Charles Strouse

Charles Strouse (b. June 7, 1928) is an American composer and lyricist.

Strouse was born and raised in New York City, the son of Ira and Ethel (Newman) Strouse. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Strouse studied under David Diamond, Aaron Copland, and Nadia Boulanger.



Strouse's first Broadway musical was the 1960 hit Bye Bye Birdie, with lyrics by Lee Adams, who would become his long time collaborator. Strouse won his first Tony Award for best score for this musical, which is considered the precursor of the rock musical. Strouse's next show, All American, with a book by Mel Brooks and lyrics by Adams, came in 1962 and produced the standard Once Upon a Time (recorded by Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Bobby Darin, among others). Following this was Golden Boy (1964, also with Adams), starring Sammy Davis, Jr. and It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman (1966, based on the popular comic strip) which introduced the song You've Got Possibilities sung by Linda Lavin.

In 1970, Applause (starring Lauren Bacall, with book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and lyrics by Adams) won Strouse his second Tony Award. In 1977, Strouse adapted another comic strip for the stage, creating the hit Annie, which garnered him his third Tony Award and two Grammy Awards. Other Strouse musicals include Charlie and Algernon (1979), Dance a Little Closer (1983, with lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner), Rags (1986), and Nick & Nora (1993). Strouse also wrote a number of musical revues, many with Adams.

Strouse's film scores include the classics Bonnie and Clyde (1967), There Was a Crooked Man... (1970, with Henry Fonda and Kirk Douglas), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968, with Adams), and All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989). He and Adams also wrote the theme song



Those Were the Days for the television show All in the Family. Strouse's songs have been heard on the radio throughout his career and have run the gamut from girl-band pop to hip hop. In 1958, his song Born Too Late was number one on the Billboard charts, and in 1999 the quadruple platinum Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem) by artist Jay-Z was the winner of a Grammy for Best Rap Album of the year & the Billboard R&B Album of the Year.

Strouse's writing also extends into orchestral works, chamber music, piano concertos and opera.

His Concerto America, composed in 2002 to commemorate 9/11 and the spirit of New York City, premiered at The Boston Pops in 2004, and his opera Nightingale (1982), starring Sarah Brightman, had a successful run in London, followed by many subsequent productions. In 1977, Strouse founded the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop in New York, through which many young composers and lyricists have found a forum for their work.

Upcoming works by Strouse include an adaptation of the Paddy Chayevsky film Marty starring John C. Reilly, a musical version of The Night They Raided Minsky's, and an adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy. Real Men, for which Strouse wrote the music and lyrics, premiered in January 2005 at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, Florida, and his musical Studio, premiered at Theatre Building Chicago in August 2006. The musical Minsky's, with music by Strouse, book by Bob Martin, and lyrics by Susan Birkenhead (loosely based on the movie The Night They Raided Minsky's) premiered in January 2009 at the Ahmanson Theater.

Strouse has won Emmy Awards for music in television adaptions of Bye Bye Birdie and Annie.

He is also the recipient of the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers Award and the Oscar Hammerstein Award. He is also a member of the Theater Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Strouse is married to director-choreographer Barbara Siman. They have 4 children.

Musicals

Bye Bye Birdie (1960)
All American (1962)
Golden Boy (1964)
It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman (1966)
Applause (1970)
Six (1971, Off-Broadway)
I and Albert (1972, London)
Annie (1977)
A Broadway Musical (1978)
Charlie and Algernon (1979, London, as Flowers for Algernon); (1981)
Bring Back Birdie (1981)
Nightingale (1982; this work is often described as an opera)
Dance a Little Closer (1983)
Mayor (1985)
Rags (1986)
Annie 2: Miss Hannigan's Revenge (1989)
Nick & Nora (1993)
Annie Warbucks (1993)
The Future of the American Musical Theater (2004 opera)
Real Men (2005)
Studio (2006)
Minsky's (2009)

Film Scores

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968)
There Was a Crooked Man (1970)
Just Tell Me What You Want (1980)
The Worst Witch (1986)
Ishtar (1987)

***



Bye Bye Birdie is a stage musical with music by Charles Strouse, with lyrics by Lee Adams and a book by Michael Stewar.

Originally titled Let's Go Steady, the satire on American society is set in 1958. The story was inspired by the phenomenon of popular singer Elvis Presley and his draft notice into the Army in 1957. The rock star character's name, "Conrad Birdie," is word play on the name of Conway Twitty. Twitty is best remembered today for his long career as a country music star, but before that, in the late 1950s, he was one of Presley's rock 'n' roll rivals.

The original Broadway production was a Tony Award-winning success. It spawned a London production and several major revivals, a sequel, a 1963 film and a 1995 television production. The show also became a popular choice for high school and college productions.

The producer Edward Padula had the idea for a musical initially titled Let's Go Steady, a "happy teenage musical with a difference." Padula contracted with two writers, and Charles Strouse and Lee Adams wrote seven songs for their libretto. Padula, Strouse and Adams sought Gower Champion as director/choregrapher, who until that time had choreographed only a few musicals (Fred Astaire and Morton DaCosta had already declined). However, Champion did not like the book and the writers were fired, with Michael Stewart then hired. Stewart wrote an early version titled Love and Kisses, which focused on a couple thinking of divorce, but whose children persuade them to stay together. Champion wanted "something more."



"The 'something more' had been right there in the newspaper. On September 22, 1958, rock-and-roll idol Elvis Presley, having been drafted, boarded a ship for eighteen months in Germany.... There was a media circus including Elvis giving a specially selected WAC 'one last kiss'". After brainstorming, Stewart and Adams "came up with the idea of a rock-and-roll singer going off to the army and its effect on a group of teenagers in a small town in Ohio." The name of the singer was Elsworth, then changed to "Conway Twitty before we discovered there was already a Conway Twitty who was threatening to sue us, and then, finally, Conrad Birdie."

Agent and songwriter Albert Peterson finds himself in trouble when hip-thrusting rock and roll superstar Conrad Birdie is drafted into the Army. Albert's Hispanic secretary and sweetheart, Rose Alvarez, comes up with a last-ditch publicity stunt to have Conrad Birdie record and premiere a song before he is sent overseas. She makes Albert promise to give up the music business and to start teaching English at schools ("An English Teacher"). They plan to have Birdie sing Albert's new song "One Last Kiss" and give one lucky girl from his fan club a real "last kiss" on The Ed Sullivan Show before going into the Army.

The lucky girl chosen randomly from Conrad's national fan club is 15-year-old Kim MacAfee from Sweet Apple, Ohio. All the teenagers in Sweet Apple are catching up on the latest gossip about Kim MacAfee and Hugo Peabody going steady ("The Telephone Hour"). Kim, excited to have a boyfriend, reflects on how happy she is with her maturity ("How Lovely to Be a Woman").

Conrad, Albert and Rosie set off to Sweet Apple to prepare for the event. Before they depart by train from New York City, local teenage girls are ecstatic to meet Conrad, but two young girls are sad that by the time Conrad gets out of the army, they'll be too old for him.

Albert advises them to be optimistic ("Put on a Happy Face"). Soon, reporters arrive with questions for Conrad, but Rosie, Albert, and the girls answer for him, declaring he's "A Healthy, Normal, American Boy." Conrad receives a hero's welcome in Sweet Apple, and Hugo worries that Kim likes Conrad more than she likes him, but Kim assures Hugo that he's the "One Boy" she loves. Conrad shocks the town parents and drives the teenage girls crazy with his performance of "Honestly Sincere."

