Berry, Charles Edward Anderson “Chuck”
1926-2017 · Contribution: 1955-1958
Refined rhythm and blues into the defining sound of rock and roll through songs including “Maybellene,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” and “Johnny B. Goode,” earning the title “Father of Rock and Roll” and becoming one of the genre's first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986
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Impact on the world
Berry pioneered the guitar riff as rock music's primary melodic element and songwriting as narrative storytelling, writing lyrics centered on teenage life, cars, and consumer culture that critic Jon Pareles called “a music of teenage wishes fulfilled”; his showmanship, including his signature one-legged “duck walk,” became a template for rock performance that generations of guitarists would emulate. His 1958 recording “Johnny B. Goode” remains the only rock-and-roll song included on the Voyager Golden Record launched into space in 1977, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame cited him for having “laid the groundwork for not only a rock and roll sound but a rock and roll stance.” John Lennon famously said, “if you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry,'” and both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones recorded extensively from his catalog; he received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2000 and was ranked among the greatest guitarists and artists of all time by Rolling Stone.
Life & background
Born October 18, 1926, in St. Louis, Missouri, Berry served time in a reformatory as a teenager before beginning his music career and recording his breakthrough hit, “Maybellene,” in Chicago in 1955. He continued performing into his later years, and died at his home near St. Louis on March 18, 2017, at age 90.
Sources
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; Songwriters Hall of Fame; Encyclopædia Britannica
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