# data[].attributes.body
Berry pREFORMING "Johnny B. Goode"

# data[].attributes.body
https://youtu.be/ZFo8-JqzSCM

# data[].attributes.body
1.He married Themetta "Toddy" Suggs on October 28, 1948 and the couple had two daughters named Ingrid and Aloha.
2. He performed for the first time at Sumner High School.
3. He stole a car at gunpoint and was sent to the Intermediate Reformatory for Young Men at Algoa.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoDPPgWbfXY

# data[].attributes.body
One of his album covers

# data[].attributes.body
1. He performed "Confessen' the blues" in front of his High School that offended the adults
2. He has a degree in hairdressing and cosmetology
3.  NASA launched Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 into space, with each carrying a 12-inch gold plated record containing Johnny B Goode

# data[].attributes.body
ES

# data[].attributes.body
ES

# data[].attributes.body
"My Ding-a-Ling" was his only number one single

# data[].attributes.body
Born in Missouri

# data[].attributes.body
ES

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Peter Guralnick on Why Chuck Berry Is Even Greater Than You Think

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Peter Guralnick looks back on meetings with Chuck Berry stretching back nearly 40 years, and explains why his genius is deeper than it seems.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In a clip from the groundbreaking The T.A.M.I. Show, rock n roll pioneer Chuck Berry plays one of his signature hits

# data[].attributes.body
Berry's first no.1 hit was after Johnny B. Goode.
Chuck Berry dropped out of high school and became a criminal.
Berry's music career didn't even start until he was 25.

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry loved to dance to the music he played. This picture captures that he can't stand still when playing awesome music!

# data[].attributes.body
The Beatles and the Rolling Stones were inspired by Chuck Berry!

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry was honored by being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the year 1986.

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry was able to write lyrics that his white listeners could relate to. His lyrics also included were relevant to his black audience.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode (Live 1958)

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry lived in segregation and hadn't seen a white person until he was 3. He first performed a crude song in front of his entire high school. Johnny B Goode was written as a biography of sorts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFo8-JqzSCM
Chuck Berry in one of his many hats.

# data[].attributes.body
KO
known as the father of rock and roll

# data[].attributes.body
KO

# data[].attributes.body
KO

# data[].attributes.body
KO
He had his cosmetology license! crazy

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry playing the guitar in maybelline

# data[].attributes.body
Berry played the guitar much like this one

# data[].attributes.body
Until his death in March of 2017, his net worth was about $20 million

# data[].attributes.body
Nicknamed " The Father of Rock and Roll

# data[].attributes.body
One of the first artists to be inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame

# data[].attributes.body
Documentary on Chuck Berry

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry performing live in Memphis Tennessee

# data[].attributes.body
As teen Chuck Berry was sent to prison for three years for armed robbery. Berry has also worked in construction before his music career. Chuck had a degree in hair dressing.

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry's song "You Never Can Tell".

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry doing his signature "duck walk" while performing.

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry was an inspiration to many bands, such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and the Yardbirds

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry opened a venue called Club Bandstand in St. Louis.

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry's idol Muddy Waters was the person that turned him onto Chess Records, with whom he signed and recorded many songs with.

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry's famous dance move was called the duck walk

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry never sold merch at his shows

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry's only number 1 song was "My Ding-a-Ling"

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry had a degree in cosmetology

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry doing his famous "duck walk" in December 19

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry is said to have made the first true rock and roll song "Maybellene"

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry purposely blended music from different racial groups.

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry didn't see a white person until he was three years old, and he thought that their faces turned white because they were scared

# data[].attributes.body
A jam between Chuck Berry, Eric Clapton, and Keith Richards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=wzKd0aiaK4c

# data[].attributes.body
Berry purposefully blended music from both sides of the racial divide, playing country for african americans, which quickly became a popular request.

