biography
| name: |
Berry, Chuck
|
| |
popular name of Charles Edward Anderson Berry
|
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1926– )
|
| biography:
| Musician, born in St Louis, Missouri, USA. As a singer-guitarist who drew from blues, rockabilly, and country-and-western styles, and wrote songs about teenage concerns, he was the biggest influence on pre-Beatles rock. He trained as a hairdresser and played with Johnnie Johnson's trio in East St Louis, IL, before launching his career with Chess Records in Chicago (1955). With hit songs such as ‘School Days’, ‘Rock and Roll Music’, and ‘Johnny B Goode’, he appealed to teenagers of all races. In 1962 he began serving a two-year sentence for violating the Mann Act. After his release (1964) his career never fully recovered, though his 1972 release ‘My Ding A Ling’ was the most successful record of his career. (He served other brief prison terms in 1979 and 1990.) In 1986 he became an inaugural member of the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. His memoir, Chuck Berry: The Autobiography, was published in 1988. |
|
|
