Chuck Berry

• Born: 18 October 1926
• Birthplace: St. Louis, Missouri
• Best Known As: Early rock legend who did "Johnny B. Goode"

Guitarist and singer Chuck Berry's output from 1955 to 1965 includes some of the earliest classics in rock history, from "Maybellene" and "Rock 'n' Roll Music" to "Sweet Little Sixteen" and "Johnny B. Goode." Berry began playing professionally in St. Louis in the early 1950s. His 1955 hit "Maybellene" made him a national star, and he followed with a string of hit records that appealed to both black and white audiences. His career was briefly derailed in the early 1960s, when he ran afoul of the law and ended up spending three years in prison. He bounced back with new recordings and performances, but his best years seemed behind him. Ironically, Berry's biggest hit came in 1972, a live recording of the innuendo-heavy novelty song, "My Ding-a-Ling." In addition to his status as a rock legend, Berry earned a reputation for unpredictable performances, erratic behavior and legal troubles (he was sentenced to more jail time in 1979 for tax evasion). Like his contemporary Little Richard, Berry is an African-American whose influence on rock 'n' roll was overshadowed by the popularity of white artists such as The Beatles and the The Rolling Stones. Nonetheless, he is recognized as one of the founders of rock 'n' roll music.

Berry's signature on stage was the "duck walk" -- playing the guitar while squatting and hopping on one foot... A sample of "Johnny B. Goode" was included in a compilation of music aboard the spacecraft Voyager I, launched by the United States in 1977... Berry claims he was born in St. Louis, Missouri, but others insist he was born in San Jose, California.

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Chuck Berry (born 1926), creator of the "duck walk" and known as the "father of rock and roll," has been a major influence on popular music. Even though his career and life reached great peaks and declined to low valleys, he still prevails in music while his contemporaries have vanished.

"If there were a single fountainhead for rock guitar, Chuck Berry would be it," wrote Gene Santoro in The Guitar. Indeed, the list of artists influenced by the "father of rock and roll" is nearly endless. From the Beach Boys and the Beatles to Jimi Hendrix and on to Van Halen and Stevie Ray Vaughan, every popular musician knows the impact that Chuck Berry has had on popular music. As Eric Clapton stated, there's really no other way to play rock and roll.

Took up Guitar in Junior High

Born in 1926, Berry didn't take up the guitar until he was in junior high school thirteen years later. With the accompaniment of a friend on guitar, the two youths played a steamy version of Confessin' The Blues which surprised, and pleased, the student audience. The reaction from the crowd prompted Berry to learn some guitar chords from his partner and he was hooked from then on. He spent his teen years developing his chops while working with his father doing carpentry. But before he could graduate from high school, Berry was arrested and convicted of armed robbery and served three years in Algoa (Missouri). A year after his release on October 18, 1947, he was married and working on a family, swearing that he was forever cured of heading down the wrong path again.

In addition to carpentry, he began working as a hairstylist around this time, saving as much money as he could make (a trait that would cause him considerable grief later in his life). Near the end of 1952 he received a call from a piano player named Johnnie Johnson asking him to play a New Year's Eve gig at the Cosmopolitan Club. Berry accepted, and for the next three years the band literally ruled the Cosmo Club (located at the corner of 17th and Bond St. in East St. Louis, Illinois). At the beginning the band (which included Ebby Hardy on drums), was called Sir John's Trio and played mostly hillbilly, country, and honky tonk tunes. Berry's influence changed not only their name (to the Chuck Berry Combo) but also their style. He originally wanted to be a big band guitarist but that style had died down in popularity by then. Berry cited sources like T-Bone Walker, Carl Hogan of Louis Jordan's Tympani Five, Charlie Christian, and saxophonist Illinois Jacquet as his inspirations, borrowing from their sounds to make one of his own.

Met Idol Muddy Waters

While the swing guitarists had a major impact on his playing, it was the blues, especially that of Muddy Waters, that caught Berry's attention. He and a friend went to see the master perform at a Chicago club, and with some coaxing, Berry mustered the nerve to speak with his idol. "It was the feeling I suppose one would get from having a word with the president or the pope," Berry wrote in his autobiography. "I quickly told him of my admiration for his compositions and asked him who I could see about making a record…. Those very famous words were, 'Yeah, see Leonard Chess. Yeah, Chess Records over on Forty-seventh and Cottage."' Berry flatly rejects the story of him hopping on stage and showing up Waters: "I was a stranger to Muddy and in no way was I about to ask my godfather if I could sit in and play." But he did take the advice and went to see the Chess brothers, Leonard and Phil. They were interested in the young artist but wanted to hear a demo tape before actually cutting any songs. So Berry hurried back home, recorded some tunes and headed back to Chicago.

"He was carrying a wire recorder," Leonard Chess told Peter Guralnick in Feel Like Going Home, "and he played us a country music take-off called 'Ida Red.' We called it 'Maybellene'…. The big beat, cars, and young love…. It was a trend and we jumped on it." Phil Chess elaborated, "You could tell right away…. He had that something special, that - I don't know what you'd call it. But he had it." After the May 21, 1955, recording session they headed back to the Cosmo Club, earning $21 per week and competing with local rivals like Albert King and Ike Turner. Unbeknownst to him, Berry shared writing credits for "Maybellene" with Russ Fralto and New York disc jockey Alan Freed as part of a deal Chess had made (also known as payola). The scam worked for the most part because by mid-September the song, which had taken 36 cuts to complete, was number 1 on the R&B charts. Berry was bilked out of two-thirds of his royalties from the song, but in later years he would reflect upon the lesson he learned: "Let me say that any man who can't take care of his own money deserves what he gets," he told Rolling Stone. "In fact, a man should be able to take care of most of his business himself." Ever since the incident that's just what Berry has done. He insists on running his career and managing his finances the way he sees fit.