# data[].attributes.body
In addition to working as a hairdresser, Berry also had worked in construction, at an auto plant, and as a freelance photographer

# data[].attributes.body
Berry's first performance was in 1941 at his high school, gaining a positive response from the students and offending the adults in the room.

# data[].attributes.body
Berry also had trouble with the IRS

# data[].attributes.body
Berry's famous duck walk dance was imitated in Back to the Future.

# data[].attributes.body
There is a statue of Berry In St Louis

# data[].attributes.body
He had trouble with the

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Unknown Surprising Facts About Chuck Berry || Pastimers

# data[].attributes.body
His guitar skills were above and beyond

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck performing Johnny B. Good. You can see real passion when performing this song, This is not one of his performances where he jumps around the stage but you can still see the passion and intensity in the performance.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode (Live 1958)

# data[].attributes.body
Despite his enormous catalog of songs his only No.1 hit was "My Dingaling"

# data[].attributes.body
Wrote his own autobiography without the help of a ghost writer.

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck had a degree in hairdressing and cosmetology just like his sister.

# data[].attributes.body
This video shows his performance for “you can’t see me” Berry was a known showman!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Chuck Berry Performs "You Can't Catch Me" in 1956's "Rock, Rock, Rock!"

# data[].attributes.body
Berry got training to be a Beautician at the Poro College of Cosmotology

# data[].attributes.body
Berry and his wife, Themetta

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry only had one spouse, and had four children with her!

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry’s song “No Money Down” is about him finally obtaining his dream car.
https://open.spotify.com/track/58kCuuRkKljJK3tXKpMBry?si=8I2xbPgzQfuOG3-9Ou12Ww&nd=1

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry playing his guitar.

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry Performing a top hit Johnny B. Goode

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode (Live 1958)

# data[].attributes.body
The first rock and roller to write words that were relevant and entertaining to his young white audience with out alienating his core black audience.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
He achieved all of this with a driving rock and roll rhythm that was, if not brand new certainly unique enough to be instantly recognizable. For those reasons he more than any other artist, is responsible for the direction of popular music.

# data[].attributes.body
As a teen, he was sent to prison for three years for armed robbery.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Chuck Berry was one of the most influential rock 'n' roll performers in music history. He's known for songs including "Maybellene" and "Johnny B. Goode."

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry's Net Worth is about $10 million dollars.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Chuck Berry net worth: Chuck Berry was an American musician, guitarist, singer, and songwriter who had a net worth of $10 million. Chuck Berry was born Charles Edward Anderson Berry in St. Louis, Missouri in October 1926. He was the fourth of six children. Chuck pursued a passion for music starting at a very early age, but his first official performance didn't happen until he was at Sumner High School. In 1944, when he was in high school Berry was arrested and went to prison for armed robbery. While in reform school he formed a singing quartet. They quartet became popular enough that the guards allowed them to perform outside of the detention center. He was released on the day of his 21st birthday. After being released Chuck got married and worked at an automobile assembly plant. In 1955, he met Muddy Waters in Chicago. Waters suggested that Berry contact Leonard Chess from Chess Records. Chess helped him record "Maybellene" and the song sold over a million copies and made it to #1 on the Billboard Rhythm & Blues chart. He also started his own nightclub in St. Louis. Berry would eventually be known as a pioneer of rock and roll music. Berry was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. Rolling Stone named him the 5th Greatest Artist of All Time. His biggest hits also include "Roll Over Beethoven", "Rock and Roll Music", and "Johnny B. Goode". Berry released 20 studio albums and continued to tour late in life. It is rumored that Chuck actually heard rock and roll the first time after receiving a phone call from his cousin Marvin Berry back on November 12, 1955. Chuck Berry died on March 18, 2017 at the age of 90.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Chuck Berry net worth: Chuck Berry was an American musician, guitarist, singer, and songwriter who had a net worth of $10 million. Chuck Berry was born Charles Edward Anderson Berry in St. Louis, Missouri in October 1926. He was the fourth of six children.

