Chuck Berry records “Maybellene” - May 21, 1955 - HISTORY.com Chuck Berry records “Maybellene” Publisher A+E Networks John Lennon once famously said that “if you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry.'” That’s how foundational Berry’s contributions were to the music that changed America and the world beginning in the mid-1950s. Even more than Elvis Presley, who was an incomparable performer, but of other people’s songs, Chuck Berry created the do-it-yourself template that most rock-and-rollers still seek to follow. If there can be said to be a single day on which his profound influence on the sound and style of rock and roll began, it was this day in 1955, when an unknown Chuck Berry paid his first visit to a recording studio and cut the record that would make him famous: “Maybellene.” Berry was a part-time professional musician in his native St. Louis and primarily a performer of the blues, but an avid experimenter with other sounds.

On a visit to Chicago in May 1955, Berry approached his idol, the great bluesman Muddy Waters, to ask for career advice. Waters pointed him in the direction of his record label, Chess Records, where Berry managed a face-to-face meeting with Leonard Chess and an invitation to return for an audition later that week. When Berry returned, he hoped that Chess would sign him on the strength of one of his blues numbers, but it was a strange rhythm-and-blues/country-western hybrid called “Ida Red” that caught Chess’s ear. Before it was recorded, “Ida Red’ got new lyrics to go with a new title—”Maybellene”—but it retained the totally original sound that Berry had given it. Berry returned to St. Louis unsure of what would come of his Chicago recording session.

In the meantime, Leonard Chess made a business deal that was commonplace at the time, trading co-songwriting credit and a third of royalties to the prominent DJ Alan Freed in exchange for his help in promoting “Maybellene.” While audiences legitimately went wild over the backbeat-meets-hillbilly sound of “Maybellene,” it surely did not hurt the record’s chances of success to have Freed play the single for two hours straight during his WINS radio show in the early summer of 1955. Chuck Berry had returned to his part-time job in construction and begun training to be a hairdresser when “Maybellene” hit the airwaves. After “Maybellene” became a #1 R&B hit and a #5 pop hit—the first hit rock-and-roll single by a black performer—Berry set down his hammer and scissors in favor of his Gibson ES-350T and major place in American cultural history.

Related Videos BangShift.com BangShift Daily Tune Up: Maybellene - Chuck Berry (1955) - BangShift.com Jun 04, 2016 Brian Lohnes BS Daily Tune Up 2 Chuck Berry always seemed to be having issues with women and cars at the same time. There was the chick whose “safety belt wouldn’t budge” and in this song there is the famously lead-footed temptress Maybellene who has stolen the heart of the singer by cheating on him with another dude. The problem for him is that despite his best efforts, she’s also got a faster car to escape the scene with! A big hit upon its release, more than one million copies of Maybellene were sold and it was ranked in the top five of that year’s song releases. It is also considered one of the first true rock and roll songs combining all the elements we know and love about rock. It wasn’t a bee-bob song with a little edge, this was pure, uncut rock and roll. The song combines the holy trinity of old school rock. Girls, cars, and speed! Undoubtedly you have heard this song before, probably 100 times.

It never gets old…at least not to us. Press play below to hear Chuck Berry play Maybellene! Share This 2 thoughts on “BangShift Daily Tune Up: Maybellene – Chuck Berry (1955)” Arjen Listen to “You can’t catch me”, best car song ever; Great lyrics. “Cause if you get too close, you know I’m gone like a cool cool breeze” “Fuel consumption way too fast Let’s get on home before we run out of gas” His Flight de Ville has hide away wings. One of my heroes. Chuck Berry - Maybellene - YouTube Chuck Berry - Maybellene Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Mar 9, 2012 Chuck Berry (Charles Edward Anderson Berry - born Oct. 18, 1926, St.