Conrad becomes a guest in the MacAfee house and irritates Kim's father, Harry MacAfee, by being a rude and selfish guest. Mr. MacAfee does not want Kim to kiss Conrad until Albert tells him their whole family will be on The Ed Sullivan Show. Mr. and Mrs. MacAfee, Kim, and her younger brother Randolph sing Sullivan's praises in "Hymn for a Sunday Evening." Hugo sees Kim is attracted to Conrad and becomes very jealous. Albert's overbearing, interfering, mother Mae comes to break up her son's relationship with the Rosie. She introduces Albert to a curvy blonde she met on the bus who could replace Rosie as his secretary.

Rosie, jealous and angry, dreams of "How To Kill A Man (ballet)." Rosie and Hugo plot a way to ruin the broadcast. Conrad sings "One Last Kiss" on The Ed Sullivan Show, and as he leans in to kiss Kim, Hugo runs onstage and punches him in the face. On live television, Conrad collapses, Rosie breaks up with Albert, and Albert, trying to cover for the mishaps of the evening, leads a chorus of "A Healthy, Normal, American Boy."

Despite plans to refilm the broadcast, Rosie and Kim resolve to leave Albert and Hugo, each asking herself, "What Did I Ever See in Him?" Conrad decides he wants to go out and have a good time on his last night as a civilian and encourages the teens to party because they've got "A Lot of Livin' to Do." Conrad, Kim, and all the teenagers except Hugo head for the Ice House to party without adult supervision. Hugo goes to Maude's Roadside Retreat, hoping to get drunk, but proprietor Charles F. Maude can tell that he's under age and refuses to serve him.



When Mr. MacAfee finds out Kim has run away, he and Mrs. MacAfee lament how disobedient "Kids" are today. Rosie ends up at Maude's Roadside Retreat, but Albert calls her on the telephone and begs her, "Baby Talk To Me." Rosie, hoping to forget Albert, interrupts a Shriners meeting being held in Maude's private dining room. She flirts with all the Shriners, and they begin a wild dance. Hugo and Albert rescue Rosie from the crazed Shriners, and Albert finally stands up to his mother, telling her to go home. Hugo tells the MacAfees and the other parents that the teenagers have gone to the Ice House, and they all declare that they don't know what's wrong with their "Kids" (Reprise). Randolph joins in, stating that his older sister and the other teens are "ridiculous and so immature."

The adults and the police arrive at the Ice House and arrest Conrad, although he doesn't appear to have done anything illegal or immoral. Kim claims that she was intimidated by Conrad and Hugo gladly takes her back and proposes to her, which she accepts. After a reconciliation with Albert, Rosie tells Albert's mother Mae that she will marry Albert despite Mae's racist objections, and to irritate her, declares she's "Spanish Rose" with deliberate comic exaggeration. Albert bails Conrad out of jail and arranges for him to sneak out of town dressed as a middle-aged woman—presumably so he can report for Army induction as scheduled. Albert also gets his mother to leave Sweet Apple bound for home on the same train, getting Conrad and his mother out of his life for good. Albert tells Rosie that they're not going back to New York; they're going to Pumpkin Falls, Iowa. The small town is in need of an English teacher, and they prefer the applicant to be married. Albert professes his love for her in "Rosie," and they go off together.

Albert Peterson, Conrad Birdie's manager
Rosie Alvarez, his Spanish secretary and long suffering girlfriend
Conrad Birdie, a 1950s rock and roll star a la Elvis Presley
Kim MacAfee, a teenage girl from Sweet Apple, Ohio who is chosen to receive the 'one last kiss' from Conrad Birdie
Mr. MacAfee, Kim and Randolph's befuddled father whose one dream is realized when the family gets to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show
Mrs. MacAfee, Kim and Randolph's mother
Randolph MacAfee, Kim's precocious ten year old brother
Mrs. Mae Peterson, Albert's crazy mother who hates Rosie
Hugo Peabody, Kim's boyfriend who doesn't like Conrad Birdie
Ursula Merkle, Kim's hyperactive best friend who is Conrad Birdie's biggest fan
Charles F. Maude, the proprietor of Sweet Apple dive bar Maude's Roadside Retreat
Sad Girl, a young New York City girl who is sad about Conrad leaving for the army (featured dance role)
Deborah Sue, Alice, Penelope Ann, Margie, Helen, Nancy, Suzie, Kim and Ursula's friends, teenage members of the Conrad Birdie fan club
The Mayor, the mayor of Sweet Apple
The Mayor's Wife, his wife who is secretly a huge Conrad Birdie fan
Harvey Johnson, the town nerd, just can't seem to get a date
Mr. Johnson, Harvey's father
Mrs. Merkle, Ursula's mother
Maude's Barflies, featured quartet singers in the song "Baby, Talk To Me"
Ed Sullivan, the host of the Ed Sullivan Show
Sweet Apple Adults, Sweet Apple Kids, Sad Girls, Reporters, Conrad's Roadies, Ed Sullivan Stage Crew, Shriners, ensemble roles

Act I
Overture
An English Teacher – Rosie & Albert
The Telephone Hour – Teenagers
How Lovely to Be a Woman – Kim



We Love You, Conrad! – Teen Trio
Put on a Happy Face – Albert
A Healthy, Normal, American Boy – The Company
One Boy – Kim, Deborah Sue, Alice
One Boy (Reprise) – Rosie
Honestly Sincere – Conrad Birdie, Ursula, and Teenagers
Hymn for a Sunday Evening – The MacAfee Family & Company
How to Kill a Man (Ballet) – Rosie, Albert, Company
One Last Kiss – Conrad & Company
A Healthy, Normal, American Boy (Reprise, Act One Finale) – The Company

Act II
Entr’acte
What Did I Ever See in Him? – Rosie & Kim
A Lot of Livin’ to Do – Conrad, Kim & Teenagers
Kids – Mr. and Mrs. MacAfee
Baby, Talk to Me – Albert & Quartet
Shriner’s Ballet (dance) – Rosie & Shriners
Kids (Reprise) – Adults, Mr & Mrs Macafee, Randolph
Spanish Rose – Rosie
Rosie – Rosie & Albert

The Broadway production opened on April 14, 1960, at the Martin Beck Theatre, transferring to the 54th Street Theatre and then the Shubert Theatre, closing on October 7, 1961, after 607 performances. Produced by Edward Padula and directed and choreographed by Gower Champion, the original cast included Dick Van Dyke, Chita Rivera, Paul Lynde, Dick Gautier, Susan Watson, Kay Medford and Charles Nelson Reilly.

Reilly understudied for Van Dyke as Albert Peterson, who periodically took vacations and returned to the leading role. During pre-production, Chita Rivera had taken the role of Rosie after both Carol Haney and Eydie Gorme turned it down, and the character's last name was changed from "Grant" to "Alvarez."

Replacements during the run included Gene Rayburn as Albert and Gretchen Wyler as Rosie.

The musical opened in the West End at Her Majesty's Theatre in June 1961, with Peter Marshall as Albert, Rivera reprising her role as Rosie, Angela Baddeley as Mae and Marty Wilde as Conrad Birdie. That production ran for 268 performances.

Bye Bye Birdie was first adapted for film in 1963. It starred Dick Van Dyke as Albert Peterson, Maureen Stapleton as Mama Mae Peterson, Janet Leigh as Rosie, Paul Lynde as Mr. MacAfee, Bobby Rydell as Hugo Peabody, and Ann-Margret as Kim MacAfee. Jesse Pearson played Conrad Birdie.

Ed Sullivan makes a substantial guest appearance as himself. The film is credited with making Ann-Margret a superstar during the mid-1960s, leading to her appearing with the real Elvis Presley in Viva Las Vegas (1964). The film ranked number 38 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.

Several significant changes were made in the plot and character relationships in the film version. Albert is not Birdie's agent but a talented research chemist who is struggling as a songwriter only to please his overbearing mother. He contributed to Birdie's initial success, and therefore Birdie "owes" him a favor. The film version also includes an additional character, a suave English teacher who flirts with Rosie. She plays up to him in several scenes after Albert has made her angry by caving in to his mother.