# data[].attributes.body
"Rock And Roll Music"- A song about the art form that Chuck Berry helped pioneer.

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry's grave in St. Louis, Missouri. He died in 2017.

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry got in trouble with the law on multiple occasions.

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry opened a restaurant The Southern Ai

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry purposely blended music from both sides of the racial divide.

# data[].attributes.body
here is a recent video of chuck berry.

# data[].attributes.body
Nice picture of chuck berry doing his famous splits.

# data[].attributes.body
When he was a Teenager he spent 3 years in jail because of an armed robbery he did

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Chuck Berry was one of the most influential rock 'n' roll performers in music history. He's known for songs including "Maybellene" and "Johnny B. Goode."

# data[].attributes.body
"Johnny B Goode" on of his most popular songs was in the hit movie back to the future. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1i5coU-0_Q

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Johnny B. Goode - Back to the Future (9/10) Movie CLIP (1985) HD

# data[].attributes.body
Apparently Chuck Berry was a pervert because "Chuck Berry once opened a restaurant called The Southern Air in Missouri. According to a former waitress, Berry wired the women’s toilets with a video camera and recorded some two hundred unsuspecting patrons using it. Charges were dropped when Berry agreed to compensate the victims of his “potty cam” financially."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Chuck Berry helped invent rock 'n' roll some sixty years ago and has been kicking its behind ever since. It's not been a smooth ride...

1. Chuck Berry once opened a restaurant called The Southern Air in Missouri. According to a former waitress, Berry wired the women's toilets with a video camera and recorded some two hundred unsuspecting patrons using it. Charges were dropped when Berry agreed to compensate the victims of his "potty cam" financially.

- - -

- - -

2. The melody of The Beach Boys' classic 'Surfin' USA' is almost identical to the melody of Chuck's 1958 classic 'Sweet Little Sixteen'. They sounded so alike in fact that The Beach Boys had to give Berry co-writing credit in order to avoid a lawsuit. A profitable experience in the end for Mr. Berry.

3. Ever the food lover Chuck loves to eat the following: beef, seafood, peaches, home fries, candied yams, chili, grape soda, orange juice, Snickers bars and Dutch apple pie. But despises liver, okra, gumbo, celery, carrots, cooked onions, grapefruit, salami and liquor. It's best to keep him happy.

- - -

- - -

4. Starting young, Chuck sang in his St. Louis church's Baptist choir at age six. His first notable performance was on his school's musical stage singing 'Confessin' The Blues' accompanied by his friend, Tommy Stevens, on guitar. Stevens' impressive guitar licks soon inspired him to learn how to play the instrument himself.

5. In December 1959 Berry invited a fourteen-year-old Apache waitress Janice Escalanti to work as a hatcheck girl at his nightclub. Crossing the border he was soon arrested on a prostitution charge and received three years at the Indiana Federal Prison. When interviewed years later he said: "She was anything but innocent."

6. Between 1948 and 1955, Berry worked as a janitor at the Fisher Body auto assembly plant, trained to be a hairdresser at the Poro School, freelanced as a photographer, and assisted his father as a carpenter. All the while beginning his career as a musician. Eclectic.

- - -

- - -

7. Chuck got the moniker 'Johnny' from Johnnie Johnson, a pianist who collaborated with Berry on many songs, including 'Maybellene' and 'Roll Over Beethoven'. Johnson wrote songs on piano, while Berry converted them to guitar and wrote lyrics. Berry joined Johnnie's group, The Sir John Trio, in 1953 as lead singer.

8. Chuck's famous 'duck walk' dance - as imitated by Marty McFly in the '80s classic Back To The Future - originated in 1956, when Berry attempted to hide wrinkles in his rayon suit by shaking them out with his now-signature body movements.

9. Due to being burned early on in his career, and occasional run-ins with the IRS, Chuck always gets paid in cash. A notable occasion in Australia 1975 saw Berry caught at Sydney Airport with $50,000 in an attaché case. There remains currency restrictions due to this famous incident.