Louis, Mo., U.S.) singer, songwriter, and guitarist who was one of the most popular and influential performers in rhythm-and-blues and rock-and-roll music in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s. Raised in a working-class African-American neighbourhood on the north side of the highly segregated city of St. Louis, Berry grew up in a family proud of its African-American and Native-American ancestry. He gained early exposure to music through his family's participation in the choir of the Antioch Baptist Church, through the blues and country-western music he heard on the radio, and through music classes, especially at Sumner High School. Berry was still attending high school when he was sent to serve three years for armed robbery at a Missouri prison for young offenders. After his release and return to St. Louis, he worked at an auto plant, studied hairdressing, and played music in small nightclubs. Berry traveled to Chicago in search of a recording contract; Muddy Waters directed him to the Chess brothers.

Leonard and Phil Chess signed him for their Chess label, and in 1955 his first recording session produced Maybellene (a country-and-western-influenced song that Berry had originally titled Ida Red), which stayed on the pop charts for 11 weeks, cresting at number five. Berry followed this success with extensive tours and hit after hit, including Roll Over Beethoven (1956), School Day (1957), Rock and Roll Music (1957), Sweet Little Sixteen (1958), Johnny B. Goode (1958), and Reelin' and Rockin' (1958). His vivid descriptions of consumer culture and teenage life, the distinctive sounds he coaxed from his guitar, and the rhythmic and melodic virtuosity of his piano player (Johnny Johnson) made Berry's songs staples in the repertoire of almost every rock-and-roll band. At the peak of his popularity, federal authorities prosecuted Berry for violating the Mann Act, alleging that he transported an underage female across state lines for immoral purposes. After two trials tainted by racist overtones, Berry was convicted and remanded to prison.

Upon his release he placed new hits on the pop charts, including No Particular Place to Go in 1964, at the height of the British Invasion, whose prime movers, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, were hugely influenced by Berry (as were the Beach Boys). In 1972 Berry achieved his first number one hit, My Ding-A-Ling. Although he recorded more sporadically in the 1970s and '80s, he continued to appear in concert, most often performing with backing bands comprising local musicians. Berry's public visibility increased in 1987 with the publication of his book Chuck Berry: The Autobiography and the release of the documentary film Hail! Hail! Rock n' Roll, featuring footage from his 60th birthday concert and guest appearances by Keith Richards and Bruce Springsteen. Berry is undeniably one of the most influential figures in the history of rock music.

In helping to create rock and roll from the crucible of rhythm and blues, he combined clever lyrics, distinctive guitar sounds, boogie-woogie rhythms, precise diction, an astounding stage show, and musical devices characteristic of country-western music and the blues in his many best-selling single records and albums. A distinctive if not technically dazzling guitarist, Berry used electronic effects to replicate the ringing sounds of bottleneck blues guitarists in his recordings. He drew upon a broad range of musical genres in his compositions, displaying an especially strong interest in Caribbean music on Havana Moon (1957) and Man and the Donkey (1963), among others. Influenced by a wide variety of artists—including guitar players Carl Hogan, Charlie Christian, and T-Bone Walker and vocalists Nat King Cole, Louis Jordan, and Charles Brown—Berry played a major role in broadening the appeal of rhythm-and-blues music during the 1950s. He fashioned his lyrics to appeal to the growing teenage market by presenting vivid and humorous descriptions of high-school life, teen dances, and consumer culture. His recordings serve as a rich repository of the core lyrical and musical building blocks of rock and roll.

In addition to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Linda Ronstadt, and a multitude of significant popular-music performers have recorded Berry's songs. 'Maybellene' : NPR 'Maybellene' Embed Embed Embed Embed July 2, 200012:00 AM ET Jesse Wegman Interviewees: Chuck Berry (DAT will be sent shortly) Johnnie Johnson (DAT will be sent shortly) Joe Edwards (DAT will be sent shortly) Recordings Used: "Maybellene," Chuck Berry "Ida Red" Chuck Berry performing at the Birmingham Odeon in England. Keystone/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Chuck Berry performing at the Birmingham Odeon in England. Keystone/Getty Images In 1955, a sort of undefined, get-you-in-the-belly music was named rock 'n' roll, though as John Lennon once put it, `If you tried to give rock 'n' roll another name, you might have called it Chuck Berry .' Berry was a young man in St. Louis in 1955. He recorded the song "Maybellene" for Chess Records, and the rest is history.