Ten More Top Ten Hits

The next few years, until 1961, would see at least ten more top ten hits, including "Thirty Days," "Roll Over Beethoven," "Too Much Monkey Business," "Brown Eyed Handsome Man," "School Days," "Rock and Roll Music," "Sweet Little Sixteen," "Johnny B. Goode," "Carol," and "Almost Grown." Berry was a tremendous hit on the touring circuit, utilizing what is now known as his trademark. He explained its development in his autobiography: "A brighter seat of my memories is based on pursuing my rubber ball. Once it happened to bounce under the kitchen table, and I was trying to retrieve it while it was still bouncing. Usually I was reprimanded for disturbing activities when there was company in the house, as there was then. But this time my manner of retrieving the ball created a big laugh from Mother's choir members. Stooping with full-bended knees, but with my back and head vertical, I fit under the tabletop while scooting forward reaching for the ball. This squatting manner was requested by members of the family many times thereafter for the entertainment of visitors and soon, from their appreciation and encouragement, I looked forward to the ritual. An act was in the making. After it had been abandoned for years I happened to remember the maneuver while performing in New York for the first time and some journalist branded it the 'duck walk."'

The money from touring and record royalties were filling his pockets enough for Berry to start spending on some of the dreams he had long held. Around 1957 he opened Berry Park just outside of Wentzville, Missouri. With a guitar-shaped swimming pool, golf course, hotel suites, and nightclub, it was, next to his fleet of Cadillacs, his pride and joy. "Now that's what I call groovy," he told Rolling Stone. "To own a piece of land is like getting the closest to God, I'd say."

Remakes Weaker Than Originals

Things seemed to be going smoothly until 1961, when Berry was found guilty of violating the Mann Act. Berry was charged with transporting a teenage girl across a state line for immoral purposes. He spent from February 19, 1962 until October 18, 1963 behind bars at the Federal Medical Center in Springfield, Missouri. For years Berry denied this, claiming he was acquitted and never served time. He finally admitted the truth in his autobiography. He used his prison term constructively though, taking courses to complete his high school education and also by penning some of his most notable songs: "Tulane," "No Particular Place To Go," and "Nadine."

By the time Berry was released from jail the British Invasion was about to take over. Groups like the Beatles were churning out cover versions of Berry classics and turning whole new audiences on to him. While some artists might have cried rip-off (the Stones have done over ten of his tunes), Berry sees only the positive aspects. "Did I like it? That doesn't come under my scrutiny," he told Guitar Player. "It struck me that my material was becoming marketable, a recognizable product, and if these guys could do such a good job as to get a hit, well, fantastic. I'm just glad it was my song." Even so, remakes of Berry hits are more often than not considerably weaker than his originals. While his style is remarkably simple, it is also next to impossible to duplicate with the same feel and sense of humor.

A Shrewd Rock and Roller

"Chuck Berry dominated much of the early rock scene by his complete mastery of all its aspects: playing, performing, songwriting, singing and a shrewd sense of how to package himself as well," wrote Santoro. As shrewd as Berry was, by the mid-1960s his type of rock was losing ground to improvisors like Eric Clapton, Mike Bloomfield, and Jimi Hendrix (all three of whom acknowledged Berry's influence, but were trying to break new ground). A switch from Chess to Mercury Records from 1966 to 1969 did little to help. He would continue touring throughout the 1960s without the aid of a regular backup band.

Berry's method since the late 1950s has been to use pickup bands comprised of musicians from the city he's playing in. This has led to many complaints from fans and critics alike that his performances are sometimes shoddy and careless. In his book, Berry gives his own reasons, stating that "drinks and drugs were never my bag, nor were they an excuse for affecting the quality of playing so far as I was concerned. A few ridiculous performances, several amendments to our band regulations, and the band broke up, never to be reconstructed. Whenever I've assembled other groups and played road dates, similar conditions have prevailed." (Berry reportedly accepts no less than $10,000 per gig and plays for no more than 45 minutes; no encores.)

Another Hit and More Personal Strife

By 1972 Berry was back with Chess and produced his biggest seller to date, "My Ding-a-Ling," from The London Chuck Berry Sessions. Selling over two million copies, it was his first gold record and a number 1 hit on both sides of the Atlantic according to The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock. He had hit pay dirt, but his obsession to have a bank account with a $1 million figure led to another run-in with the law. In 1979 Berry was convicted of tax evasion and spent just over three months at Lompoc Prison Camp in California. Perhaps the one thing that has caused him more pleasure/pain than money is his fancy for women, stated simply in his book: "The only real bother about prison, to me, is the loss of love." He has said that he hopes to write a book one day devoted solely to his sex life.

Berry's legal troubles continued into his later years, when he was embroiled in accusations of drug possession and trafficking and various sexual improprieties in July of 1990. His estate was raided earlier that spring by the DEA, who had been informed that Berry was dealing in cocaine. The operation resulted in the confiscation of marijuana and hashish and pornographic videotapes and films, but charges against the entertainer were later dismissed. Berry was also involved in a class-action lawsuit regarding videotapes made of women without their consent. Meanwhile, more collections of Berry's hits continued to be released, including a well-received box set by Chess/MCA in 1989 and a live recording released in 1995.