The positioning and context of several songs were changed as well. "An English Teacher," "A Healthy, Normal American Boy," "One Hundred Ways," "What Did I Ever See In Him?," "Baby Talk To Me" and "Spanish Rose" were eliminated entirely. "Kids" was performed in the MacAfee kitchen by Mr. MacAfee, Mama Mae Peterson, Albert and Randolph. "Put On A Happy Face" is performed by Albert and Rosie in the MacAfees' back yard; "A Lot of Livin' To Do" was performed by Conrad, Kim and Hugo at a teen dance; and "Rosie" is sung at the end of show by Albert, Rosie, Hugo and Kim. Kim also opens and closes the film version singing the title song, "Bye Bye, Birdie."

The film version ends on a brighter and lighter note than the stage musical. When Hugo punches Conrad, knocking him out with a single punch "live" on The Ed Sullivan Show, he wins Kim's heart, and the young couple is reunited. Albert's mother shows up after the broadcast with Charles F. Maude (the bartender), informs Albert and Rosie that she has married him, and gives Albert and Rosie her blessing for their long-postponed wedding.

Van Dyke hated the making of the film, complaining to his wife, "They're turning it into the Ann-Margret show!"

Susan Watson, who created the role of Kim in the stage version, later said, "Anyone who likes the film clearly didn't see the show."

The original production of Bye Bye Birdie opened to mostly positive reviews, with several critics marveling at the unexpected success of a musical crafted by an inexperienced production team.

John Champman of the New York Daily News called it "the funniest, most captivating, and most expert musical comedy one could hope to see ... the show is pure, plain musical comedy, with jokes, dancing, oddball costumes ... exceptionally catching orchestrations ... and a completely enthusiastic cast." He noted that, "one of the best things about it is that practically nobody is connected to it. Who ever heard of Edward Padula ... Charles Strouse and Lee Adams ... Gower Champion?"

Frank Aston of the New York World-Telegram & Sun declared Bye Bye Birdie "the peak of the season" and especially liked Chita Rivera as Rosie: "Chita Rivera ... is triumphant as dancer, comic, and warbler."

In the New York Daily Mirror, Robert Coleman wrote that "Edward Padula put over a sleeper in the Broadway sweepstakes, and it's going to pay off in big figures ... Chita Rivera explodes like a bomb over West 45th Street. Michael Stewart has penned a sassy and fresh book, while Lee Adams and Charles Strouse have matched it with tongue-in-cheek lyrics and music."

New York Herald Tribune critic Walter Kerr praised Gower Champion's direction but criticized the libretto and score, stating that "Mr. Champion has been very much responsible for the gayety (sic), the winsomeness, and the exuberant zing of the occasion ... he has not always been given the very best to work with ... every once in a while, Michael Stewart's book starts to break down and cry ... Lee Adams's lyrics lean rather heavily on the new "talk-out-the-plot" technique, and Charles Strouse's tunes, though jaunty, are whisper-thin."

Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times conceded that "the audience was beside itself with pleasure" but dryly stated that "this department was able to contain itself. Bye Bye Birdie is neither fish, fowl, nor good musical comedy. It needs work."

The Original Broadway Cast recording was released by Columbia Masterworks (1960).[29]

The film soundtrack featured Dick Van Dyke, Janet Leigh, Ann-Margret, Bobby Rydell, Paul Lynde and Jessee Pearson, released by RCA Records (1964).

[8928 Fats Domino / 8928 Charles Strouse / 8928 Gerald Fried]

Gerald Fried (b. 1928) - Star Trek: Amok Time

Gerald Fried (b. 1928)



Star Trek (1967)



Amok Time

Gerald Fried (b. February 13, 1928) is an American musician, well known for his compositions in film and television.

Born and raised in the Bronx, New York, NY, Fried attended Juilliard School of Music. After moving to Los Angeles he began composing and arranging music for shows such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E., working with Robert Drasnin, and also Star Trek, where he composed the famous musical underscore (now known as "Star Trek fight music") for the episode Amok Time.

***

In a two-hour online interview, Gerald Fried talked about his early work as the composer of Stanley Kubrick’s first films, including his pulsating score for The Killing. Fried then discussed his work as a composer for television that began at Revue Studios. He described his continued composing for television in the 1960's, highlighted by such series as Gilligan’s Island (including one episode where he had musicians blow into bottles to simulate sea shell instruments) and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (including an episode entirely done with kazoos). He spoke in great detail about his work on the classic science fiction series Star Trek, for which he was one of the most significant contributors. He discussed his scores for such classic episodes as “Shore Leave”and “Amok Time.” Additionally, he spoke about his later work for television movies and miniseries (including Roots). B-roll (end of Part 4) consisted of Fried performing three pieces on the oboe from his Star Trek compositions as well as several still photos from recording sessions. The interview was conducted by Karen Herman on June 26, 2003.



[8928 Domino / 8928 Fried / 8928 Haazen]

Guido Haazen (c. 1928-2004) - Missa Luba (1958)

The Missa Luba is a version of the Latin Mass based on traditional Congolese songs.



It was arranged by Father Guido Haazen, a Franciscan Friar from Belgium, and originally performed and recorded in 1958 by Les Troubadours du Roi Baudouin,



[Bukavu, in South Kivu Province, is in the "Wild East" Congo (Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, and Katanga Provinces -- which includes Kamina), in years since the Missa Luba subjected to invasion, re-invasion, civil butchery, refugee-militias from Rwanda, and government armies of Congo, Uganda, and Rwanda]

a choir of Congolese children from Kamina.



Father Guido Haazen arrived in the Congo in 1953 from Belgium.

In 1954 he founded the Troubadours (named for Baudouin I of Belgium) as a choir of 45 boys aged 9 to 14 and 15 teachers from Central School in Kamina. In 1958 the ensemble toured Europe to acclaim, at one point singing with the Vienna Boys Choir. There was a high degree of improvisation in the performances, based around traditional song forms.



The first recording, which dates from 1958, features solo vocalist Joachim Ngoi and was released as an album on the Philips label in 1963 in the UK (and two years later in the USA), including a selection of songs used as the basis for the Missa Luba.

Originally the music was not written. The composition was the result of general cooperation and of a spontaneous inspiration. Later, sheet music of Haazen's arrangement was published. The Missa Luba was created by Baluba of the Kasai and Katanga, with Father Haazen.

Congo - Missa Luba

Kyrie



Kyrie is wholly elaborated like the "kasalas" which are still performed according to the Ngandanjika (Kasai).

Gloria is improvised in the typical Kiluba-style of the Katanga.

In Credo, which unfolds as the Kyrie, the text In the "Credo" the text (the crucifixion and the death of the Redeemer) is preceded by the announcement of death, first on the Kyondo and then on the Kikumvi (Tom-Tom). Then follows a genuine "kilio" (elegy - dead-song) without percussion accompaniment, sung by the solo voice. The doleful tone is stressed by the repeated and sustained o-sounds ("... etiam prono ... bis, sub Pontio Pilato... ).

Sanctus was inspired by a magnificent Parting-Song in Kiluba, with the ensuing Hosannah as a genuine rhythmic dance of the Kasai. This was released as a single, which spent some time on the record chart in the UK.

Agnus Dei is a typical Bena Lulua (Luluabourg) song.

In 2004 Philips released the original recording on CD (without the Congolese songs), plus a 2000 recording on DVD.

Since the 1960's Missa Luba has been recorded by other choirs, including The Muungano National Choir of Nairobi, and the Washington Choral Arts Society.