At a mere two minutes and 18 seconds, the song embodied the sexual tensions of a generation or, as Berry's producer put it, `the big beat, the cars and young love; it was a trend and we jumped on it.' It took Chuck Berry and his band 36 tries to get "Maybellene" just right, so you can forgive him if that trademark opening guitar lick of his sounds a bit tired. In fact, it was Berry's first time in a recording studio. At 29, he'd been performing in a St. Louis trio for several years, playing mostly blues and R&B standards. But Berry had started writing his own songs, inserting elements of white country music, and he wanted to see if they would sell. On a Friday night in May 1955, Berry drove up to Chicago to catch a show by his idol, the blues great Muddy Waters. Article continues after sponsorship "And I listened to him for his entire set," Mr. Berry recalls. "When he was over, I went up to him, I asked him for his autograph and told him that I played guitar.

`How do you get in touch with a record company?' He said, `Why don't you go see Leonard Chess over on 47th?'" So early Monday morning, Berry made his way to Chess Records and positioned himself in a store across the street. When Leonard Chess arrived, Berry ran over and made his pitch. Chess was impressed by the young man's self-confidence and told him to come back with a tape of his own material. Berry returned the following week, bringing with him the other members of the trio, pianist Johnnie Johnson and drummer Eddie Hardy, and four new songs. "And we set the band up, and we played all four of them," Berry says. "We don't know what they were saying; they're in the studio, and they listened." Berry thought they were listening to "Wee Wee Hours," a blues song. After all, Chess Records was known around Chicago as a blues label. But Leonard Chess was fascinated by another, more upbeat song, "Ida Mae," that Berry had adapted from a traditional country tune called "Ida Red." Chess was sure the new song could be a hit, but he didn't like the name.

It was too rural, and he thought its similarity to "Ida Red" might pose copyright hassles. "And that was a problem, so nobody could think of a name," pianist Johnnie Johnson says. "We looked up on the windowsill, and there was a mascara box up there with Maybellene written on it. And Leonard Chess said, 'Why don't we name the damn thing "Maybellene"?'" That was no problem for Berry, who cared more that the beat of the song not be disturbed. "'Maybellene' has the same rhythm as 'Ida Red,' like dah-di-dah, you know, 'Maybellene,' 'Ida Red,' you know. So rhythm I had, but I had somebody else's title, you know. So that's how "Maybellene" came up." After the recording session, Berry returned to St. Louis, where he worked for his father's construction company and was studying to become a hairdresser. He and the band were now playing three nights a week, and they'd begun to draw a more diverse audience. White people were showing up to hear this strange, new mix of blues, R&B and country and western.

But after several weeks, Berry still hadn't heard from Leonard Chess. He had no idea what was happening with his songs. Then one day in August, he heard it. " Passing by a tailor shop that I got my high school graduation coat made at, and I passed by the shop until the song played out, you know; I didn't want anybody to see me listening, you know, to—but it was 'Maybellene' I was listening to. And when it played out, you know, that was my last walk past the door of the place. And I flew home—you know, I was about 20 blocks from home—and told everybody, `I heard it, I heard it, I heard it. I heard me sing.' And these are relatives; these are people that live on the block. So that was the first time I heard it: that day, nice, sunny day, beautiful day. Knocked me out to hear myself, you know." Propelled by its persistent driving rhythm, "Maybellene" quickly rose to number one on the R&B charts. Two weeks later, in August 1955, it hit number five on the all-important pop chart.

At WINS in New York, disc jockey Allen Freed played the song for two hours straight one night. And down South, a relatively unknown singer named Elvis Presley began to include the song in his own performances. Joe Edwards is the owner of Blueberry Hill, the St. Louis club where Chuck Berry still performs every month. He says Berry was not only a rock 'n' roll pioneer, he was its first great poet. "Chuck Berry was the first artist that really did it all, like wrote the songs, he wrote the lyrics of the music, he choreographed the stage show. And no one did that. Until Bob Dylan came along, there was no one that could master him, I think." It was the way his words stayed so close to the beat, yet still managed to sound like real speech. And there were the puns. From the opening line in "Maybellene" where he sang `motor-vatin',' as in `As I was motor-vatin' over the hill,' Chuck Berry's clever wordplay would change rock lyrics forever.