While Berry's career has had the highest peaks and some pretty low valleys, he has survived while most of his contemporaries have vanished. In 1986 Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richard, perhaps the ultimate student of the Chuck Berry School of Guitar, decided to put it all together with a 60th birthday party concert to be filmed and released as a movie, Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll. It took place at St. Louis's Fox Theater, a venue which had at one time refused a youthful Berry entrance because of his skin color. The show featured Berry's classic songs with Richard, Johnnie Johnson, Robert Cray, Etta James, Eric Clapton, Linda Ronstadt, and Julian Lennon also performing. Berry has also been honored with a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. If that's not enough, "Johnny B. Goode" is riding around in outer space on the Voyager I just waiting to be heard by aliens.

Despite the accolades, in his own book Berry shrugs off his contributions, stating that "my view remains that I do not deserve all the reward directed on my account for the accomplishments credited to the rock 'n' roll bank of music." Nevertheless, Rolling Stone's Dave Marsh's words seem to be more appropriate: "Chuck Berry is to rock what Louis Armstrong was to jazz."

Further Reading

Berry, Chuck, The Autobiography, Fireside, 1988.

Guralnick, Peter, Feel Like Going Home, Vintage, 1981.

Kozinn, Alan, and Pete Welding, Dan Forte, and Gene Santoro, The Guitar, Quill, 1984.

Logan, Nick, and Bob Woffinden, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, Harmony Books, 1977.

Rock Revolution, by the editors of Creem magazine, Popular Library, 1976.

The Rolling Stone Interviews, by the editors of Rolling Stone, St. Martin's Press/Rolling Stone Press, 1981.

The Rolling Stone Record Guide, edited by Dave Marsh and John Swenson, Random House/Rolling Stone Press, 1979.

Guitar Player, February, 1981; May, 1984; June, 1984; January, 1985; January, 1987; November, 1987; December, 1987; March, 1988.

Guitar World, March, 1987; November, 1987; December, 1987;March, 1988; April, 1988.

Rolling Stone, January 26, 1989; August 23, 1990.

rock singer; rock musician; guitarist

Personal Information

Born Charles Edward Anderson Berry on October 18, 1926, in St. Louis, MO to Henry (a carpenter) and Martha Berry; married to Themetta with three daughters and one son.

Career

Signed with Chess Records and released "Maybellene," which went to #1 on the R&B chart and #5 on the Billboard Best Sellers chart; released "School Days," which went to #2 on the R&B chart, 1955; released "Roll Over Beethoven," which reached #2 on the R&B chart, 1956; recorded his first LP, After School Session, released "School Days," which went to #1 and "Rock and Roll Music," which went to #6 on the R&B chart, 1957; released "Sweet Little Sixteen" and "Johnny B. Goode" which both made the top ten on the Billboard pop chart, 1958; released "Almost Grown," which went to #3 on the R&B chart, and opened Berry Park in Wentzville, MO, 1959; arrested and sentenced to two years in prison for violating the Mann Act, 1961; released The London Chuck Berry Sessions, his only gold record, which included his only #1 pop hit "My Ding-A-Ling," 1972; pled guilty to tax evasion, 1979; released a movie entitled Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll of a concert played in honor of his sixtieth birthday, 1986; wrote and published his own autobiography entitled Chuck Berry: The Autobiography, 1987.

Life's Work

Chuck Berry embodied the spirit of rock and roll as a pioneer of the new musical movement in the 1950s. His fusion of rhythm and blues, country music, a rebellious attitude, unflagging energy, and hip lyrics about girls and cars jolted the music scene during rock's early days. Superstar rock bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones demonstrated his influence in their own music, and the industry recognized him with some of its top honors in the late 1980s, including his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1987. Berry maintained a regular touring schedule well past the age when most performers retire, playing such hits as "Maybellene" and "Johnny B. Goode" for appreciative audiences. Although scandal often dogged his career, Berry managed to overcome his personal obstacles to retain his revered place in rock and roll history.

Charles Edward Anderson Berry was born on October 18, 1926, in St. Louis, Missouri. When the baby began to yell loudly immediately upon his entry into the world, Henry and Martha Berry experienced the first performance of one of the most influential and prolific figures of the early years of rock and roll. Berry's parents were members of their church choir, so his life was filled with music from the very beginning. Berry's first introduction to the guitar came after a successful performance at a high school talent show in which Berry sang to a friend's guitar accompaniment. The crowd's enthusiastic response prompted Berry's desire to sing and play the instrument at the same time. He borrowed one of his friend's old six-strings and was soon plucking out blues standards by Muddy Waters, Tampa Red, Big Maceo, and Little Walter. By the age of 17, he had a job playing records for soldiers at USO dances, and the ready access to money and girls tempted him away from school and church.

Berry Behind Bars

In the summer of 1944 Berry and two friends decided to head west to California. The trio made it as far as Kansas City before their money ran out. They began robbing small stores and, after a small-time crime spree, decided to head back to St. Louis. On their way home Berry and his two friends were caught by the police after stealing a car. From jail Berry called his father, who wired his son and the two others money for a lawyer. The lawyer advised his clients to plead guilty, promising that they would receive light sentences. Instead, the three men received the maximum sentence of ten years in prison at the end of the 21-minute trial. Berry went to a prison called Algoa, where he lived in a dormitory with other prisoners. He started singing at the church services and even traveled outside the prison to perform with a musical group he had formed with other inmates. In early 1946 he participated in the St. Louis-area Golden Gloves boxing competition, but life in prison mainly involved doing laundry and keeping out of the way. He was released in the fall of 1947 at the age of 21.

