Musician, born in St Louis, Missouri, USA. As a singer-guitarist who drew from blues, rockabilly, and country-and-western styles, and wrote songs about teenage concerns, he was the biggest influence on pre-Beatles rock. He trained as a hairdresser and played with Johnnie Johnson's (19242005) trio in East St Louis, IL, before launching his career with Chess Records in Chicago (1955). With hit songs such as School Days, Rock and Roll Music, and Johnny B Goode, he appealed to teenagers of all races. In 1962 he began serving a two-year sentence for violating the Mann Act. After his release (1964) his career never fully recovered, though his 1972 release My Ding A Ling was the most successful record of his career. (He served other brief prison terms in 1979 and 1990.) In 1986 he became an inaugural member of the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. His memoir, Chuck Berry: The Autobiography, was published in 1988.
| Chuck Berry | |
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| Born |
October 18, 1926 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A. |
| Genre(s) | Rock and Roll |
| Label(s) | Chess Records |
| Years active | 1955 - Present |
| Official site | www.chuckberry.com |
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry (born October 18, 1926) is an American guitarist, singer, and song writer.
Career scandals
In December 1959, after scoring a string of hit songs and while touring often, Berry had legal problems after he invited a 14-year-old Apache waitress, that he met in Mexico, to work as a hat check girl at Berry's Club Bandstand, his nightclub in St. Louis. However, when Berry was released from prison in 1963 his musical career enjoyed a resurgence due to many of the British Invasion acts of the 1960s—most notably the Beatles and the Rolling Stones—releasing cover versions of classic Berry hits.
Touring as Chuck Berry, the legend
In the 1970s Berry toured on the basis of his earlier successes. For many years Berry hosted rock concerts throughout the summer at Berry Park.
Influence
A pioneer of rock and roll, Chuck Berry was a significant influence on the development of early rock and roll guitar techniques and a major catalyst in the rhythm and blues to rock & Richard Berry (no relation) drew on Chuck Berry's "Havana Moon" as an inspiration for his own song, the now classic "Louie, Louie". 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 music publisher Morris Levy.
Angus Young, of AC/DC, who has cited Berry as one of his biggest influences, is famous for using Berry's duckwalk as one of his gimmicks.
While there is debate about who recorded the first rock and roll record, Chuck Berry's early recordings, including "Maybellene" (1955) are perhaps among the first fully synthesized rock and roll singles, 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.
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.
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. John Lennon loved Chuck Berry's music "Sweet Little Sixteen" - with new lyrics, it became a hit for The Beach Boys as "Surfin' USA" "Roll Over Beethoven" - and "tell Tchaikovsky the news" a battle yell for rock and roll.
Discography
Singles
| Release date | Title | Chart Positions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Hot 100 | US R&B | UK | ||
| 1955 | "Maybellene" (A-Side) | #5 | #1 | |
| → "Wee Wee Hours" (B-Side) | #10 | |||
| 1955 | "Thirty Days" | #2 | ||
| 1955 | "No Money Down" | #8 | ||
| 1956 | "Roll Over Beethoven" | #29 | #2 | |
| 1956 | "Too Much Monkey Business" | #4 | ||
| → "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" (B-Side) | #5 | |||
| 1956 | "You Can't Catch Me" | |||
| 1957 | "School Days" | #3 | #1 | #24 |
| 1957 | "Oh Baby Doll" | #57 | #12 | |
| 1957 | "Rock and Roll Music" | #8 | #6 | |
| 1958 | "Sweet Little Sixteen" | #2 | #1 | #16 |
| 1958 | "Johnny B. Goode" | #8 | #2 | |
| 1958 | "Beautiful Delilah" | #81 | ||
| 1958 | "Carol" | #18 | #9 | |
| 1958 | "Sweet Little Rock and Roller" (A-Side) | #47 | #13 | |
| → "Jo Jo Gunne" (B-Side) | #83 | |||
| 1958 | "Merry Christmas Baby" (A-Side) | #71 | ||
| → "Run Rudolph Run" (B-Side) | #69 | #36 | ||
| 1959 | "Anthony Boy" | #60 | ||
| 1959 | "Almost Grown" (A-Side) | #32 | #3 | |
| → "Little Queenie" (B-Side) | #80 | |||
| 1959 | "Back In The USA" (A-Side) | #37 | #16 | |
| → "Memphis, Tennessee" (B-Side) | #6 | |||
| 1959 | "Broken Arrow" | #108 | ||
| 1960 | "Too Pooped To Pop (Casey)" (A-Side) | #42 | #18 | |
| → "Let It Rock" (B-Side) | #64 | #6 | ||
| 1960 | "Bye Bye Johnny" | |||
| 1960 | "I Got To Find My Baby" | |||
| 1960 | "Jaguar and Thunderbird" | #109 | ||
| 1961 | "I'm Talking About You" | |||
| 1961 | "Come On" (A-Side) | |||
| → "Go Go Go" (B-Side) | #38 | |||
| 1963 | "Diploma For Two" | |||
| 1964 | "Nadine" | #23 | #27 | |
| 1964 | "No Particular Place To Go" | #10 | #3 | |
| 1964 | "You Never Can Tell" | #14 | #23 | |
| 1964 | "Little Marie" | #54 | ||
| 1964 | "Promised Land" | #41 | #26 | |
| 1965 | "Dear Dad" | #95 | ||
| 1965 | "It Wasn't Me" | |||
| 1966 | "Ramona Say Yes" | |||
| 1967 | "Laugh and Cry" | |||
| 1967 | "Back to Memphis" | |||
| 1967 | "Feelin' It" | |||
| 1968 | "Louie to Frisco" | |||
| 1969 | "Good Looking Woman" | |||
| 1970 | "Tulane" | |||
| 1972 | "My Ding-A-Ling" (live) | #1 | #42 | #1 |
| 1972 | "Reelin' and Rockin'" (live) | #27 | #18 | |
| 1973 | "Bio" | |||
| 1975 | "Shake, Rattle and Roll" | |||
| 1979 | "California" | |||
Note that not all of Berry's UK singles were released in the same year as the initial US release, and not all of Berry's UK singles featured the same A-Side/B-Side configurations as in the US.
Billboard did not publish a separate R&B singles chart in 1964, hence Berry's absence from the R&B charts for the singles "Nadine" through "Promised Land".
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