"What he did with the English language and how he worked the words and the detail that he put into the songs, I mean, if you listen to the verses in a Chuck Berry song, they keep changing, and they keep telling the story," Mr. Edwards says. "And then pretty soon, by the end of that song—and it might only be a two-minute, 58-second song—but you've heard a lifetime in the life of a teen-ager." Berry was also the first black rock artist to find national success performing his own music. From his experience in St. Louis, he knew what that took. And while he still listed black guitarists like Charlie Christian and T-Bone Walker as his main influences, Berry was more careful with his own image, making his diction, as he described it, harder and whiter. Johnnie Johnson remembers that this could cause problems on the road. "I mean, people that never seen it, after the record come out and such a big hit and we went on this tour, not knowing—you know, never seeing a picture or nothing of Chuck, they mistook it that Chuck was white.

And we would walk out on the stage, there'd be a lot of ohs and aahs and whatever because he's a black man playing hillbilly music." Sometimes Berry didn't make it as far as the stage. Showing up for a scheduled concert one night in Knoxville, Tennessee, he was turned away at the door. The show's organizers explained, `It's a country dance, and we had no idea that "Maybellene" was recorded by a Negro man.' Berry returned to his car and listened as a white replacement band played his music. And there were other unpleasant surprises. When Berry finally got his hands on a copy of the record, he saw he was listed as only one of three songwriters. Allen Freed, the disc jockey who had so aggressively promoted the song, was another. The third was Russ Fratto, a man he'd never heard of. Trading credit for airplay, known as payola, was a common practice at the time, especially when the song was by a black artist. And Berry didn't ask any questions. After all, his first royalty check for "Maybellene" had been more than twice what he'd paid for his house.

It was only later that he learned sharing songwriting credits also meant sharing the song's earnings. While there's no doubt Freed's promotion of "Maybellene" was crucial to its success nationwide, Berry fought for years to recover the full rights to the song. "I didn't even know that you could use lawyers to correct these things, you know, then, you know," Mr. Berry says. "So it goes on and on and on, but that happens to rookies, if you want to call a new musician a rookie." In 1986, more than 30 years after he wrote "Maybellene," Chuck Berry was finally credited as the song's sole composer. By that time, it was little more than a legal technicality, but in the end, it may be the most fitting tribute. After all, "Maybellene" could have been written by no one but Chuck Berry. If that's not already obvious from the music and the lyrics, just listen to the guitar solo.

The rock 'n' roll guitar was supposed to be a rhythm instrument, polite and unobtrusive, but a little over a minute into "Maybellene," Chuck Berry, wielding his yellow Gibson ES-350T, shattered that image forever. In the years following "Maybellene," Chuck Berry produced an astonishing string of hits: "Roll Over Beethoven," "School Days," "Sweet Little Sixteen," "Johnny B. Goode," to name just a few, more or less inventing rock 'n' roll as he went along. That's pretty much the consensus; everyone from The Beatles to The Rolling Stones has said it. But the man himself takes exception to any claims of paternity. "If you did start something, how can you say that anybody else had anything to do with it? If you started it, you know, you're the—Is that what they say?—the father of rock. Boy, they have no idea how wrong they are." In 1972, 17 years and more than 200 recordings after "Maybellene," Chuck Berry finally scored a number-one hit on the pop charts. The song?

