Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry was 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), Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive. Writing lyrics that focused on teen life and consumerism, and developing a music style that included guitar solos and showmanship, Berry was a major influence on subsequent rock music.Berry was among the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on its opening in 1986; he was cited for having "laid the groundwork for not only a rock and roll sound but a rock and roll stance." Berry is included in several of Rolling Stone magazine's "greatest of all time" lists; he was ranked fifth on its 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 includes three of Berry's: "Johnny B. Goode", "Maybellene", and "Rock and Roll Music". Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" is the only rock-and-roll song included on the Voyager Golden Record.Check Berry was 90 years old at the time of his death.
Father of Ingrid Berry.
Received the John F. Kennedy Center Honors.
Received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
He originally wanted to be a professional photographer and started singing and playing in a band to buy cameras and photography equipment. Some of his photographs of the famous and near-famous are hanging in galleries around the world today.
He worked as a janitor, carpenter and hairdresser.
He was arguably the most important figure in rock-n-roll in the 1950s, besides Elvis Presley. Although Presley had much more explosive record sales and greater commercial longevity, Berry was equally influential and had the satisfaction of knowing that he, unlike Presley, had written all of his own classics.
He was voted the fifth Greatest Rock n Roll Artist of all time by Rolling Stone.
His only #1 single was his controversial novelty song "My Ding a Ling".
One of his daughters, Aloha Berry, went to the same high school (University City Senior High School) as actor Edgar L. Davis and rapper Nelly.
Whenever he performed live, he always selected a venue which was near an Indian restaurant, so he could have a meal straight after the show. When he was at the Nottingham Royal Concert Hall in the 1990s, the stage door was directly opposite the front door of the Mogul-E-Azam, so he was able to sneak out the stage door, across the alley and have his meal without traveling too far (one of the roadies on duty that night let slip about the restaurant information).
Inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame , the Blues Hall of Fame , the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (charter member) , and the American Songwriters Hall of Fame.
On June 1, 1979, President Jimmy Carter asked him to perform at the White House.
He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 1777 North Vine Street in Hollywood, California on October 7, 1987.
He was awarded a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame in St. Louis, Missouri on June 25, 1989.
In Stephen King s novel "Christine", many chapters open with lyric fragments from his songs.
Until his passing, he performed on a Wednesday each month at Blueberry Hill, a restaurant in the Delmar Loop neighborhood in St. Louis.
Born to a contractor and deacon of a Baptist church and his wife, a qualified principal, he was the third of six children.
He made his national television debut on November 8, 1957 on "Bandstand" (1952) performing "Rock and Roll Music" twice in a row, by demand of the teenage dancers in the studio.
Served three jail terms: for armed robbery in 1944, for violation of the Mann Act in 1959, and for income-tax evasion in 1979. He served two years in the state penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, and was released in February 1964.
He owned a warehouse full of old Cadillacs, one from every three or four model-years, all the way back to the mid-1950s, which he claimed to be trying to get rid of; but said that nobody would give him a fair price, so he just stored them away.
Mentioned in "Chuck Berry Fields Forever" by Gilberto Gil , "Chuck Berry" by The Toasters , "I Hear You Knocking" by Dave Edmunds , and "Rock and Roll Never Forgets" by Bob Seger.
On March 18, 2017, police in St. Charles County, Missouri were called to Berrys house, where he was found unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at the scene at age 90.
It amazes me when I hear people say "I want to go out and find out who I,am. " I always knew who I was. I was going to be famous if it killed me.
[on his song "School Days"] I wanted to write about school because most,of my audience at the particular time was a school element.
I would sing the blues if I had the blues.
Music is science. Everything is science. Because science is truth.
Of the five most important things in life, health is first, education or knowledge is second, and wealth is third. I forget the other two.