[8928 Fried / 8928 Haazen / 8926 C. Berry]

Chuck Berry (b. 1926)

Chuck Berry (b. 1926)

Maybellene (1955)



Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry (born October 18, 1926, St. Louis, Missouri) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter.

Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry (born October 18, 1926) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958), Chuck Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive, with lyrics focusing on teen life and consumerism and utilizing guitar solos and showmanship that would be a major influence on subsequent rock music.

Born into a middle class family in St. Louis, Missouri, Berry had an interest in music from an early age and gave his first public performance at Sumner High School. While still a high school student he served a prison sentence for armed robbery between 1944 and 1947. On his release, Berry settled into married life and worked at an automobile assembly plant. By early 1953, influenced by the guitar riffs and showmanship techniques of blues player T-Bone Walker, he was performing in the evenings with the Johnnie Johnson Trio.

His break came when he traveled to Chicago in May 1955, and met Muddy Waters, who suggested he contact Leonard Chess of Chess Records. With Chess he recorded "Maybellene"—Berry's adaptation of the country song "Ida Red"—which sold over a million copies, reaching #1 on Billboard's Rhythm and Blues chart. By the end of the 1950s, Berry was an established star with several hit records and film appearances to his name, as well as a lucrative touring career. He had also established his own St. Louis-based nightclub, called Berry's Club Bandstand. But in January 1962 Berry was sentenced to three years in prison for offenses under the Mann Act—he had transported a 14-year-old girl across state lines.

After his release in 1963 Berry had several more hits, including No Particular Place To Go, You Never Can Tell, and Nadine, but these did not achieve the same success, or lasting impact, of his 1950s songs, and by the 1970s he was more in demand as a nostalgic live performer, playing his past hits with local backup bands of variable quality. His insistence on being paid cash led to a jail sentence in 1979 -- four months and community service for tax evasion.

Berry was among the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on its opening in 1986, with the comment that he "laid the groundwork for not only a rock and roll sound but a rock and roll stance." Berry is included in several Rolling Stone "Greatest of All Time" lists, including being ranked fifth on their 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll included three of Chuck Berry's: Johnny B. Goode, Maybellene, and Rock and Roll Music.

Now in his eighties, Berry continues to play live.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Berry was the fourth child in a family of six. He grew up in the north St. Louis neighborhood known as "The Ville", an area where many middle class St. Louis people lived at the time. His father was a contractor and a deacon of a nearby Baptist church, his mother a qualified principal. His middle class upbringing allowed him to pursue his interest in music from an early age and he gave his first public performance in 1941 while still at Sumner High School.

Just three years later, in 1944, while still at Sumner High School, he was arrested and convicted of armed robbery after robbing three shops in Kansas City and then stealing a car at gunpoint with some friends.

Berry's own account in his autobiography is that his car broke down and he then flagged down a passing car and stole it at gunpoint with a non-functional pistol.

Berry was sent to the Intermediate Reformatory for Young Men at Algoa, near Jefferson City, Missouri, where he formed a singing quartet and did some boxing.

After his release from prison on his 21st birthday in 1947, Berry married Themetta "Toddy" Suggs on 28 October 1948, who gave birth to Darlin Ingrid Berry on 3 October 1950.

Berry supported his family doing a number of jobs in St. Louis: working briefly as a factory worker at two automobile assembly plants, as well as being janitor for the apartment building where he and his wife lived. Afterwards he trained as a beautician at the Poro College of Cosmetology, founded by Annie Turnbo Malone.

He was doing well enough by 1950 to buy a "small three room brick cottage with a bath" in Whittier Street, which is now on the National Register of Historic Places

By the early 1950s, Berry was working with local bands in the clubs of St. Louis as an extra source of income.

He had been playing the blues since his teens, and he borrowed both guitar riffs and showmanship techniques from blues player T-Bone Walker, as well as taking guitar lessons from his friend Ira Harris that laid the foundation for his guitar style.

By early 1953 Berry was performing with Johnnie Johnson's trio, starting a long-time collaboration with the pianist.

Although the band played mostly blues and ballads, the most popular music among whites in the area was country. Berry wrote, "Curiosity provoked me to lay a lot of our country stuff on our predominantly black audience and some of our black audience began whispering 'who is that black hillbilly at the Cosmo?' After they laughed at me a few times they began requesting the hillbilly stuff and enjoyed dancing to it."

Berry's calculated showmanship, along with mixing country tunes with R&B tunes, and singing in the style of Nat "King" Cole to the music of Muddy Waters, brought in a wider audience, particularly affluent white people.

In May 1955, Berry traveled to Chicago where he met Waters, who suggested he contact Leonard Chess of Chess Records. Berry thought his blues material would be of most interest to Chess, but to his surprise it was an old country and western recording by Bob Wills, entitled "Ida Red" that got Chess's attention. Chess had seen the rhythm and blues market shrink and was looking to move beyond it, and he thought Berry might be the artist for that purpose. So on May 21, 1955 Berry recorded an adaptation of "Ida Red"—"Maybellene"—which featured Johnnie Johnson on piano, Jerome Green (from Bo Diddley's band) on the maracas, Jasper Thomas on the drums and Willie Dixon on the bass. "Maybellene" sold over a million copies, reaching #1 on Billboard's Rhythm and Blues chart and #5 on the 10 September 1955 Billboard Best Sellers in Stores chart.

At the end of June 1956, his song Roll Over Beethoven reached #29 on the Billboard Top 100 chart, and Berry toured as one of the Top Acts of '56. He and Carl Perkins became friends. Perkins said that "I knew when I first heard Chuck that he'd been affected by country music. I respected his writing; his records were very, very great." As they toured, Perkins discovered that Berry not only liked country music, but knew about as many songs as he did. Jimmie Rodgers was one of his favorites. "Chuck knew every Blue Yodel and most of Bill Monroe's songs as well," Perkins remembered. "He told me about how he was raised very poor, very tough. He had a hard life. He was a good guy. I really liked him."

In late 1957 Berry took part in Alan Freed's Biggest Show of Stars for 1957 United States tour with the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, and others.

He also guest-starred on ABC's The Guy Mitchell Show, having sung his hit song Rock 'n' Roll Music. The hits continued from 1957 to 1959, with Berry scoring over a dozen chart singles during this period, including the top 10 U.S. hits School Days, Rock and Roll Music, Sweet Little Sixteen, and Johnny B. Goode. He appeared in two early rock and roll movies. The first was Rock Rock Rock, released in 1956. He is shown singing You Can't Catch Me. He had a speaking role as himself in the 1959 film Go, Johnny, Go! along with Alan Freed, and was also shown performing his songs Johnny B. Goode; Memphis, Tennessee; and Little Queenie. His performance of Sweet Little Sixteen at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958 is captured in the motion picture Jazz on a Summer's Day.

By the end of the 1950's, Berry was an established star with several hit records and film appearances to his name, as well as a lucrative touring career. He had established a racially integrated St. Louis-based nightclub, called Berry's Club Bandstand, and was investing in real estate.

But in December 1959, Berry was arrested under the Mann Act after an allegation that he had sex with a 14-year-old Apache waitress whom he had transported over state lines to work as a hat check girl at his club.

After an initial two-week trial in March 1960, Berry was convicted, fined $5,000, and sentenced to five years in prison.

Berry's appeal that the judge's comments and attitude were racist and prejudiced the jury against him was upheld, and a second trial was heard in May and June 1961, which resulted in Berry being given a three-year prison sentence.

After another appeal failed, Berry served one-and-a-half years in prison from February 1962 to October 1963.

Berry had continued recording and performing during the trials, though his output had slowed down as his popularity declined; his final single released before being imprisoned was Come On.

When Berry was released from prison in 1963, he was able to return to recording and performing due to the British invasion acts of the 1960s -- most notably the Beatles and the Rolling Stones -- having kept up an interest in his music by releasing cover versions of his songs; along with other bands reworking his songs, such as the Beach Boys basing their 1963 hit Surfin' USA on Berry's Sweet Little Sixteen.