A rather indelicate ditty called "My Ding-A-Ling." Chuck Berry | Rock & Roll Hall of Fame After Elvis Presley, only Chuck Berry had more influence on the formation and development of rock & roll. The St. Louis native internalized country, blues and R&B influences to create a singular guitar technique. Berry paired these skills with dashing charisma, magnetic stage moves and an expressive voice that resonated with both teenagers and anyone young at heart—ensuring his status as one of rock & roll's first great hitmakers. Biography To the top If Elvis Presley cracked open the door for rock & roll, Chuck Berry kicked it wide open—and did his signature duck walk over it for good measure. Even before Buddy Holly settled on a sound, the St. Louis native had pop success with 1955's "Maybellene," a rewrite of the country song "Ida Red." In Berry's hands, the tune featured lyrics conflating an ill-fated drag race with a fervent wish that his gal would "be true"—and a musical backdrop with a forceful upright bass, boogie-woogie piano and red-hot guitar licks.

"Maybellene" sounded like nothing else in music at the time, and immediately established Berry as the purveyor of a new style of music, where blues, country and R&B came together in urgent, exciting ways. In fact, it's not an exaggeration to say that he's the most influential figure on modern rock & roll: Name any major band—the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith—and they'll have cited Berry as an inspiration. Born in 1926, Berry started off a vocal performer inspired by Nat "King" Cole. Very quickly, however, he found himself pushing against the status quo: During his debut performance in high school, he sang a song called "Confessin' The Blues" that was considered edgy for the time and place. From there, Berry picked up guitar, first working independently to pick up basics and then learning more rudimentary fundamentals from his friend Ira Harris. By 1952, he was confident enough to have joined a club band which favored everything from blues to calypso to jazzy ballads; the year after, Berry linked up with the Sir John's Trio, which featured pianist Johnnie Johnson and performed at St. Louis' Cosmopolitan Club.

The charismatic Berry came into his own with this combo—especially after he started incorporating more country riffs into his already eclectic performance style, a move which helped the troupe attract an increasingly integrated audience. Berry's fortunes improved even more on a 1955 visit to Chicago to investigate the city's blues scene. After catching the tail-end of a performance from his idol, Muddy Waters, Berry asked him for advice on records. Waters pointed him to Chess Records, whose founder, Leonard Chess, agreed to listen to what the ambitious young musician had to offer. Berry made a demo back in St. Louis that same week and subsequently returned to Chicago. Chess liked what he heard—especially the song that eventually became "Maybellene"—and signed him. After the success of "Maybellene," Berry released a string of enduring, landmark songs over the next half-decade: "Roll Over Beethoven," "Too Much Monkey Business," "School Day (Ring! Ring! Goes The Bell)," "Johnny B.

Goode," "Rock and Roll Music," "Sweet Little Sixteen," "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" and "Carol." These tunes were danceable, youthful and relatable—driven by the delicious tension between Berry's precise vocals and his elegant (and exuberant) renegade guitar riffs. Although Berry recorded his hits with Chess Records' in-house band members, for live shows, he tapped two of his Sir John's Trio bandmates: pianist Johnson and drummer Ebby Hardy. Berry's flashy stage moves from those days also carried over: In 1956, he started doing the crowd-pleasing duck walk, a move where he crouched down while playing guitar and hopped across the stage on one foot. Berry became an enormously popular figure within rock & roll, which was then dominated by both white artists and fans. The integration wasn't perfect—in his autobiography, he detailed incidents of racism and discrimination he experienced while touring—but he channeled these experiences into attempts to hasten social progress. Back at home in St.

Louis, he opened a venue called Club Bandstand which welcomed all attendees, regardless of race; several years later, in the pre-suburban outskirts of the city, he opened a similarly inclusive, country club-modeled enclave called Berry Park. He was also a savvy businessman who invested wisely and wasn't afraid to stand up for his rights as an artist, two traits which marked the rest of his career. Still, Berry's musical momentum was derailed in 1959, after he was arrested and accused of having an improper relationship with an underage girl. He was convicted and spent time in prison in the early '60s. After his 1963 release, however, Berry rebounded with the singles "No Particular Place To Go," "You Never Can Tell" and "Nadine." In fact, he was also a major influence on the new young rock bands changing music and culture, such as the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds. Berry's studio efforts would never be as influential as they once were—although in 1972, he had a No.