Berry began working as a carpenter with his father and bought a 1941 Buick Roadmaster. He met Themetta Suggs at a local fair and the two soon fell in love. Almost one year after being released from prison Berry married Themetta. By the end of 1950 Berry and his wife had their first child and he had bought his first electric guitar. He worked at night as a janitor at a St. Louis radio station and practiced guitar every day while working with his father. He joined a trio and developed his musical style at a nightclub every Friday and Saturday night. He soon was headlining at a bigger, more popular nightclub in St. Louis, playing everything from the blues to country western. His small family prospered as his name became more known around the St. Louis area.

A Career is Born

On a trip to Chicago Berry met his idol, legendary blues man Muddy Waters, who suggested that he visit Chess Records if he wanted to record some of his songs. On his first visit, Berry met Leonard Chess, who asked for tapes of Berry's group. On the basis of hearing four songs, he signed Berry to a contract in 1955. The first song Berry recorded was called "Ida May," but he changed it to "Maybellene" after Chess thought "Ida May" sounded too country. Influential New York disc jockey Alan Freed gave the song considerable air time and it became a smash hit. Almost overnight, Berry went from earning $21 a night at a local nightclub to touring and playing in front of 1,000 screaming fans. However, promoters and other radio people took advantage of his inexperience with the financial side of the music business to bilk him out of royalties, the most blatant example being Freed's listing as cowriter on "Maybellene" in exchange for his promotion of the song on his show. In addition, managers, theater owners, and promoters made considerable money off Berry's sold-out shows. Berry reversed this trend by firing his manager and embarking on a quest to win back full publishing rights to "Maybellene," which would finally happen in 1986. As early as 1956 Berry became a wholly independent contractor, disdaining even to employ a permanent backup band. He played alone with a local backup band provided by the promoter and served as his own manager.

Despite all the serious business of his career in music, Berry also had fun on stage. He explained to Rolling Stone how he inadvertently invented his trademark "duck walk" at a 1956 concert at the Paramount Theater in New York: "I had to outfit my trio, ...and I always remember the suits cost me $66, $22 a piece. They were rayon, but looked like seersucker by the time we got there. I actually did the duck walk to hide the wrinkles in the suit--I got an ovation, so I figured I pleased the audience, so I did it again, and again."

After "Maybellene" he was back in the studio to record other songs which would become rock music standards such as "Roll Over Beethoven," "Sweet Little Sixteen," "Reelin' and Rockin'," "Around and Around," and "Beautiful Delilah." Berry became more popular than ever, appearing on "American Bandstand" and in a movie entitled Go Johnny Go with Freed. Apart from his musical career, Berry opened Club Bandstand, a local nightclub, and bought land for what was to become Berry Park Country Club. In 1960 Berry Park opened to the public, and Berry moved his family to a larger home.

Berry's bright future became clouded by his conviction for violating the Mann Act in 1960. Berry claimed to have brought the young girl from El Paso, Texas to St. Louis to work in his nightclub as a hatcheck girl, but the court determined that she had been transported across state lines for immoral purposes and sentenced him to three years in jail and a $10,000 fine. Berry served a shortened sentence and returned to his life as a musician. However, the music scene had changed during his prison term as the British Invasion swept America, and Berry found his popularity waning.

Berry Hits Again

In 1972 Berry's career experienced a revival after a concert recording of the song "My Ding-A-Ling" became an instant hit. Berry sold over 1,000,000 copies of the record and got a royalty check from Chess Records for $250,000. But again, success for Berry led to personal trouble. One year later the Internal Revenue Service began investigating Berry in what would culminate in a 1979 trial for tax evasion. Berry pleaded guilty to a reduced sentence and received 120 days in jail and 1,000 hours of community service. On April 10, 1979, Berry began his sentence at Lompoc Prison Camp in southern California. Berry took his guitar, writing tablets, and two dictionaries with the intention of writing his autobiography, which was published in 1987. Given the fact that each of his three stints in prison were separated by 17 years, he remarked in Chuck Berry: The Autobiography that he would probably run afoul of the law in 1996 to continue the 17-year cycle.

After serving his time, Berry resumed touring full-time with stops all over the world, including South America, the Philippines, Japan, and Europe. The latter half of the 1980s brought him unparalleled recognition from the music industry as a rock 'n' roll pioneer. In 1986 he was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, and two years later the guitar legend released a movie entitled Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll, which documented Berry's sixtieth birthday party concert. Berry compared the two media--film and book writing--for Time's Richard Corliss: "This is a movie about my music, not about my life. To put my life in it, it would have to be a nine-hour movie like Roots." The concert, a command performance of all Berry's greatest hits, featured all-star performers such as Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, Etta James, and Linda Ronstadt. The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards, an unabashed Berry acolyte, served as musical director. Clapton told Michelle Green of People Weekly about Berry's influence on him both musically and socially: "I was hooked. No one knew a thing about this guy. We all tried (to find out) who he was, but in England there weren't any fan clubs or magazines or anything. He could have been an Egyptian, for all I knew. When I finally saw a picture, it was something of a shock--at that point in my life, I hadn't seen too many blacks."

Berry continued to play and tour well into his sixties and in 2000 received a Kennedy Center Honor from President Clinton to go along with other major awards such as a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In the midst of a 40-year career Berry explained his longevity to People Weekly's Green, and took a typically businesslike approach: "I have stayed in music because the business interested me and for a long time I had a family to support and I was paying for a house."

Awards

Received National Music Award from the American Music Conference, 1976; received a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement, 1984; inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1986; received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Guitar Player and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, 1987.