In 1964-65 Berry released eight singles, including No Particular Place To Go, You Never Can Tell, and Nadine, which achieved commercial success, reaching the top 20 of the Billboard 100, even though they were reworkings of earlier Berry songs, such as School Day.

Between 1966 and 1969 Berry released five albums on the Mercury label, including his first live album Live at Fillmore Auditorium in which he was backed by the Steve Miller Band.

While this was not a successful period for studio work, Berry was still a top concert draw. In May 1964, he did a successful tour of the UK, though when he returned in January 1965 his behavior was erratic and moody, and his touring style of using unrehearsed local backing bands and a strict non-negotiable contract was earning him a reputation as a difficult yet unexciting performer.

He also played at large events in America, such as the Schaefer Music Festival in New York City's Central Park in July 1969, and the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival in October.

Berry helped give life to a subculture... Even My Ding-a-Ling, a fourth-grade joke that used to mortify true believers at college concerts, permitted a lot of twelve-year-olds new insight into the concept of "dirty" when it hit the airwaves...

Berry returned to Chess from 1970 to 1973. Although his 1970 album Back Home yielded no hit singles, in 1972 Chess released a new live recording of My Ding-a-Ling, a song Berry had initially recorded years earlier as a novelty track. The track became Berry's only No. 1 single. A live recording of Reelin' And Rockin' was also issued as a follow-up single that same year and would prove to be Berry's final top-40 hit in both the U.S. and the UK. Both singles were featured on the part-live/part-studio album The London Chuck Berry Sessions which was one of a series of London Sessions albums which included other Chess mainstay artists Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. Berry's second tenure with Chess ended with the 1975 album Chuck Berry, after which he did not make a studio record until 1979's Rockit for Atco Records, his last studio album to date.

In the 1970s Berry toured on the basis of his earlier successes. He was on the road for many years, carrying only his Gibson guitar, confident that he could hire a band that already knew his music no matter where he went. Allmusic has said that in this period his "live performances became increasingly erratic... working with terrible backup bands and turning in sloppy, out-of-tune performances" which "tarnished his reputation with younger fans and oldtimers" alike.

Among the many bandleaders performing a backup role with Chuck Berry were Bruce Springsteen and Steve Miller when each was just starting his career. Springsteen related in the video Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll that Berry did not even give the band a set list and just expected the musicians to follow his lead after each guitar intro. Berry neither spoke to nor thanked the band after the show. Nevertheless, Springsteen backed Berry again when he appeared at the concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. At the request of Jimmy Carter, Chuck Berry performed at the White House on June 1, 1979.

Berry's type of touring style, traveling the "oldies" circuit in the 1970s (where he was often paid in cash by local promoters) added ammunition to the Internal Revenue Service's accusations that Berry was a chronic income tax evader. Facing criminal sanction for the third time, Berry pleaded guilty to tax evasion and was sentenced to four months in prison and 1,000 hours of community service -- doing benefit concerts -- in 1979.

Berry continued to play 70 to 100 one-nighters per year in the 1980s, still traveling solo and requiring a local band to back him at each stop. In 1986, Taylor Hackford made a documentary film, Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll, of a celebration concert for Berry's sixtieth birthday, organized by Keith Richards, in which Berry reveals his bitterness at the fame and financial success that Richards achieved on the back of Berry's songs.

Eric Clapton, Etta James, Julian Lennon, Robert Cray and Linda Ronstadt, among others, appeared with Berry on stage and film. During the concert, Berry played a Gibson ES-355, the luxury version of the ES-335 that he favored on his 1970s tours. Richards played a black Fender Telecaster Custom, Cray a Fender Stratocaster and Clapton a Gibson ES 350T, the same guitar Berry used on his early recordings.

In the late 1980s, Berry bought a restaurant in Wentzville, Missouri, called The Southern Air, and in 1990 he was sued by several women who claimed that he had installed a video camera in the ladies' bathroom. Berry claimed that he had the camera installed to catch red-handed a worker who was suspected of stealing from the restaurant. Though his guilt was never proven in court, Berry opted for a class action settlement with 59 women. Berry's biographer, Bruce Pegg, estimated that it cost Berry over $1.2 million plus legal fees.

It was during this time that he began using Wayne T. Schoeneberg as his legal counsel.

Reportedly, a police raid on his house did find videotapes of women using the restroom, and one of the women was a minor. Also found in the raid were 62 grams of marijuana. Felony drug and child-abuse charges were filed. In order to avoid the child-abuse charges, Berry agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor possession of marijuana. He was given a six-month suspended jail sentence, two years' unsupervised probation, and ordered to donate $5,000 to a local hospital.

In November 2000, Berry again faced legal charges when he was sued by his former pianist Johnnie Johnson, who claimed that he co-wrote over 50 songs, including "No Particular Place to Go", "Sweet Little Sixteen" and "Roll Over Beethoven", that credit Berry alone. The case was dismissed when the judge ruled that too much time had passed since the songs were written.

Currently, Berry usually performs one Wednesday each month at Blueberry Hill, a restaurant and bar located in the Delmar Loop neighborhood in St. Louis. In 2008, Berry toured Europe, with stops in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland, Poland, and Spain. In mid-2008, he played at Virgin Festival in Baltimore, MD.

He presently lives in Ladue, Missouri, approximately 10 miles west of St. Louis.

While no individual can be said to have invented rock and roll, Chuck Berry comes the closest of any single figure to being the one who put all the essential pieces together. It was his particular genius to graft country & western guitar licks onto a rhythm & blues chassis in his very first single, “Maybellene.”

A pioneer of rock music, Berry was a significant influence on the development of both the music and the attitude associated with the rock music lifestyle. With songs such as Maybellene (1955), Roll Over Beethoven (1956), Rock and Roll Music (1957), and Johnny B. Goode (1958), Chuck Berry refined and developed rhythm-and-blues into the major elements that made rock-and-roll distinctive, with lyrics successfully aimed to appeal to the early teenage market by using graphic and humorous descriptions of teen dances, fast cars, high-school life, and consumer culture, and utilizing guitar solos and showmanship that would be a major influence on subsequent rock music.

His records are a rich storehouse of the essential lyrical, showmanship and musical components of rock and roll; and, in addition to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, a large number of significant popular-music performers have recorded Berry's songs.

Though not technically accomplished, his guitar style is distinctive - he incorporated electronic effects to mimic the sound of bottleneck blues guitarists, and drew on the influence of guitar players such as Charlie Christian, and T-Bone Walker, to produce a clear and exciting sound that many later guitar musicians would acknowledge as a major influence in their own style.

Berry's showmanship has been influential on other rock guitar players, particularly his one-legged hop routine, and the "duck walk", which he first used as a child when he walked "stooping with full-bended knees, but with my back and head vertical" under a table to retrieve a ball and his family found it entertaining; he used it when "performing in New York for the first time and some journalist branded it the duck walk."

The rock critic Robert Christgau considers him "the greatest of the rock and rollers," while John Lennon said that "if you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry'."

Ted Nugent said "If you don't know every Chuck Berry lick, you can't play rock guitar."

Status Quo and AC/DC were heavily influenced by Berry, and both bands have covered his songs from time to time. Among the honors he has received, have been the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1984, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2000, and being named seventh on Time Magazine's 2009 list of the 10 best electric guitar players of all-time.

***



Maybellene is a song recorded by Chuck Berry, adapted from the traditional fiddle tune Ida Red that tells the story of a hot rod race and a broken romance. It was released in July 1955 as a single on Chess Records of Chicago, Illinois.