1 hit with the lighthearted tune "My Ding-A-Ling"—and so he mostly stuck to live concerts, where his dynamic performances made him a popular draw. The 1987 documentary Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll, which chronicled Berry's 60th birthday concerts, in particular captured his onstage magic. He continued his touring ways for decades after, which led to memorable performance such as at the Concert for the Hall of Fame, where he performed with (and confounded) Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band. Up until recent years, Berry even performed monthly in his hometown of St. Louis at Blueberry Hill's Duck Room, a 340-person club named after the musician's namesake move. At Berry's 80th birthday show there, Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry showed up and hopped onstage to jam with his idol. It's a testament to Berry's influence—and the respect he's commanded—that one of his most famous disciples made it a point to commemorate the milestone. 10 Greatest Chuck Berry Songs | MOJO 10 Greatest Chuck Berry Songs How the latest Polar Music Prize laureate invented rock, duckwalk by duckwalk.

By Danny Eccleston May 9, 2014 WITH THE NEWS THAT 87-year-old rock’n’roll progenitor Chuck Berry is to be awarded this year’s Polar Music Prize – the so-called Nobel of Music annually presented to a 24-carat pioneer by the King Of Sweden – MOJO responds with an exploration of Berry’s 10 Greatest Songs, the founding pillars of rock. Berry was already 29 when his first single on Chicago’s Chess label emerged in 1955 and something of his already-colourful life reflected in his witty, knowing songs. Meanwhile, his rip-and-run guitar style – mashing jumpin’ country and blues in an innovative, roughshod manner – was to blow through a new generation of musical thrill-seekers like a divine wind. “His already-colourful life reflected in his witty, knowing songs.” In fact, it was Berry’s version of a country song – Bob Wills’ Ida Red – that convinced label boss Leonard Chess to sign him, and it was that, rejigged as Maybellene, which hit Billboard Number 5 and laid down Berry’s marker.

His run of classic Chess singles – generously represented below – were to inspire the second wave of rockers, notably The Rolling Stones, who covered Berry’s Come On (for their first single) and Carol to notable effect. A racy personal life didn’t always help his career or reputation, however. Three years imprisonment for armed robbery in his teens, then a further 18 months between 1962-63 over a Mann Act violation when he should have been making hay, slowed his progress and appear to have hardened a Chuck Berry Vs The World mindset. In the ’70s and ’80s, Berry’s reputation suffered, as perfunctory, phoned-in shows appeared to take for granted the reverence in which he was held, and a ’90s conviction – for marijuana possession following rumours that he was filming users of the ladies’ restrooms in his Wentsville, Missouri restaurant – added further tarnish. The Polar Music prize will be presented to Berry and also to provocative US opera director Peter Sellars, in Stockholm on August 26.

Previous recipients of the 1m kroner ($154,000) prize have included Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Keith Jarrett, Robert Moog and Mstislav Rostropovich. Enjoy our celebration of Berry’s most important songs, and complain about the absence of Little Queenie, Rock And Roll Music, Carol, Back In The USA in the usual places. It’s a Top 10, so someone has to miss out! 10. Sweet Little Sixteen (Chess single, 1958) She gets around, this gal: Pittsburgh, New Orleans, San Francisco. How exactly she finds her way back to her school desk every Monday morning is a mystery, but that’s no concern of Chuck’s. He’s too busy making like Tex Avery’s wolf , just like all those other nogoodnik rock’n’rollers on bandstands nationwide. The swaggering model for The Beach Boys’ Surfin’ USA. 9. Come On (Chess single, 1961) A pile-up of bad vibes – terrible car, departed sweetheart, multiple wrong numbers – that swings like a bastard, due in no small way to Ebby Harding’s syncopated drums and Martha Berry’s earthy backup vox.