Works

Selected Discography

• After School Sessions, Chess, 1958.
• One Dozen Berrys, Chess, 1958.
• Chuck Berry on Stage, Chess, 1963.
• St. Louis to Liverpool, Chess, 1964.
• (With Bo Diddley) Two Great Guitars, Checker, 1964.
• Chuck Berry in London, Chess, 1965.
• Golden Decade, Chess, 1967.
• Golden Hits, Chess, 1967.
• Chuck Berry in Memphis, Chess, 1967.
• Live at the Filmore, Chess, 1967.
• From St. Louis to Frisco, Chess, 1968.
• The London Chuck Berry Sessions, Chess, 1972.
• St. Louis to Frisco to Memphis, Mercury/Phillips, 1972.
• San Francisco Dues, Chess, 1972.
• Bio, Chess, 1973.
• Chuck Berry '75, Chess, 1975.
• Rockit, Chess, 1979.

Further Reading

Books

• Berry, Chuck. Chuck Berry: The Autobiography. Harmony Books: New York, 1987.
• Rolling Stone. The Rolling Stone Interviews. St. Martins Press, 1981.

Periodicals

• People Weekly, November 3, 1986.
• Time, October 19, 1987.

— Michael J. Watkins

(1926- ), rock musician and composer. "If you tried to give rock 'n' roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry,'" John Lennon of the Beatles once said. At the height of Berry's popularity, in the last half of the fifties, other singers had more hits, but no one had more influence. During the sixties the Beatles and the Rolling Stones played a dozen of his songs note for note, and Bob Dylan acknowledged his debt to Berry as a lyricist.

Berry was born in St. Louis into a lower-middle-class black family. He served three years in reform school on a robbery conviction, earned a certificate in hairdressing and cosmetology, and then took a job on an auto assembly line to support his wife and children. By 1953 he was leading a three-piece blues group, which played on weekends. In 1955, his first hit, "Maybelline," reached the top ten after being plugged by New York disc jockey Alan Freed, who earned royalties on it by listing himself as the song's coauthor--an example of whites exploiting black musicians and of the pervasive corruption in the music industry at that time.

Berry's greatest hits recounted teenage experiences and frustrations, but also conveyed the fun of adolescent rebellion. "School Day" (which reached the number 3 spot on the Billboard charts in 1957) complains about teachers and in retrospect seems to prophesy the student rebellion of the sixties: "Close your books, get out of your seat/Down the halls and into the street." "Sweet Little Sixteen" (number 2 in 1958) presented the breathless world of a young rock fan. The autobiographical "Johnny B. Goode" (number 8 in 1958) provides a classic treatment of the small-town-boy-makes-good theme--in this case, as a rock 'n' roll star. The Voyager I spacecraft, heading out toward distant galaxies, includes among its messages to other worlds a recording of "Johnny B. Goode."

In 1959, at the peak of his creativity and popular success, Berry was convicted under the Mann Act and went to prison for two years. He had few hits after that. In 1972, touring as an "oldies" act, he finally reached number 1 on the charts with "My Ding-a-ling," a forgettable novelty song. Its success only underscored the fact that none of his classic records ever sold as well as those of white crooners like Pat Boone.

As a rock lyricist, Berry was among the best. His lyrics convey an immense, childlike delight in linguistic play, cataloging the fun and frustrations in the lives of white teenagers. That these lyrics were the work of a black man in his thirties makes them especially remarkable. As a guitarist, wrote Robert Christgau, Berry's style featured a "limited but brilliant vocabulary of guitar riffs that quickly came to epitomize rock 'n' roll. Ultimately, every great white guitar group of the early sixties imitated Berry's style."

In 1987 he published a widely praised autobiography. A 1988 feature film, Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll, available on home video, documents his career.

Bibliography:

Chuck Berry, Chuck Berry: The Autobiography (1987); Robert Christgau, "Chuck Berry," in Jim Miller, ed., The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll (1980).

Author:

Jon Wiener

See also Music.

Berry, Chuck (Charles Edward Anderson Berry) (bĕr'ē), 1926-, American rock music guitarist, singer, and songwriter, b. San Jose, Calif. He was brought up in St. Louis, Mo., where he still lives. Berry is widely regarded as one of the leading pioneers of rock music, having blended the blues with country music and added a rhythm-and-blues beat, and he is thought by many to be the inventor of the rock music form. His distinctive playing of the electric guitar and his witty lyrics were a major inspiration for the English pop renaissance and for a wide variety of other rock musicians. A dynamic performer, he also became known for his signature crouching and gliding "duck walk." Berry produced a string of hits in the late 1950s, including "Maybellene," "Rock and Roll Music," "Roll Over Beethoven," and "Johnny B. Goode." In 1962 he was sentenced to two years in prison on the charge of transporting a minor across state lines for immoral purposes. His creative output subsequently dwindled and he cut his last record in 1981, butt he continued to be an active and popular performer into the 21st cent. Berry was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

Bibliography

See his autobiography (1987); biographies by K. Reese (1983), B. Pegg (2002), and J. Collis (2003); study by H. A. DeWitt (1985); T. Hackford, dir., Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll, (film documentary, 1987).

An African-American rock 'n' roll musician and composer, who influenced many musicians of the 1950s and 1960s, including the Beatles and Bob Dylan.

