John Lennon once quipped, “If you were to give rock & roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry.”  Popular in the late ’50s and early ’60s with a string of classics recorded for Chess Records, Berry, sometimes called the “Father of Rock & Roll”, only saw his reputation as an innovator and showman grow with each passing year. Starting with the blues, in time he put together propulsive early R&B with country & western, marrying his slick, distinctive guitar riffs to sharp, humorous, storytelling lyrics, and crafting a winning stage presence featuring his famous “duck walk”. He made himself an immortal with such timeless and witty hits as “Maybellene”, “Roll Over Beethoven”, “School Days”, “Rock and Roll Music”, and “Johnny B. Goode”, all in a three-year stretch (1955-1958), cleverly commenting on such concerns as troubling relationships, souped up cars, boredom in school, and the emerging new music. A prison stint from ’62 to ’63 interrupted his career (indeed, Berry had a number of scrapes with the law), but he was back with several more hits after his release.

         The Beach Boys, The Beatles, the Stones, AC/DC, Alice Cooper, Bruce Springsteen, and a host of other artists have acknowledged their debt to Berry. He is an inductee in the Rock & Roll and Songwriters halls of fame; he won a Lifetime Achievement Grammy, and earned the coveted Kennedy Center honors.

         -Steve Williams (6/12/23) – Greatest Recording Artists Blog Post #18