The Stones have much to be grateful for, and here’s Keith paying back some of the interest in Taylor Hackford’s 1987 doc, Hail! Hail! Rock’n’Roll. 8. Promised Land (Chess single, 1964) Berry’s ability to create instant myth with a few words and an elegant sufficiency of chords is typified by this odyssey across America by wheels and wings. Silk suit, T-bone steak and Los Angeles is his reward. 7. You Can’t Catch Me (Chess single, 1956) Relentless rocker with an elastic beat, notoriously borrowed by John Lennon in the lyric for Come Together ("Here come old flat top..." etc) that was later to cause him so much aggro . Not much song, but lots and lots of rock’n’roll. 6. Brown Eyed Handsome Man (Chess b-side, 1956) “Arrested on charges of unemployment...” Try armed robbery, Mann Act infractions and misdemeanour possession of marijuana, Chuck! Again, a game Robert Cray does the hard yards on Berry’s behalf in Hail! Hail! Rock’n’Roll. 5.

Memphis, Tennessee (Chess b-side, 1959) Wistful, almost ghostly b-side to Back In The U.S.A., whose vocal must have had some impact on the Dylan of Highway 61 Revisited, and later, this . The guitar tuning goes a bit south in the middle, but that’s all part of Chuck’s devil-may-care charm. Spoiler alert! It’s his daughter. 4. No Particular Place To Go (Chess single, 1964) Chuck is nonchalance incarnate during a typically risqué attempt to remove a young lady friend’s safety belt – while driving! – to better facilitate his nefarious plans. On the original 45, Chuck is actually outplayed by the unknown bassist, until the concluding solo, which is as persistent as his previous fumblings. 3. Maybellene (Chess single, 1955) Berry’s hillbilly jazz DNA shows in his high-energy debut single for Chess. Cars and girls figure (he’s chasing his cheatin’ woman in his “Cadillac doing about 95”), pointing the way forward for rock themes generally. Maracas-player Jerome Green adds a soupçon of Bo Diddley.

2. Roll Over Beethoven (Chess single, 1956) Berry’s King Of Rock’n’Roll status (the Queen of course was Little Richard) rests partly on his ownership of the rock’n’roll manifesto song (see also, Rock And Roll Music, Let It Rock...) and this is his best. Don’t forget to tell “Chikoski” the news. 1. Johnny B Goode (Chess single, 1958) The most memorable guitar intro in the entire history of music encapsulates everything rock’n’roll about rock’n’roll. Just ask Marty McFly . PHOTO: Getty Images Chess Records Rice Miller a/k/aSonny Boy Williamson II In 1955 new talent was added to the Chess stable. Sonny Boy Williamson, a blues legend across the Mississippi Delta thanks to his King Biscuit Time radio broadcasts, joined Checker, a Chess subsidiary label. For his first recording "Don't Start Me Talkin'" Chess paired him with most of Water's band. Bo Diddley was signed in 1955 too. His first two-sided smash for Checker, the self-titled "Bo Diddley" and "I'm A Man.

But no one at Chess had the impact on the future of popular music that Chuck Berry did. Berry accepted Water's advice regarding the advantages of working with Leonard Chess, signing with the label in May of 1955 and his first unforgettable hit, "Maybellene." There were also vocal at Chess. Harvey Fuqua's the Moonglows from Louisville had a 1954 hit with "Sincerely," and The Flamingos, a Chicago quintet fronted by Nate Nelson, scored big for Checker in 1956 with their dreamy "I'll Be Home" and "A Kiss From Your Lips." As Berry, Bo, and the vocal groups sold platters by the crates, some of the blues greats that had epitomized Chess during its early years of operation began to recede into the background. But mainstays Muddy, Sonny Boy, and Wolf hung tough, Wolf doing some of his best work during the early '60s when Dixon wrote "Back Door Man," "The Red Rooster," and "Hidden Charms" for him (the latter manically energized by Hubert Sumlin's elastic guitar work).

In 1960, Dixon recruited younger Chicago blues talent, signing guitarists Buddy Guy ("First Time I Met The Blues" and "Broken Hearted Blues") and Otis Rush(1960's "So Many Roads, So Many Trains") Etta James Etta James also made her Chess debut in 1960, scoring no less than four hits for the imprint that year alone. Etta's magnificent work for Argo (and later Cadet and Chess) over the next 16 years uncovered depths of passion and pain barely hinted at on her previous waxings. She waxed the torch ballads "At Last" and "Trust In Me" (both major hits in 1961) surrounded by sumptuous strings, rocked the house with a gospel-rooted "Something's Got A Hold On Me" the next year, and set Muscle Shoals ablaze in '67 with her strutting "Tell Mama," sounding equally confident in all three diverse settings.

