Chuck Berry’s ‘Johnny B. Goode’ Is Just As Rockin' Today As It Was In The Fifties

May 01, 2020 by apost team

Johnny B. Goode is considered one of the most recognizable songs in the history of popular music and credited as the first rock & roll hit about rock & roll stardom. Written and recorded in 1958 by Chuck Berry, the song was a major hit and peaked at number two on Billboard magazine's Hot R&B Sides chart and number eight on its Hot 100 chart.

Chuck Berry was one of rock ‘n roll’s great trailblazers who helped combine rhythm and blues to form the sound that we know so well today. He was an extraordinary performer and an even more talented guitar player.

Rolling Stone magazine has called Chuck Berry one of the greatest guitarists of all time, surpassing even icons like Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton.

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The song’s story arc tracked Chuck’s real-life rise from a humble unknown to a world-famous superstar, and the singer used his childhood address—2520 Goode Avenue—in his protagonist’s name but took liberties with the details.

Unlike Johnny, Chuck grew up in St. Louis, not Louisiana, and unlike Johnny, he could read and write quite well and studied hairdressing and cosmetology at night school.

What’s more, Johnny B. Goode describes Johnny with the lyric “That little country boy could play.” He told Rolling Stone that the original line was “That little colored boy could play,” until he changed it to ensure the song would get air time as there was still social segregation at that time.

The song became so famous that in 1977 it was one of the recordings included on the Voyager spaceship to represent life on earth for extraterrestrial life forms or future humans to discover.

How do you think this song helped shape rock 'n roll music today? Let us know in the comments and be sure to ask your friends and family what they think.