The Beach Boys scored a 70s hit with yesterday’s Chuck Berry classic, ‘Rock & Roll Music,’ but it was a 1963 release, ‘Surfin’ U.S.A.,’ that really owed its success to Berry.
Berry’s 1958 song ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’ will sound awfully familiar even if you’ve never heard it. Brian Wilson liked the tune so much he wrote his own, surfing-inspired, lyrics to it and turned it into a #3 hit for his California band.
Chuck Berry scored another hit with 1957’s ‘Rock & Roll Music,’ a song that reach #8 on Billboard’s Hot 100.
The track performed even better when covered by The Beach Boys, who took it to #5 in 1976. Their version is slower and, to my ears, vastly inferior to the original. And I say that as a general fan of The Beach Boys. This wouldn’t be the last time the band scored a hit on the shoulders of Chuck Berry (stay tuned).
The B-side of Chuck Berry’s ‘Maybellene’ was a 12-bar blues called ‘Wee Wee Hours’ that went on to become a big hit in its own right.
Berry initially pitched this track to Chess Records, which had a history with blues recordings, but they showed more interest in the ground-breaking ‘Maybellene.’
Chuck Berry died last month, prompting the usual flurry of tributes and retrospectives befitting a legendary talent. To my shame, I realized I’m only tangentially familiar with the career of one of music’s great pioneers.
In fact, I’d managed to post 3,208 Songs of the Day without once featuring him.
I’ll remedy that this week by offering up five classic Chuck Berry tunes that helped redefine popular music.
Hmm, what are the odds? Eight days after the Random iTunes Fairy served up a track from David Byrne’s 1992 album Uh-Oh, she came right back to the same album.
‘Now I’m Your Mom’ is an odd song, either poking fun at or celebrating the transgender community. I think the lyrics lean toward a supportive stance but the falsetto reading of the title line feels like schoolyard taunting.
