| CHUCK BERRY (ARTIST BIOGRAPHY)
Charles Edward Anderson “Chuck” Berry (born
October 18, 1926 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American
guitarist, singer and songwriter.
Hailed as the "Father of Rock & Roll," Chuck
Berry’s signature guitar work, poetic songwriting, and
inspired showmanship have influenced every Rock & Roll
musician to follow him. Beginning with "Maybellene" in 1955,
he recorded a series of hits that defined the standards of
the genre. He was the first person inducted into the Rock &
Roll Hall of Fame, and is a member of the Songwriters Hall
of Fame. His song "Johnny B. Goode" is on the copper records
aboard the Voyager Space Probes, launched into outer space
in 1977 to reach out to the universe with the best of our
culture.
Early years
Charles Edward
Anderson Berry was born on October 18, 1926, in San Jose,
California. His father was a carpenter. Shortly after his
birth, the family (he had three sisters and two brothers)
moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where they lived a
middle-class life. Berry sang in a church choir and a school
glee club and took up the guitar in junior high school,
learning how to play on his own. Before he could graduate
from high school, Berry was arrested and convicted of armed
robbery and served three years in a reform school. A year
after his release in October 1947, he was married and
started a family.
Music career
Berry worked as
a carpenter and a hair stylist after he was married, but he
also continued to play guitar. In late 1952 a piano player
named Johnnie Johnson called and asked him to play a New
Year's Eve show at the Cosmopolitan Club in St. Louis. The
band would play steadily at the club for the next three
years. Berry's influence changed not only the band's name
(to the Chuck Berry Combo) but also its style. The music was
a mostly fast-paced combination of country, pop, and rhythm
and blues. Berry also admired the comical sense of singer
Louis Jordan, which he added to his performances.
In 1955, on the
advice of blues great Muddy Waters (1915–1983), Berry
contacted Leonard and Phil Chess, owners of Chess Records in
Chicago, Illinois. They were interested in the young artist
and put him in the studio. Within a few months one of
Berry's songs, "Maybellene," was a hit. He went on to have a
string of top ten hits, including "Roll Over Beethoven,"
"Rock and Roll Music," "Johnny B. Goode," and "Carol." Berry
was also a popular live performer. He was known for his "duck
walk," which he created as a child "scooting forward" under
a table to chase a ball. Berry began to spend some of his
newfound wealth—around 1957 he opened Berry Park in
Wentzville, Missouri. With a guitar-shaped swimming pool,
golf course, hotel rooms, and nightclub, it was, next to his
fleet of Cadillacs, his pride and joy.
Problems
arise
Things went
smoothly until 1961, when Berry was found guilty of
transporting a teenage girl across a state line for immoral
purposes. He spent from February 1962 until October 1963
behind bars in Springfield, Missouri. During his prison term
he took courses to complete his high school education and
wrote songs such as "Tulane," "No Particular Place To Go,"
and "Nadine." By the time Berry was released from jail,
groups such as the Beatles were recording versions of Berry
classics and introducing his music to new audiences.
By the
mid-1960s, though, Berry's type of rock was losing ground to
artists such as Eric Clapton (1945–) and Jimi Hendrix
(1942–1970) who were trying to break new ground. A switch
from Chess to Mercury Records (1966–69) did little to help
Berry. He continued touring without a regular backup band,
using pickup bands made up of local musicians. In 1972
Berry, back with Chess, produced his biggest hit, "My
Ding-a-Ling." It topped the charts on both sides of the
Atlantic, selling two million copies. Berry had hit paydirt,
but this only led to another run-in with the law. In 1979 he
spent three months in a California prison after being
convicted of failing to pay income tax.
Later years
Berry's legal
troubles continued into his later years. In 1990 the police,
acting on a tip that he was selling cocaine, raided his
estate. The charges were later dropped. Berry was also
involved in a class-action lawsuit brought by women who
claimed they had been videotaped in the bathrooms of Berry
Park without their consent. The lawsuit was settled out of
court. Meanwhile, more collections of Berry's hits were
released, including a live recording released in 1995.
While Chuck
Berry's career has had peaks and valleys, he has survived
while most of his contemporaries are long gone. Berry has
been honored with both a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame
and an election to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2000
he was honored for lifetime achievement at the Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. And he
continues to perform, reportedly accepting no less than
$10,000 per show and playing for no more than forty-five
minutes.
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