had been singing for years and fortuitously included on a live recording in London in 1970."Route 66" - written by Bobby Troup and originally performed by Nat King Cole, it is commonly associated with Berry