Berry, Chuck 1926–

Chuck Berry 1926–

Rock and Roll legend

Berry Behind Bars

A Career is Born

Berry Hits Again

Selected Discography

Sources

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

At a Glance…

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;” released “School Days,”1955; released “Roll Over Beethoven,” 1956; recorded his first LP, After School Session, released “School Days,” and “Rock and Roll Music,” 1957; released “Sweet Little Sixteen” and “Johnny B, Goode,” 1958; released “Almost Grown,” and opened Berry Park in Wentzville, MO, 1959; released The London Chuck Berry Sessions, his only gold record, which included his only #1 pop hit “My Ding-A4Jng,” 1972; 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,

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.

Addresses: Home —Wentzville, MO. Agent —Bob Astor Management, 23 Holly Dr., LaPlace, LA 70066.

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 Thernetta. 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 co-writer 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 back-up band. He played alone with a local back-up 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 Roiling 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 a-foul 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 V 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.”

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.

Sources

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