Chuck Berry

Chuck Berry

CHUCK BERRY d2017. American guitarist, singer and songwriter and one of the early pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" (1955) / "Roll over Beethoven" (1955) / "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B Goode" (1958),  he refined and developed R&B into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive. His lyrics focusing on teen life, consumerism and music, featuring guitar solos and showmanship that became a major influence on subsequent rock music. He had an interest in music from an early age and gave his first public performance at Sumner High School. While still a high school student he was convicted of armed robbery and was sent to a reformatory, where he was held from 1944 to 1947. After his release, he settled into married life and worked at an automobile assembly plant. By early 1953, influenced by the guitar riffs and showmanship techniques of the blues musician T-Bone Walker, he began performing with the Johnnie Johnson Trio. His break came when he traveled to Chicago in May 1955 and met Muddy Waters who suggested he contact Leonard Chess of Chess Records. With Chess, he recorded "Maybellene", an adaptation of the country song "Ida Red" (which sold over a million copies) reaching No1 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart. By the end of the 1950s, Chuck Berry was an established star with several hit records & film appearances and a lucrative touring career. He had also established his own St. Louis nightclub, Berry's Club Bandstand. But in January 1962, he was sentenced to three years in prison for offenses under the Mann Act (he had transported a 14-year-old girl across state lines). After his release in 1963, he had more hits in the mid-1960s including ; "No Particular Place to Go" / "You Never Can Tell" and "Nadine". By the mid-1970s, he was more in demand as a live performer, playing his past hits with local backup bands of variable quality. In 1979 he served 120 days in prison for tax evasion. He was among the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on its opening in 1986. He was cited for having "laid the groundwork for not only a rock and roll sound but a rock and roll stance". He is also included in several of Rolling Stone magazine's "greatest of all time" lists and was ranked fifth on its 2004 list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll" includes three of his songs ; "Johnny B Goode" / "Maybellene" and "Rock and Roll Music". Chuck Berry died aged 90 in Missouri on March 18th 2017.

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