Biography

Often cited as the man who "defined" rock and roll, African American singer/musician Chuck Berry was born Charles Edward Anderson Berry in St. Louis in 1926. Berry was guitarist for several Rhythm & Blues groups in the 1950s, notably Johnny Johnson's. In 1955, Berry recorded his first hit, "Maybelline." While many of his songs were "covered" by white artists in the race-conscious 1950s, Berry himself could still be heard on some emboldened radio stations who weren't concerned about offending the bigots. In movies almost from the moment he hit the charts, Berry was given guest spots in Rock Rock Rock (56) Mr. Rock and Roll (57) and Go, Johnny Go (58). Having appeared with disc jockey Alan Freed in the last two films, Berry was a logical choice to appear in the 1978 Freed biopic American Hot Wax, which starred Gary Busey. Chuck Berry was the whole show in the 1987 "rockumentary" Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock 'N' Roll!. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Born Charles Edward Anderson Berry on October 18, 1926, in St. Louis, MO; son of Henry (a carpenter and church deacon) and Martha (a schoolteacher); married Themetta (“Toddy”) Suggs, 1948; four children. Led a blues trio in St. Louis in early 1950s; signed by Chess Records, 1955; hit Billboard’s top ten and topped R&B chart with “Maybellene,” 1955; released first LP, After School Session, 1957; topped R&B chart and reached number two in Billboards pop chart with “Sweet Little Sixteen,” 1958; hit top of the charts with “My Ding-a-Ling,” 1972. Awards: Lifetime Achievement Award at 27th Annual Grammy Awards, 1985; Blues Hall of Fame, 1985; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1986; Kennedy Center Honors, 2000. Addresses: Agent —Richard De La Font Agency, 4845 South Sheridan Road, Suite 505, Tulsa, OK.

Guitarist

The invention of rock ’n’ roll was a collaborative effort, yet many music buffs trace its beginnings back to a singer, songwriter, and guitarist named Chuck Berry. Taking what he knew from the blues, big band, swing, country, and pop, Berry developed a style and sound that uniquely spoke to the experience of the American teenager, and that appealed to white as well as black audiences. And he remains, arguably, rock ’n’ roll’s most influential figure. Among those who admit to having emulated his complex guitar riffs and quick, witty lyrics in their early days are some of the most prominent bands and artists of the past 50 years— including the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen.

Berry has spent a lifetime in the spotlight, but the spotlight has not always been kind to him. Various lawsuits have been filed against the mischievous rock star, and he has served three prison terms. Despite these setbacks, he has held on to his image as one of rock’s esteemed founding fathers. Berry was still rocking and still making the news in 2000, at age 74, when he received a Kennedy Center Honor at the White House for his lifelong achievement as a performing artist.

Charles Edward Anderson Berry was born on October 18, 1926, in St. Louis, Missouri (some sources—Berry himself is not among them—claim that he was born on January 15, 1926, in San Jose, California, where his parents lived before relocating to Missouri). It was in the Ville, one of the few neighborhoods in St. Louis where African Americans could own property, that Berry spent his formative years, honing his musical skills as a choir boy in his Baptist church, and as a bass singer in his high school glee club. At the urging of a music teacher, he bought a four-string tenor guitar (graduating later to a six-string guitar) and taught himself how to play. His introduction to music was an early one, as was his introduction to trouble and running with the law. At age 17, he and two friends were arrested for attempted robbery; Berry was sentenced to ten years in the Intermediate Reformatory for Young Men in Algoa, Missouri. In the reformatory Berry sang with a gospel group; he was released in 1947, on his twenty-first birthday.

Marriage and an upright life immediately followed his reformatory stint: Berry married Themetta "Toddy" Suggs in 1948 and took a job in an auto assembly plant. After completing night courses in cosmetology, he worked as a hairdresser, moonlighting as a guitarist for various bands to bring in extra money.

Berry soon gained a reputation in the St. Louis music scene, and in 1952 he formed the Sir John Trio with pianist and band leader Johnnie Johnson and drummer Eddie Hardy. The connection with Johnson would be a lasting one, and the influence of the pianist’s boogie style would become evident in Berry’s guitar playing. Berry had a knack for pleasing the crowd, and the band eventually changed its name to The Chuck Berry Trio. The band’s repertoire included the blues, ballads, and a number of "black hillbilly" songs that jokingly parodied the country music popular to the city’s white audiences. While the trio’s hillbilly songs initially provoked laughter, they became popular dance tunes among the predominantly black club-goers.

"Maybellene" Had Broad Appeal
During a visit to Chicago in 1955 Berry befriended his idol, the blues singer Muddy Waters. Taken with Berry’s talent, Waters introduced him to Leonard Chess, then the president of Chess Records, an established rhythm & blues label that was looking to expand into other music genres. In his audition, Berry managed to impress Chess not as much with his blues songs as with a black hillbilly tune called "Ida Red." After reworking the song and giving it a new name, Berry recorded "Maybellene" in Chess’s studios on May 21, 1955, with Johnson on piano, Jerome Green on maracas, Jasper Thomas on drums, and Willie Dixon on bass. Following its release on August 20, "Maybellene" hit Number 1 on Billboard’s R&B chart and Number 5 on Billboard’s pop chart, becoming one of the rare singles to reach hit status among both black and white audiences.

Key to the success of "Maybellene" was a promotional effort from Alan Freed, the disc jockey of WINS radio station in New York, then the most important station for rock ’n’ roll in the country. Chess had given Freed the single, and in exchange for airplay, the record executive granted the deejay 25 percent of the writing credit for the song. Berry wasn’t aware of the bargain until the song was released and published, and he was unable to resolve the issue until 1986. Meanwhile, "Maybellene" sold more than a million copies.