10. Whenever he performs live Berry picks a venue near an Indian restaurant. While at the Nottingham Royal Concert Hall in the 1990s, the stage door was directly opposite the front door of the Mogul-E-Azam restaurant so he was able to sneak out the stage door and have his meal immediately.
Also read: Features - Tributes Pour In For Chuck Berry Words by Sam Walker-Smart

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
10 Things You Never Knew About... Chuck Berry

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Chuck Berry helped invent rock 'n' roll some sixty years ago and has been kicking its behind ever since. It's not been a smooth ride... 1. Chuck Berry once opened a restaurant called The Southern Air in Missouri. According to a former waitress, Berry wired the women's toilets with a video camera and recorded some two hundred unsuspecting patrons using it.

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck in his older days

# data[].attributes.body
His song "Route 66"

# data[].attributes.body
In 1977 when NASA launched their voyager 1 and voyager 2 into space, his song "Johnny B. Goode" was included on a gold plated record that was carried on each of the probes.

# data[].attributes.body
Before making it big on the music scene, he worked at his father's construction company, an auto plant, and as a freelance photographer

# data[].attributes.body
Berry's childhood was filled with segregation. He never saw a white person until he was 3 when the fire department responded to a fire in his all black community

# data[].attributes.body
The moment that started it all came in 1941 when Berry first performed “Confessin’ the Blues” in front of his entire high school. (Article quote)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
To pay tribute to the father of rock 'n roll, who passed away at age 90 on March 18, 2017 we unearthed a few lesser-known facts about his life and career.

Chuck Berry breathed new life into the American music scene during the 1950s. With hits like "Johnny B. Goode" and "Roll Over Beethoven," many consider him to be the founding father of rock 'n' roll. And while he'll always be remembered for his innovative sound and showmanship, his music was also a reflection of his life.
Here, we've compiled nine interesting facts about Chuck Berry.
1. Berry's childhood was characterized by racial segregation. He'd never seen a white person until the age of three, when the fire department responded to a call in the black community where he was raised. "I thought they were so frightened that their faces were whitened from fear of going near the big fire," Berry told the New York Times. "Daddy told me they were white people, and their skin was always white that way, day or night."
Next: Where it all started...
2. The moment that started it all came in 1941 when Berry first performed "Confessin' the Blues" in front of his entire high school. The song choice (considered crude by 1940's standards) offended the adults in the room and, of course, elated the students.

And it was this performance, and watching his friend play the guitar, that sparked something within Berry. "It was then that my determination to play guitar and accompany myself while singing became an amendment to my religion," he told the New York Times.
Next: A man of many hats...
3. Berry wore many different hats. Before he made it big on the music scene, he worked at his father's construction company, at an auto plant and as a freelance photographer. He also followed in his sister's footsteps and graduated with a degree in hairdressing and cosmetology.

At least we now have an explanation for that signature perm.
Next: Bridging the racial divide...
4. Although Berry grew up during an era rife with discrimination and racial segregation, he intentionally blended music from both sides of the racial divide. "Curiosity provoked me to lay a lot of our country stuff on our predominantly black audience," he wrote in his self-titled autobiography. "After they laughed at me a few times, they began requesting the hillbilly stuff and enjoyed dancing to it."
Next: His autobiography...
5. Unlike most artists, Berry penned his autobiography without the help of a ghost writer. It's simplistic title, Chuck Berry: The Autobiography, certainly isn't indicative of the content. It turns out he was a master of words-with and without his guitar. Here's one of his more memorable passages:
"Try as I did, day after day, to cling to righteousness, I was washed down in suds of sinful surroundings." Next: His first hit and the start of rock 'n roll...
6. Berry's first major hit, "Maybellene," is also considered the first true rock 'n roll song. It features a rhythm and blues beat, country guitar licks, and a Chicago blues flavour. Married with narrative storytelling, the song was unlike anything else on the radio at the time.