It was Berry's first single release and his first hit. Maybellene is considered one of the pioneering rock and roll singles: Rolling Stone magazine wrote, "Rock & roll guitar starts here."

The record is an early instance of the complete rock and roll package: youthful subject matter, small guitar-driven combo, clear diction, and an atmosphere of unrelenting excitement.
In 1955, the song, a 12-bar blues, peaked at number five on the Billboard rock charts and was a number one R&B hit.

Berry was the first African-American rock-n-roller to reach the top ten on the Billboard list with a rock and roll single.

The title is often misspelled as Maybelline, even on some of Berry's own compilation CD's.

Many have considered the story of the evolution of the country song Ida Red important to the history of Rock n Roll's emergence as a popular music. According to Berry, his favorite song to sing at “salt and pepper clubs” as he called them, (black and white clubs) was the country song Ida Red, an uptempo dance number recorded by country singer Roy Acuff in 1939. With encouragement from Muddy Waters, Berry in 1955 brought to Chess Record a tape of his cover of the tune which he had renamed Ida May and a blues song he wrote Wee Wee Hours, which he stated was inspired by Joe Turner’s Wee Baby Blue.

To Berry’s surprise, Leonard Chess showed little interest in the blues material but was enthusiastic about the commercial possibilities in a “hillbilly song sung by a black man.”

Chess wanted a bigger beat for the song and added a bass and maraca player to the trio at the recording session. He also felt the titles Ida Red and Ida May were “too rural.”

Spotting a mascara box on the floor of the studio, according to Berry’s partner Johnnie Johnson, Chess said, “Well, hell, let’s name the damn thing Maybellene” altering the spelling to avoid a suit by the cosmetic company. The lyrics were rewritten at the direction of Chess as well. “The kids wanted the big beat, cars, and young love,” Chess recalled. “It was the trend and we jumped on it.”

It has been claimed that taking old recording and modifying them, by changing the instrumentals and the lyrics was a common practice in the 1950s. With these changes the original songs were often not detectible particularly if the melody was slightly modified. This practice took place because copyright laws on older recordings were rarely enforced.

As Chess had predicted, the lyrics struck a chord with teenagers fascinated by cars, speed, and sexuality. With Alan Freed (to whom Chess assigned one-third of the writing credit and royalties) promoting the song on his radio program, "Maybellene” became one of the first records to score big on rhythm and blues, country and western, and pop charts. Featuring some inimitable Chuck Berry riffs, some blues-style picking on a country guitar, and Johnson’s piano, which added a hummable rhythm to the steady backbeat, Maybellene was a pivotal song in the emergence of Rock n Roll. This exciting fusion of a rhythm and blues beat with a rural country style was the catalyst for the type of Rock n Roll that emerged and excited the nation in the mid-50s.

In comparison, Elvis Presley brought this dynamic combination of musical genres onto the scene in 1954 with his first recording, "That’s Alright [Mama]." Both "That’s Alright" and "Maybellene" have been argued as the first true Rock n Roll songs because both were clearly born of this poignant amalgamation of culture and sound, crossing racial lines, to create an entirely new music. The back beat and the lyrics geared to the youth (cars and sex) came to be seen as signature elements to this new music as well. One distinction is the lyrics that typified this emerging Rock n Roll were not present in "That’s Alright", which was recorded with its original lyrics by bluesman Arthur Crudup. A further distinction between "Maybellene" and "That’s Alright" is the latter fused the sound of country hillbilly with the "blues" genre rather than rhythm and blues. Both Berry and Presley can be seen as unique artists that were successful in blending extremely diverse musical genres in the creation of a new kind of music that excited the nation and greatly impacted the course of popular music.

In the 1950s, some record companies assigned co-composer credits to disc jockeys and others who helped "break" a record, a form of "payola" via composer royalties. This accounts for disk jockey Alan Freed receiving co-writer credit for "Maybellene". Russ Fratto, who had been loaning money to Chess, also received credit.

The Freed and Fratto credits were later withdrawn.

Allmusic lists cover versions by more than 70 performers, including Elvis Presley, Simon and Garfunkel in a medley with "Kodachrome," George Jones, Carl Perkins, Bubba Sparks, Foghat, Gerry & The Pacemakers, Johnny Rivers, and Chubby Checker.

***





Roll Over Beethoven is a 1956 hit single by Chuck Berry originally released on Chess Records, with Drifting Heart as the B-side.

According to Rolling Stone and Cub Koda of Allmusic, Berry wrote the song in response to his sister Lucy always using the family piano to play classical music when Berry wanted to play contemporary popular music.

In addition to classical composers Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, the lyrics mention or allude to several popular artists. "Early in the Mornin'" is the title of a Louis Jordan song and "Blue Suede Shoes" refers to the Carl Perkins song. Finally, "Hey Diddle Diddle" which comes from the nursery rhyme, "The Cat and the Fiddle", is an indirect reference to Berry's Chess stablemate Bo Diddley, who was an accomplished violin player. Although the lyrics mention rocking and rolling, the music that the classics are supposed to step aside for is always referred to as "rhythm and blues" (R&B). Arthur Alexander appropriated the lyric "a shot of rhythm and blues" for the title of his later song.

Later in the song, a "rhythm revue" describes the old style R&B show with many featured artists appearing on one bill in front of a big band.

Berry's version was originally released as a single by Chess Records in May 1956 with "Drifting Heart" as the B-side.

"Roll Over Beethoven" and three other Berry songs appeared on the Rock, Rock, Rock album, ostensibly a soundtrack to the film of the same name, but only four of the twelve songs on the album appeared in the film.

There have been many subsequent releases on compilation albums.

"Roll Over Beethoven" is one of the most widely covered songs in popular music –"a staple of rock & roll bands" according to Koda – with notable versions by Jerry Lee Lewis, The Beatles and the Electric Light Orchestra. Other covers were made by Mountain, Ten Years After, Raul Seixas, Leon Russell, Status Quo, The Rolling Stones, The Byrds, The 13th Floor Elevators, The Sonics, Wes Paul, Gene Vincent, Quartz, Uriah Heep, Kickhunter and Iron Maiden.

"Roll Over Beethoven" was a favorite of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison even before they had chosen "The Beatles" as their name, and they continued to play it live right into their American tours of 1964. Their version of "Roll Over Beethoven" was recorded on 30 July 1963 for their second British LP, With The Beatles, and features George Harrison on vocals and guitar.

In the United States, it was released 10 April 1964 as the opening track of The Beatles' Second Album.

In 1994, The Beatles released a live version of "Roll Over Beethoven" on Live at the BBC. This live version was recorded on 28 February 1964 and broadcast on 30 March 1964 as part of a BBC series starring The Beatles called From Us to You.

This version of "Roll Over Beethoven" was used in the film Superman III directed by Richard Lester who also directed The Beatles' first two films, Help! and A Hard Day's Night.

The Rutles' song "Blue Suede Schubert" is based on The Beatles' cover of this song.

"Roll Over Beethoven" is the second single released by the Electric Light Orchestra. It became their second consecutive top ten hit in the UK, as well as a hit in the United States when an edited version of the track was taken from the album ELO 2 in 1973. ELO's elaborate eight-minute reworking of the track included an opening musical quote from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and clever interpolations of material from the symphony's first movement into Berry's song; the band closed all their concerts using this number, their signature song. The B-side Queen of the Hours was the first ever ELO published song, released by Harvest Records in November 1971 in a compilation called The Harvest Bag which featured various Harvest records artists.

Meat Loaf has performed many rock covers for his concerts throughout his career, including Chuck Berry songs. His covers of "Roll Over Beethoven" have been in his "Rock Medleys" of Elvis, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard favorites. Though a cover was never officially released into the medley, being edited out of the CD recording of the tour, it has been on one of Meat Loaf's Objects in the Rear View Mirror singles, recorded for VH-1 in the early 90's according to the CD jacket.