From 1955 through 1960 Berry turned out a string of hit singles, all on the Chess label. In 1956 he climbed the charts with "Too Much Monkey Business," "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man," and especially "Roll Over Beethoven," a youthful anthem celebrating the triumph of low culture over high culture. Another trio of hits came in the following year, with "School Days," "Oh Baby Doll," and "Rock ’n’ Roll Music," which the Beatles later covered. "Johnny B. Goode," "Reelin’ and Rockin, ’" and "Sweet Little Sixteen" were among Berry’s successes of 1958, and five years later the Beach Boys came out with a thinly veiled replica of "Sweet Little Sixteen" called "Surfin’ U.S.A." Recognizing that the Beach Boys had lifted his melody, Berry sued the band and won a songwriting credit.

As a performer, Berry enraptured audiences with his trademark guitar licks and his bent-kneed, rhythmic "duck walk," which he is said to have created during a performance one night to hide the wrinkles in his pants. He toured often, and like many other rock stars of his day he appeared in several motion pictures, including Rock, Rock, Rock in 1956, Mr. Rock ‘n’ Roll in 1957, and Go Johnny Go in 1959.

After a few years of newfound, whirlwind success, Berry began enjoying the wealth that had come to him. He bought land—upon which he would later build—in Wentzville, Missouri, purchased a mansion for his family in St. Louis, and opened his own St. Louis nightclub, Berry’s Club Bandstand.

Embroiled in Scandal
The nightclub was to become the scene of a scandal for Berry that nearly ruined his career. After he fired a hat-check girl, Janice Escalanti, in 1959, Escalanti went to the police claiming that Berry had taken her across state lines for immoral purposes. Berry had met Escalanti, a 14-year-old from Arizona, during a visit to Juarez, Mexico, and had invited her to work for him at Club Bandstand. In a trial against Berry, testimony revealed that Escalanti was a prostitute when Berry had met her, and the star was found guilty of violating the Mann Act, a federal statute that forbade transporting minors across state lines for the purposes of prostitution. In October of 1961, after appealing his original sentence of ten years, Berry was sentenced to three years in prison and fined $10, 000. After serving 20 months, he was released on his birthday in 1963.

The ordeal devastated Berry. He had fallen out with his family, and was left with a strong distrust for the legal system as well as for the media that had hounded him. Once jovial and relaxed, he was now bitter and mistrustful. Yet in the end the scandal ruined neither his family life nor his career. Soon after his release from the Federal Medical Center in Springfield, Missouri, he began touring and recording again. While in prison, he had written a spate of new songs, some of which became hits in 1964 and 1965. Among these were "Nadine," "No Particular Place to Go," and "You Never Can Tell."

Berry toured Great Britain—where he had influenced so-called British Invasion bands like the Rolling Stones and the Beatles—for the first time in 1964. Also in that year, he opened Berry Park, an amusement park near Wentzville, and with guitar legend Bo Diddley he recorded the album Two Great Guitars.

In 1966 Berry signed with Mercury Records, but his stay with this company was to be brief. After making a few mistakes with Mercury—releasing a greatest-hits album consisting merely of re-recordings of old songs, and attempting to reinvent himself as a more contemporary performer with the albums Live at the Fillmore Auditorium, released in 1967, and Concerto in B. Goode, released in 1969—Berry returned to Chess Records in 1969.

Back at Chess, Berry released the appropriately titled Back Home Again as well as San Francisco Dues in 1970, which both made the national charts. The biggest hit of his career would come in 1972, with the risqué single "My Ding-A-Ling." Originally recorded by Mercury in 1968 as "My Tambourine," "My Ding-A-Ling" was a song that Berry had long been playing in adult nightclubs and that had thrilled his audiences in Great Britain. The single sold more than a million copies and reached the top of the U.S. pop charts on October 21, 1972.

Although Berry continued to record new albums throughout the 70s, including the popular Rock It, the musician found himself becoming increasingly contained to the rock ’n’ roll revival circuit. Capitalizing on this, he toured with Chubby Checker, Bill Haley and the Comets, and Bo Diddley as part of Richard Nader’s 1973 Rock and Roll Festival. Footage from the festival, as well as from 1950s television, comprised Let the Good Times Roll, a well-received 1973 motion picture. Another film appearance came in 1978 with the fictional American Hot Wax, in which Berry and legendary deejay Alan Freed played themselves.

Legal troubles were once again in store for Berry in 1979, when he served four months in prison for income tax evasion. Ironically, just before going to prison, Berry performed at the White House at the request of President Jimmy Carter.

Career Celebrated with Awards
In the 1980s Berry’s career was slowing down, and the music industry bestowed its honors upon the living legend. On February 26, 1985, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 27th Annual Grammy Awards, and the following year he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at its first ceremonial dinner. In 1987 he published Chuck Berry: The Autobiography, a mixture of life stories and personal philosophies. The documentary film Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll, released in 1987, celebrated Berry’s life and music, but its candid approach revealed a performer who was often controlling and volatile behind the scenes.

Publicity of a more blatantly negative kind came for Berry in 1990, when some 60 women sued him for allegedly videotaping them in the bathroom of his Berry Park restaurant, The Southern Air. Berry denied the antics, but paid a settlement of more than $1 million. That same year, police raided Berry’s Missouri home, nabbing marijuana and homemade pornographic videos.

Berry’s bad-boy reputation might have harmed him gravely had he pursued another kind of celebrity, but as a rock ’n’ roll star, he’s generally pardoned for his mischief. Just over two years after the Southern Air incident, he performed at President Bill Clinton’s inaugural celebration, and in 2000 he returned to the White House to receive a Kennedy Center Honor. In perhaps his most extravagant tribute, Berry’s "Johnny B. Goode" was the only rock song included in the Sounds of Earth gold record—an auditory time capsule telling the story of Earth—stowed aboard the spacecraft Voyagers I and II in their journey beyond the solar system. If other intelligent beings exist in the universe, their introduction to rock ’n’ roll might come, appropriately, from the father of rock himself.

