On October 28, 1948, Berry married Themetta 'Toddy' Suggs, who gave birth to Darlin Ingrid Berry on October 3, 1950. Berry was released from the reformatory on his 21st birthday in 1947. The singing group became competent enough that the authorities allowed it to perform outside the detention facility. He was convicted and sent to the Intermediate Reformatory for Young Men at Algoa, near Jefferson City, Missouri, where he formed a singing quartet and did some boxing. Berry's account in his autobiography is that his car broke down and he flagged down a passing car and stole it at gunpoint with a nonfunctional pistol. He gave his first public performance in 1941 while still a student at Sumner High School he was still a student there in 1944, when he was arrested for armed robbery after robbing three shops in Kansas City, Missouri, and then stealing a car at gunpoint with some friends. Berry's upbringing allowed him to pursue his interest in music from an early age. His father, Henry William Berry (1895–1987) was a contractor and deacon of a nearby Baptist church his mother, Martha Bell (Banks) (1894–1980) was a certified public school principal. Louis neighborhood known as the Ville, an area where many middle-class people lived. Early life Chuck Berry's guitar, Maybellene, a Gibson ES-350Tīorn in St. Goode' is the only rock-and-roll song included on the Voyager Golden Record. Goode', 'Maybellene', and 'Rock and Roll Music'. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll includes three of Berry's: 'Johnny B.

His insistence on being paid in cash led in 1979 to a four-month jail sentence and community service, for tax evasion.īerry 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 20 lists of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and 2nd greatest guitarist of all time in 2023. In 1972, he reached a new level of achievement when a rendition of ' My Ding-a-Ling' became his only record to top the charts. However, 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 nostalgia performer, playing his past material with local backup bands of variable quality. After his release in 1963, Berry had several more successful songs, including ' No Particular Place to Go', ' You Never Can Tell', and ' Nadine'. He was sentenced to three years in prison in January 1962 for offenses under the Mann Act-he had transported a 14-year-old girl across state lines for the purpose of having sexual intercourse. īy the end of the 1950s, Berry was an established star, with several hit records and film appearances and a lucrative touring career. With Chess, he recorded 'Maybellene'-Berry's adaptation of the country song ' Ida Red'-which sold over a million copies, reaching number one on Billboard magazine's rhythm and blues chart. His break came when he traveled to Chicago in May 1955 and met Muddy Waters, who suggested he contact Leonard Chess, of Chess Records. By early 1953, influenced by the guitar riffs and showmanship techniques of the blues musician T-Bone Walker, Berry began performing with the Johnnie Johnson Trio. After his release, Berry settled into married life and worked at an automobile assembly plant. While still a high school student, he was convicted of armed robbery and was sent to a reformatory, where he was held from 1944 to 1947. Louis, Berry had an interest in music from an early age and gave his first public performance at Sumner High School. īorn into a middle-class black family in St. 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. Nicknamed the ' Father of Rock and Roll', he refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive with songs such as ' Maybellene' (1955), ' Roll Over Beethoven' (1956), ' Rock and Roll Music' (1957) and ' Johnny B. Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, guitarist and songwriter who pioneered rock and roll.

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