Chuck Berry
Charles Edward “Chuck” Berry was born in St.Louis, Missouri on October 18th 1926. Charles is one of the pioneers of Rock ‘n’ Roll and was one of the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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Berry shot to fame in 1956 with “Roll Over Beethoven” reaching No.29 in the Billboard Top 100. His time with Chess Records was extremely success and a number of top 10 U.S. hits followed from 1957 to 1959 including "School Days," "Rock and Roll Music," "Sweet Little Sixteen," and "Johnny B. Goode."
Berry left Chess Records in 1966 for the Mercury label, however, the hits began to dry up and he returned to Chess Records in 1970. Although his first album had little success, he had a No. 1 hit with “My Ding-a-Ling” in 1972.
Berry never recaptured his original success but he continued to play 70 to 100 one-nighters per year in the 1980s, still travelling solo and requiring a local band to back him at each stop.
An absolute legend of Rock N Roll, Chuck Berry with Jonnie Johnson practically invented the genre and perfected it at the same time. Regarded as one of, if not the best guitarist ever by critics and his peers with many legends of the art have given him praise. John Lennon once said 'if you tried to give Rock N Roll another name, you could call it Chuck Berry', as well as Ted Nugent stating 'if you don't know every Chuck Berry lick, you can't play the guitar'. With as many tracks that will fill up a bookcase, the pedigree of Chuck Berry's work over the years has been one to admire. By later inspiring the likes of Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, The Who, The Kinks, I could go on forever, we would have not enjoyed their music if Chuck was not about.
In 2008, Chuck Berry toured Europe and still regularly performs at Blueberry Hill, a restaurant and bar located in the Delmar Loop neighborhood in St. Louis.
In his 80s and Chuck Berry is still going strong as he shows the youngsters how its done.
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