Selected discography
After School Session, Chess, 1957.
One Dozen Berrys, Chess, 1958.
Chuck Berry Is On Top, Chess, 1959; remastered and reissued, 1987.
Chuck Berry’s Greatest Hits, Chess, 1964.
The London Chuck Berry Sessions, Chess, 1972.
Bio, Chess, 1973.
Rock It, Atco, 1979.
(Contributor) Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll (soundtrack), 1987.
The Chess Box, Chess, 1989.
Missing Berries: Rarities, Volume 3, Chess, 1990.

Sources
Periodicals
New York Times, August 23, 2000, p. E3.
Rolling Stone, December 3, 1987, p. 71.
St. Louis Post Dispatch, November 15, 1998, p. D1; January 4, 1996, p.7.
Time, October 19, 1987, p. 84.

Online
"Chuck Berry," The History of Rock ’n’ Roll, http://www.history-of-rock.com/berry.htm (January 16, 2001).
"Chuck Berry Biography," Sonicnet, http://sonicnet.com/artists/ai_bio.jhtml?ai_id=2757 (January 16, 2001).
"The Kennedy Center Honors: Chuck Berry," Kennedy Center Honors, http://kennedy-center.org/honors/history/honoree/berry.htm (January 16, 2001).
"Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees: Chuck Berry," Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, http://www.rockhall.com/hof/inductee.asp?id=67 (January 16, 2001).

• Genres: Rock

Biography

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 Fox and Paramount theaters (playing to predominately white audiences); and when Hollywood came calling a year or so later, also made sure that Chuck appeared with him in Rock! Rock! Rock!, Go, Johnny, Go!, and Mister Rock'n'Roll. Within a years' time, Chuck had gone from a local St. Louis blues picker making 15 dollars a night to an overnight sensation commanding over a hundred times that, arriving at the dawn of a new strain of popular music called rock & roll.

The hits started coming thick and fast over the next few years, every one of them about to become a classic of the genre: "Roll Over Beethoven," "Thirty Days," "Too Much Monkey Business," "Brown Eyed Handsome Man," "You Can't Catch Me," "School Day," "Carol," "Back in the U.S.A.," "Little Queenie," "Memphis, Tennessee," "Johnny B. Goode," and the tune that defined the moment perfectly, "Rock and Roll Music." Berry was not only in constant demand, touring the country on mixed package shows and appearing on television and in movies, but smart enough to know exactly what to do with the spoils of a suddenly successful show business career. He started investing heavily in St. Louis area real estate and, ever one to push the envelope, opened up a racially mixed nightspot called the Club Bandstand in 1958 to the consternation of uptight locals. These were not the plans of your average R&B singers who contented themselves with a wardrobe of flashy suits, a new Cadillac, and the nicest house in the black section. Berry was smart with plenty of business savvy and was already making plans to open an amusement park in nearby Wentzville. When the St. Louis hierarchy found out that an underage hat-check girl Berry hired had also set up shop as a prostitute at a nearby hotel, trouble came down on Berry like a sledgehammer on a fly. Charged with transporting a minor over state lines (the Mann Act), Berry endured two trials and was sentenced to federal prison for two years as a result.

He emerged from prison a moody, embittered man. But two very important things had happened in his absence. First, British teenagers had discovered his music and were making his old songs hits all over again. Second, and perhaps most important, America had discovered the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, both of whom based their music on Berry's style, with the Stones' early albums looking like a Berry song list. Rather than being resigned to the has-been circuit, Berry found himself in the midst of a worldwide beat boom with his music as the centerpiece. He came back with a clutch of hits ("Nadine," "No Particular Place to Go," "You Never Can Tell"), toured Britain in triumph, and appeared on the big screen with his British disciples in the groundbreaking T.A.M.I. Show in 1964.

Berry had moved with the times and found a new audience in the bargain and when the cries of "yeah-yeah-yeah" were replaced with peace signs, Berry altered his live act to include a passel of slow blues and quickly became a fixture on the festival and hippie ballroom circuit. After a disastrous stint with Mercury Records, he returned to Chess in the early '70s and scored his last hit with a live version of the salacious nursery rhyme, "My Ding a Ling," yielding Berry his first official gold record. By decade's end, he was as in demand as ever, working every oldies revival show, TV special, and festival that was thrown his way. But once again, troubles with the law reared their ugly head and 1979 saw Berry headed back to prison, this time for income tax evasion. Upon release this time, the creative days of Chuck Berry seemed to have come to an end. He appeared as himself in the Alan Freed bio-pic, American Hot Wax, and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but steadfastly refused to record any new material or even issue a live album. His live performances became increasingly erratic, with Berry working with terrible backup bands and turning in sloppy, out-of-tune performances that did much to tarnish his reputation with younger fans and oldtimers alike. In 1987, he published his first book, Chuck Berry: The Autobiography, and the same year saw the film release of what will likely be his lasting legacy, the rockumentary Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll, which included live footage from a 60th-birthday concert with Keith Richards as musical director and the usual bevy of superstars coming out for guest turns. But for all of his off-stage exploits and seemingly ongoing troubles with the law, Chuck Berry remains the epitome of rock & roll, and his music will endure long after his private escapades have faded from memory. Because when it comes down to his music, perhaps John Lennon said it best, "If you were going to give rock & roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry'." ~ Cub Koda, Rovi

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