Chuck Berry- biographical sketch

Berry, Charles Edward Anderson, known as "Chuck," was born on October
18, 1926 in St. Louis, Missouri, to Henry and Martha Berry. He
married Themetta Suggs on October 28, 1948 and had four children.
Darlin Ingrid Berry was born on October 3, 1950; Melody Exes Berry
was born on November 1, 1952; Aloha Isa Lei Berry was born on
November 10, 1959; and Charles Edward Anderson Berry Jr. was born on
August 5, 1961. Berry was influenced by Tampa Red, Big Maceo, Lonnie
Johnson, Arthur Crudup, Muddy Waters, Lil Green, Bea Boo, Rosetta
Thorp, Louis Jordan, T-Bone Walker, Buddy Johnson, Nat ěKingî Cole,
Charles Brown, Charlie Christian, Big Joe Turner, Little Walter, Carl
Hoagan, Bill Jennings, Billy Ekstine, and Frank Sinatra. In January
1986, Berry became one of the first members to be inducted into the
Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. In December 2000, he
was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors Award by President Bill Clinton.

At Sumner High School, Berry performed for the first time, singing
Jay McShann's "Confessin' the Blues" in the All Men's Review in 1941.
After the performance he learned to play the guitar and sing while
strumming. In 1944, on a joy ride to Kansas City, Berry and two
companions were arrested and found guilty of armed robbery. He was
released on his 21st birthday in 1947, three years later. On New
Years' Eve, 1952, he was asked to join the Sir John's Trio, a small
combo consisting of pianist and leader Johnnie Johnson and drummer
Ebby Hardy. Berry visited Chicago where, on the advice of Muddy
Waters, he sought out Leonard Chess, owner of Chess Records. Chess
was immediately impressed by the upbeat country tune Berry had
written called "Ida Red." On May 21, 1955, the song, now renamed
"Maybellene," was sent to disc jockey Alan Freed, who aired the
single on his radio station in New York. The song went on to sell
over a million copies, reaching #1 on Billboard's R & B chart and #5
on the Hot 100.

Since then Berry had "Roll Over Beethoven" reach #29 on Billboard's
Hot 100 in May 1956, but he still found the initial success of
"Maybellene" hard to follow. It wasn't until Berry drew on a
universal teenage theme with "School Day" that got him back to #5 on
the Hot 100. Other songs that made the Hot 100 chart were: "Oh Baby
Doll" (#57) and "Rock and Roll Music" (#8) in 1957; "Sweet Little
Sixteen" (#2), "Johnny B. Goode" (#8), "Carol" (#10), "Sweet Little
Rock and Roller" (#47), and "Merry Christmas Baby" (#71) in 1958; and
"Anthony Boy" (#60), "Almost Grown"(#32), and "Back in the USA" (#37)
in 1959. These songs are some of the greatest and most characteristic
of the standard songs in the history of rock and roll.

Despite having to go back to jail for violating the Mann Act in 1961,
Berry proved to "rock on." From February, 1964 to March 1965, Chess
released six singles, all of which made the top 100. "Nadine" (#23),
"No Particular Place To Go" (#10), "You Never Can Tell' (#14), and
"Promised Land" (#41), were all written in the Federal Medical Center
in Springfield, MO. Sadly, the last of these singles, "Dear Dad"
(#95), was to be Berry's last chart success for seven years, marking
another decline in his career. Berry's signing with Mercury Records
in 1966 contributed much to that decline; however, Berry's greatest
success was yet to come. In February 1972, Berry achieved his only
number 1 hit with a simple schoolyard ditty entitled "My
Ding-A-Ling." It became Berry's best-selling single ever.

A brief jail term in 1979 for tax evasion along with numerous
sporatic live performances, have contributed to Berry's reputation of
being difficult and unpredictable. However, his contribution to rock
and roll is enormous, as his 1987 release of his autobiography and
accompanying movie, "Hail, Hail, Rock and Roll," have proved. Berry
is significant as a postmodern artist because he discovered how to
master the art of finding a way to appeal to all audiences. What
makes Berry emerge as a father of rock-and-roll over others is the
way he was able to appeal to both black andwhite audiences, which
brought boundaries between racial cultures closer together.


SRH 4/03