Iron Maiden included a cover of the Berry song on the B-side of their single "From Here to Eternity", called "Roll Over Vic Vella". The song features different lyrics (written by Steve Harris) about the band's long-time tour manager, Vic Vella.

***



Rock and Roll Music is a song written and originally recorded by Chuck Berry which became a hit single in 1957, reaching #8 in the U.S. chart, and was later covered by many artists, notably The Beatles and The Beach Boys.

Berry performed his song on December 16, 1957, on ABC's short-lived variety program, The Guy Mitchell Show.

The Beatles performed the song in many of their early Hamburg shows, and also played it on the BBC show Pop Go The Beatles. In late 1964, exhausted from non-stop touring and recording and short of original material, they decided to record several of their old rock and rhythm and blues favorites to fill out their LP release Beatles for Sale. Among these was a version of Berry's tune that eventually became as well-known as the original. The lead vocal in the Beatles' version was performed by John Lennon. In contrast to Berry's even-toned rendition, Lennon sang it as loudly and dynamically as his voice would permit. In the United States, it was released on the LP Beatles '65. The group also performed this song during the Get Back/Let It Be Sessions in January 1969.

It also served as the title song to the Beatles' 1976 compilation album, Rock 'n' Roll Music.
The Beatles' version of Rock and Roll Music was released as a single in some countries, and topped the charts in Finland, Norway, the Netherlands (double a-side with No Reply) and Australia.

The Beach Boys' version is notable for the use of backing vocals which repeat the phrase "Rock, roll, rockin' and roll." There is a difference between the LP version and the single version in that the LP version has more synthesizer. Their version reached #5 in the US chart in 1976.

***



Johnny B. Goode is a 1958 rock and roll song composed by Chuck Berry. It is one of Berry's most important songs. It reached #8 on the Billboard pop chart.

Written by Berry in 1955, the song is about a poor country boy who plays a guitar "just like ringing a bell," and who might one day have his "name in lights."

Berry has acknowledged that the song is partly autobiographical, and originally had "colored boy" in the lyrics, but he changed it to "country boy" to ensure radio play.

The title is suggestive that the guitar player is good, and hints at autobiographic elements because Berry was born on Goode Avenue in St. Louis.

The song was initially inspired by Berry's piano player, Johnnie Johnson, though developed into a song mainly about Berry himself.

Even though Johnnie Johnson played on many other Chuck Berry songs, it was Lafayette Leake who played piano on this song.

The opening guitar riff on "Johnny B. Goode" is essentially a note-for-note copy of the opening single-note solo on Louis Jordan's "Ain't That Just Like a Woman" (1946), played by guitarist Carl Hogan.

Berry has written three more songs involving the character Johnny B. Goode -- Bye Bye Johnny, Go Go Go, and Johnny B. Blues -- and titled an album, and the nearly 19-minute instrumental track from it, as Concerto in B. Goode.

Chuck Berry - Vocals and guitar
Lafayette Leake - Piano
Willie Dixon - Bass
Fred Below - Drums

Berry's recording of the song was included on the Voyager Golden Record, attached to the Voyager spacecraft as representing rock and roll, one of four American songs included among many cultural achievements of humanity.

When Chuck Berry was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, he performed Johnny B. Goode and Rock and Roll Music, backed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

The Hall of Fame included these songs and Maybellene in their list of the 500 songs that shaped Rock and Roll.

Johnny B. Goode is among the most widely covered rock and roll songs in history, including versions by:

AC/DC
Aerosmith
Alvin and the Chipmunks
Bad Religion
BB King
Beach Boys
Burning
The Beatles
Big Tom And The Mainliners
Bill Haley & His Comets
Bon Scott (with Cheap Trick)
Marc Broussard
Andrés Calamaro
Mark Campbell as Marty McFly
The Carpenters
John Denver
Dion
Down Low
Dr. Feelgood
Johnny Dowd
Earthlings?
John Farnham
Five Iron Frenzy
Freddie & the Dreamers
Green Day
The Grateful Dead
Hanson
Jimi Hendrix
Will Hoge
Buddy Holly
Elton John
Judas Priest
Jerry Lee Lewis
Julian Lennon
Led Zeppelin
Living Colour
LL Cool J ("Go Cut Creator Go")
Lynyrd Skynyrd
MF Doom
Wes Paul
Eddie Meduza
Frank Marino
Marty McFly
Men at Work
Motörhead
NOFX
NRBQ
Off Kilter
Operation Ivy
Buck Owens
Phish
Elvis Presley
Prince
Ratdog
The Rolling Stones
Carlos Santana
The Sex Pistols
The Shadows
Slade
Slaughter & The Dogs
The Stimulators
Stray Cats
Los Suaves
George Thorogood
The Tornadoes
Peter Tosh (1983)
Cidade Negra
Twisted Sister
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
Uncle Tupelo
The Who
Brian Wilson
Johnny Winter
Jonny Lang
Phillip Magee
John Mayer Trio

[8928 Haazen / 8926 Berry / 8926 Coltrane]

John Coltrane (1926-1967)

John Coltrane (1926-1967)

My Favorite Things (1960)

Alabama (1963)



John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926, Hamlet, North Carolina - July 17, 1967, Huntington Hospital, Long Island, NY) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.

Though he was active before 1955, his prime years were between 1955 and 1967, during which time he reshaped modern jazz and influenced generations of other musicians. Coltrane's recording rate was astonishingly prolific: he released about 50 recordings as a leader in these 12 years, and appeared on dozens more led by other musicians. Throughout his career Coltrane's music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension that would color his legacy. He passed away from liver cancer in Huntington Hospital, Long Island, New York.

Along withColeman Hawkins, Lester Young, and Sonny Rollins -- Coltrane fundamentally altered expectations for the tenor sax. Coltrane received a posthumous Special Citation from the Pulitzer Prize Board in 2007 for his "masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship, and iconic centrality to the history of jazz."

[8926 C. Berry / 8926 Coltrane / 8926 Davis]

Miles Davis (1926-1991) - Miles Runs

Miles Davis (1926-1991)

Out of Nowhere (1948, with Charlie Parker)

Boplicity (1949)

Summertime (1958)

So What (1959)

Miles Runs the Voodoo Down (1969)



Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.

Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Davis was at the forefront of almost every major development in jazz from World War II to the 1990s. He played on various early bebop records and recorded one of the first cool jazz records. He was partially responsible for the development of modal jazz, and jazz fusion arose from his work with other musicians in the late 1960s and early 1970's.

Davis belongs to the great tradition of jazz trumpeters that started with Buddy Bolden and ran through Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie, although unlike those musicians he was never considered to have the highest level of technical ability. His greatest achievement as a musician, however, was to move beyond being regarded as a distinctive and influential stylist on his own instrument and to shape whole styles and ways of making music through the work of his bands, in which many of the most important jazz musicians of the second half of the 20th Century made their names.

[8926 Coltrane / 8926 Davis / 8925 Haley]

Bill Haley (1925-1981) - See Ya Later, Alligator

Bill Haley (1925-1981)

Shake, Rattle, and Roll (1954)

Rock Around the Clock (1954)

See Ya Later, Alligator (1955)



Bill Haley (July 6, 1925, Highland Park, MI - February 9, 1981) was one of the first American rock and roll musicians.

He is credited by many with first popularizing rock in the mid-1950's with his group Bill Haley and the Comets, and their hit song Rock Around the Clock.

Because of the effects of the Great Depression on the Detroit area, Haley's father moved the family to Boothwyn, Pennsylvania, near the town of Chester, when Bill was seven years old. Haley's father played the banjo, and his mother was a technically accomplished keyboardist with classical training. Haley told the story that when he made a simulated guitar out of cardboard, his parents bought him a real one.