Fontella Bass In addition to James had many female artists during the mid-1960s that Jan Bradley ("Mama Didn't Lie"), Sugar Pie De Santo ("Slip-In Mules"), ("I Had A Talk With My Man"), Fontella Bass ("Rescue Me"), Jackie Ross ("Selfish One"), Jo Ann Garrett ("Stay By My Side"), Laura Lee ("Dirty Man"), and the Gems, whose precocious membership included Minnie Riperton. Even Irma Thomas joined the Chess in 1967, recording in Muscle Shoals. prot�g� Koko Taylor scored the last Chicago blues hit for Checker in 1966 with her growling "Wang Dang Doodle." As rhythm and blues merged with gospel influences to form the basis of soul, Chess was right on top of the trend.

Little Milton Campbell who had hits with "We're Gonna Make It," "Who's Cheating Who?" and "Grits Ain't Groceries." The Dells Along with Little Milton, were the Dells, ("There Is" and "Stay In My Corner") the Radiants ("Voice Your Choice"), Billy Stewart ("Summertime," "Sitting In The Park"), Bobby Moore & the Rhythm Aces ("Searching For My Love"), Tony Clarke, James Phelps, and Bobby McClure. Tommy Tucker's "Hi-Heel Sneakers," a huge '64 hit on Checker, traveled bluesier terrain, while the Ramsey Lewis Trio, with Eldee Young on bass and Red Holt on drums, turned out to be a crossover sensation when their grooving instrumental remakes of "The In Crowd" and "Hang On Sloopy" vaulted up the R&B and pop charts in 1965. Nor was the Chess combine deficient in humor - albums by veteran comics Moms Mabley and Pigmeat "Here Comes The Judge" Markham made sure of that.

Chuck Berry remained at Chess into 1966, seemingly rejuvenated after serving a prison term (his 1964 hits included "No Particular Place To Go" and "You Never Can Tell"). After unwisely switching to Mercury Records for a few lean years, he returned home to Chess and scored his biggest pop hit of all in 1972 with "My Ding-A-Ling." Bo Diddley recorded a slew of Checker LPs throughout the decade, his trademark beat never faltering. 2120 South Michigan Avenue So inspired by the magnificent output of Chess were the Rolling Stones that they immortalized the label's famous address, 2120 S. Michigan Avenue, in song on one of their early LPs. During this time, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf tried their best to cope with '60s trends. "Muddy Waters Twist" was admittedly nothing to write home about, but his '63 Folk Singer LP was a heartening return to his Delta roots, and 1969's Fathers and Sons set united Muddy with adoring disciples Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield.

Though at the tail end of the decade producer Marshall Chess submerged Waters and Wolf in a quagmire of psychedelia, each legend emerged with his vaunted reputation intact. In 1969, Leonard Chess died, stilling the heart and soul of Chess Records. Earlier that year, he and Phil had sold the company to GRT where producers Ralph Bass and Gene Barge tried their best to hold things together. Sadly, though, the momentum that Chess had long enjoyed quickly began to erode. In 1975, GRT closed down the logo, selling it to All Platinum Records of Englewood, New Jersey. Finally, in 1985, MCA acquired the rights to the massive Chess catalog. At the start of 1987, MCA Vice President of Catalog Development & Special Markets A&R, Andy McKaie began to mount an ambitious long-term reissue campaign of the invaluable Chess masters - an ongoing program that rages full steam ahead all year long in 1997 with the 50th anniversary celebration.

"The impact of Chess was far wider and greater than any of the others, ranging from the impact of the Chicago blues sound, the Chuck Berry/Bo Diddley school of rock & roll, and the vocal group sounds," he continues. "The range of that impact was so great that it's still being felt today. Leonard Chess was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987

Question: Whose first hit was Maybellene in 1955?
Answer: Chuck Berry