"Maybellene" earned Berry his first record deal and climbed to No. 1 on the R&B charts.
Next: His cheeky No. 1 hit...
7. Despite an impressive catalogue of cleverly written songs, "My Dingaling," was Berry's only No. 1 hit single. And while there's a handful of other songs his fans would deem more worthy of the top spot, Berry always stood by his naughty sing-a-long, claiming he was simply giving the audience what they wanted.

"There's certain songs and thoughts, for that matter, that almost make tears come to their eyes," he told Rolling Stone. "I'd give it to them if that's what they wanted."
Next: When art imitates life...
8. The hit "Johnny B. Goode" was autobiographical in nature-with the exception of a few narrative liberties. The original words, he explained to Rolling Stone, were "that little coloured boy could play." But "I changed it to 'country boy'-or else it wouldn't get on the radio."

While the lyric about Johnny never learning to "read or write so well" isn't true of Berry, the overall theme of finding fame unexpectedly rings true. Berry was employed as a beautician in St. Louis when he was discovered by Chess Records' biggest star, Muddy Waters.

9. In 1977, NASA launched Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 into space, with each carrying a 12-inch gold plated record containing (among other earthly noises and images) music from a variety of cultures and genres. Included on the record is Berry's "Johnny B. Goode."

NASA said the golden record is "intended to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials." And what better way to introduce rock 'n roll to our alien neighbours than through the electric sounds of the originator himself?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Nostalgia: 9 Fascinating Facts About Rock 'n Roll Legend Chuck Berry

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Chuck Berry breathed new life into the American music scene during the 1950s. With hits like "Johnny B. Goode" and "Roll Over Beethoven," many consider him to be the founding father of rock 'n' roll. And while he'll always be remembered for his innovative sound and showmanship, his music was also a reflection of his life.

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry's song "Maybellene" sounded like nothing else in music at the time, and immediately established Berry as the purveyor of a new style of music, where blues, country and R&B came together in urgent, exciting ways. In fact, it's not an exaggeration to say that he's the most influential figure on modern rock & roll: Name any major band—the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith—and they'll have cited Berry as an inspiration (article quote)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
If Elvis Presley cracked open the door for rock & roll, Chuck Berry kicked it wide open-and did his signature duck walk over it for good measure. Even before Buddy Holly settled on a sound, the St. Louis native had pop success with 1955's "Maybellene," a rewrite of the country song "Ida Red."

In Berry's hands, the tune featured lyrics conflating an ill-fated drag race with a fervent wish that his gal would "be true"-and a musical backdrop with a forceful upright bass, boogie-woogie piano and red-hot guitar licks.

"Maybellene" sounded like nothing else in music at the time, and immediately established Berry as the purveyor of a new style of music, where blues, country and R&B came together in urgent, exciting ways. In fact, it's not an exaggeration to say that he's the most influential figure on modern rock & roll: Name any major band-the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith-and they'll have cited Berry as an inspiration.

Born in 1926, Berry started off a vocal performer inspired by Nat "King" Cole. Very quickly, however, he found himself pushing against the status quo: During his debut performance in high school, he sang a song called "Confessin' The Blues" that was considered edgy for the time and place.

From there, Berry picked up guitar, first working independently to pick up basics and then learning more rudimentary fundamentals from his friend Ira Harris. By 1952, he was confident enough to have joined a club band which favored everything from blues to calypso to jazzy ballads; the year after, Berry linked up with the Sir John's Trio, which featured pianist Johnnie Johnson and performed at East St. Louis' Cosmopolitan Club.

The charismatic Berry came into his own with this combo-especially after he started incorporating more country riffs into his already eclectic performance style, a move which helped the troupe attract an increasingly integrated audience.

Berry's fortunes improved even more on a 1955 visit to Chicago to investigate the city's blues scene. After catching the tail-end of a performance from his idol, Muddy Waters, Berry asked him for advice on records. Waters pointed him to Chess Records, whose founder, Leonard Chess, agreed to listen to what the ambitious young musician had to offer.