The anonymous sleeve notes accompanying the 1956 Decca album Rock Around the Clock describe Haley's early life and career thus: "Bill got his first professional job at the age of 13, playing and entertaining at an auction for the fee of $1 a night. Very soon after this he formed a group of equally enthusiastic youngsters and managed to get quite a few local bookings for his band."

The sleeve notes continue: "When Bill Haley was fifteen (c.1940) he left home with his guitar and very little else and set out on the hard road to fame and fortune. The next few years, continuing this story in a fairy-tale manner, were hard and poverty stricken, but cramful of useful experience. Apart from learning how to exist on one meal a day and other artistic exercises, he worked at an open-air park show, sang and yodelled with any band that would have him and worked with a traveling medicine show. Eventually he got a job with a popular group known as the "Down Homers" while they were in Hartford, Connecticut. Soon after this he decided, as all successful people must decide at some time or another, to be his own boss again - and he has been that ever since.’

The sleeve notes conclude: "For six years Bill Haley was a musical director of Radio Station WPWA in Chester, Pennsylvania, and led his own band all through this period. It was then known as Bill Haley's Saddlemen, indicating their definite leaning toward the tough Western style. They continued playing in clubs as well as over the radio around Philadelphia, and in 1951 made their first recordings."

During the Labour Day weekend in 1952, The Saddlemen were renamed Bill Haley with Haley's Comets (inspired by a popular mispronunciation of Halley's Comet), and in 1953, Haley's recording of "Crazy Man, Crazy" (co-written by Haley and his bass player, Marshall Lytle although Lytle would not receive credit until 2001) became the first rock and roll song to hit the American charts, peaking at no.15 on Billboard and no.11 on Cash Box. Soon after, the band's name was revised to Bill Haley & His Comets.

In 1953, a song called "Rock Around the Clock" was written for Haley. He was unable to record it until April 12, 1954. Initially, it was relatively unsuccessful, staying at the charts for only one week, but Haley soon scored a major worldwide hit with a cover version of Big Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle and Roll", which went on to sell a million copies and became the first ever rock 'n' roll song to enter British singles charts in December 1954 and became a Gold Record.He retained elements of the original, but threw some country music aspects in to the song (specifically, Western Swing) and cleaned up the lyrics. Haley and his band were important in launching the music known as "Rock and Roll" to a wider, mostly white audience after years of it being considered an underground genre. When "Rock Around the Clock" appeared behind the opening credits of the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle starring Glenn Ford, it soared to the top of the American Billboard chart for eight weeks. The single is commonly used as a convenient line of demarcation between the "rock era" and the music industry that preceded it; Billboard separated its statistical tabulations into 1890-1954 and 1955-present. After the record rose to number one, Haley was quickly given the title "Father of Rock and Roll," by the media, and by teenagers that had come to embrace the new style of music.

"Rock Around the Clock" was the first record ever to sell over one million copies in both Britain and Germany and, in 1957, Haley became the first major American rock singer to tour Europe.

Haley continued to score hits throughout the 1950s such as "See You Later, Alligator" and he starred in the first rock and roll musical movies Rock Around the Clock and Don't Knock the Rock, both in 1956. His star was soon surpassed in the USA by the younger, sexier Elvis, but Haley continued to be a major star in Latin America, Mexico, and in Europe throughout the 1960's.

A self-admitted alcoholic (as indicated in a 1974 radio interview for the BBC), Haley fought a battle with alcohol into the 1970's. Nonetheless, he and his band continued to be a popular touring act, enjoying a career resurgence in the late 1960s with the Rock and roll revival movement and the signing of a lucrative record deal with the European Sonet Records label. After performing for Queen Elizabeth II at a command performance in 1979, Haley made his final performances in South Africa in May and June 1980. Prior to the South African tour, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and a planned tour of Germany in the fall of 1980 was canceled.

The October 25, 1980 edition of the German paper Bild reported on Haley's condition. It quoted British manager Patrick Maylan as saying that Haley "had taken a fit and went over the seat. He didn't recognize anyone anymore" after being taken to his home in Beverly Hills. It also reported that a doctor at the clinic where Haley had been taken said, "The tumor can't be operated on . . . ."

The Berliner Zeitung reported a few days later that Haley had collapsed after a performance in Texas and been taken to the hospital in his home town of Harlingen, Texas.

Despite his ill health, Haley began compiling notes for possible use as a basis for either a biographical film based on his life, or a published autobiography (accounts differ), and there were plans for him to record an album in Memphis, Tennessee, when the tumor began affecting his behavior and he retired to his home in Harlingen, Texas, where he died early on the morning February 9, 1981

Haley's death certificate listed "Natural causes most likely heart attack" as the 'Immediate Cause' of death. The next lines, 'Due to, or as a consequence Of" were blank.

Haley made a succession of bizarre, mostly monologue late-night phone calls to friends and relatives in which he seemed incoherently drunk or ill. Haley's first wife has been quoted as saying, "He would call and ramble and dwell on the past, his mind was really warped". A belligerent phone call to a business associate was taped and gives evidence of Haley's troubled state of mind.

Media reports immediately following his death indicated Haley displayed deranged and erratic behavior in his final weeks, although beyond a biography of Haley by John Swenson, released a year later, which described Haley painting the windows of his home black, there is little information extant about Haley's final days.

Haley was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Songwriters Tom Russell and Dave Alvin addressed Haley's demise in musical terms with "Haley's Comet" on Alvin's 1991 album Blue Blvd. Dwight Yoakam sang backup on the tribute.
Haley's original Comets still tour the world. They released a concert DVD in 2004 on Hydra Records, played the Viper Room in West Hollywood in 2005, and performed at Dick Clark's American Bandstand Theater in Branson, Missouri in 2006-07.

In March 2007, the Original Comets pre-opened the Bill Haley Museum in Munich, Germany.

On October 27, 2007, ex-Comets guitar player Bill Turner opened the Bill Haley Museum for the public.

***


Blackboard Jungle is a 1955 social commentary film about teachers in an inner-city school. It is based on the novel of the same name by Evan Hunter.



Richard Dadier (Glenn Ford) is a teacher at North Manual High School, an inner-city school where many of the pupils, led by student Gregory Miller (Sidney Poitier), frequently engage in anti-social behavior. Dadier makes various attempts to engage the students' interest in education, challenging both the school staff and the pupils. He is subjected to violence as well as duplicitous schemes; he first suspects Miller, but later realizes that Artie West (Vic Morrow) is the perpetrator, and challenges him in a classroom showdown.



The film marked the rock and roll revolution by featuring Bill Haley & His Comets' Rock Around the Clock, initially a B-side, over the film's opening credits, as well as in the first scene, in an instrumental version in the middle of the film, and at the close of the movie, establishing that song as an instant classic. Popularized by its use in the film, "Rock Around the Clock" reached number one on the Billboard charts, and remained there for eight weeks. The music also led to a huge teenage audience for the film, and their exuberant response to it sometimes overflowed into violence and vandalism at screenings.

In this sense, the film has been seen as marking the start of a period of visible teenage rebellion in the late 20th century.

The film marked a watershed in the United Kingdom. When shown at a South London Cinema in Elephant and Castle in 1956 the teenage teddy boy audience began to riot, tearing up seats and dancing in the aisles.

After that, riots took place around the country wherever the film was shown.

In March 2005, the 50th anniversary of the release of the film and the subsequent upsurge in popularity of rock and roll, was marked by a series of "Rock Is Fifty" celebrations in Los Angeles and New York City, involving the surviving members of the original Bill Haley & His Comets.

The film was released on DVD in North America on May 10, 2005.

[8926 Davis / 8925 Haley / 8925 Boulez]