Berry made a demo back in St. Louis that same week and subsequently returned to Chicago. Chess liked what he heard-especially the song that eventually became "Maybellene"-and signed him.

After the success of "Maybellene," Berry released a string of enduring, landmark songs over the next half-decade: "Roll Over Beethoven," "Too Much Monkey Business," "School Day (Ring! Ring! Goes The Bell)," "Johnny B. Goode," "Rock and Roll Music," "Sweet Little Sixteen," "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" and "Carol." These tunes were danceable, youthful and relatable-driven by the delicious tension between Berry's precise vocals and his elegant (and exuberant) renegade guitar riffs.

Although Berry recorded his hits with Chess Records' in-house band members, for live shows, he tapped two of his Sir John's Trio bandmates: pianist Johnson and drummer Ebby Hardy. Berry's flashy stage moves from those days also carried over: In 1956, he started doing the crowd-pleasing duck walk, a move where he crouched down while playing guitar and hopped across the stage on one foot.

Berry became an enormously popular figure within rock & roll, which was then dominated by both white artists and fans. The integration wasn't perfect-in his autobiography, he detailed incidents of racism and discrimination he experienced while touring-but he channeled these experiences into attempts to hasten social progress.

Back at home in St. Louis, he opened a venue called Club Bandstand which welcomed all attendees, regardless of race; several years later, in the pre-suburban outskirts of the city, he opened a similarly inclusive, country club-modeled enclave called Berry Park. He was also a savvy businessman who invested wisely and wasn't afraid to stand up for his rights as an artist, two traits which marked the rest of his career.

Still, Berry's musical momentum was derailed in 1959, after he was arrested and accused of having an improper relationship with an underage girl. He was convicted and spent time in prison in the early '60s.

After his 1963 release, however, Berry rebounded with the singles "No Particular Place To Go," "You Never Can Tell" and "Nadine." In fact, he was also a major influence on the new young rock bands changing music and culture, such as the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds.

Berry's studio efforts would never be as influential as they once were-although in 1972, he had a No. 1 hit with the lighthearted tune "My Ding-A-Ling"-and so he mostly stuck to live concerts, where his dynamic performances made him a popular draw. The 1987 documentary Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll, which chronicled Berry's 60th birthday concerts, in particular captured his onstage magic.

He continued his touring ways for decades after, which led to memorable performance such as at the Concert for the Hall of Fame, where he performed with (and confounded) Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band. Up until recent years, Berry even performed monthly in his hometown of St. Louis at Blueberry Hill's Duck Room, a 340-person club named after the musician's namesake move.

At Berry's 80th birthday show there, Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry showed up and hopped onstage to jam with his idol. It's a testament to Berry's influence-and the respect he's commanded-that one of his most famous disciples made it a point to commemorate the milestone.
October 18, 1926 - March 18, 2017

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If Elvis Presley cracked open the door for rock & roll, Chuck Berry kicked it wide open-and did his signature duck walk over it for good measure. Even before Buddy Holly settled on a sound, the St. Louis native had pop success with 1955's "Maybellene," a rewrite of the country song "Ida Red."

# data[].attributes.body
Considered by many as the "father of rock 'n' roll,

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Chuck Berry was one of the most influential rock 'n' roll performers in music history. He's known for songs including "Maybellene" and "Johnny B. Goode."

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode." (1958)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode (Live 1958)

# data[].attributes.body
Berry as guest host of The Midnight Special in 1973.

# data[].attributes.body
This is a interview with Chuck Berry about his first hit song

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
From 1972: Chuck Berry on his first hit, "Maybellene"

# data[].attributes.body
1. Melody from the Beach Boy's "Surfin; USA" sounded TOO similar to Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen", they had to give him credit to avoid being sued.
2. Chuck Berry was a hairdresser, Janitor,Photographer, Carpenter and started his singing career.
3. His iconic dance was "Duck Walk" onstage.

- This is his duck walk he did onstage

# data[].attributes.body
Berry is no stranger to the guitar, and hes not afraid to show it.

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck "started his own nightclub in St. Louis"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Chuck Berry net worth: Chuck Berry was an American musician, guitarist, singer, and songwriter who had a net worth of $10 million. Chuck Berry was born Charles Edward Anderson Berry in St. Louis, Missouri in October 1926. He was the fourth of six children. Chuck pursued a passion for music starting at a very early age, but his first official performance didn't happen until he was at Sumner High School. In 1944, when he was in high school Berry was arrested and went to prison for armed robbery. While in reform school he formed a singing quartet. They quartet became popular enough that the guards allowed them to perform outside of the detention center. He was released on the day of his 21st birthday. After being released Chuck got married and worked at an automobile assembly plant. In 1955, he met Muddy Waters in Chicago. Waters suggested that Berry contact Leonard Chess from Chess Records. Chess helped him record "Maybellene" and the song sold over a million copies and made it to #1 on the Billboard Rhythm & Blues chart. He also started his own nightclub in St. Louis. Berry would eventually be known as a pioneer of rock and roll music. Berry was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. Rolling Stone named him the 5th Greatest Artist of All Time. His biggest hits also include "Roll Over Beethoven", "Rock and Roll Music", and "Johnny B. Goode". Berry released 20 studio albums and continued to tour late in life. It is rumored that Chuck actually heard rock and roll the first time after receiving a phone call from his cousin Marvin Berry back on November 12, 1955. Chuck Berry died on March 18, 2017 at the age of 90.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Chuck Berry net worth: Chuck Berry was an American musician, guitarist, singer, and songwriter who had a net worth of $10 million. Chuck Berry was born Charles Edward Anderson Berry in St. Louis, Missouri in October 1926. He was the fourth of six children.

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck worked as a beautician, and had degrees in hairdressing and cosmetology.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Jon Pareles, a music critic for The New York Times, reflects on the pioneering music and attitude of the rock legend Chuck Berry.

Chuck Berry, who with his indelible guitar licks, brash self-confidence and memorable songs about cars, girls and wild dance parties did as much as anyone to define rock 'n' roll's potential and attitude in its early years, died on Saturday at his home near Wentzville, Mo. He was 90.

The St. Charles County Police Department confirmed his death on its Facebook page. The department said that it responded to a medical emergency at the home, about 45 miles west of St. Louis, and that lifesaving measures were unsuccessful.

While Elvis Presley was rock's first pop star and teenage heartthrob, Mr. Berry was its master theorist and conceptual genius, the songwriter who understood what the kids wanted before they knew themselves. With songs like "Johnny B. Goode" and "Roll Over Beethoven," he gave his listeners more than they knew they were getting from jukebox entertainment.

His guitar lines wired the lean twang of country and the bite of the blues into phrases with both a streamlined trajectory and a long memory. And tucked into the lighthearted, telegraphic narratives that he sang with such clear enunciation was a sly defiance, upending convention to claim the pleasures of the moment.

In "Sweet Little Sixteen," "You Can't Catch Me" and other songs, Mr. Berry invented rock as a music of teenage wishes fulfilled and good times (even with cops in pursuit). In "Promised Land," "Too Much Monkey Business" and "Brown Eyed Handsome Man," he celebrated and satirized America's opportunities and class tensions. His rock 'n' roll was a music of joyful lusts, laughed-off tensions and gleefully shattered icons.

Mr. Berry was already well past his teens when he wrote mid-1950s manifestoes like "Roll Over Beethoven," "Rock and Roll Music" and "School Day." Born Charles Edward Anderson Berry on Oct. 18, 1926, in St. Louis, he grew up in a segregated, middle-class neighborhood there, soaking up gospel, blues, and rhythm and blues, along with some country music.

He spent three years in reform school after a spree of car thefts and armed robbery. He received a degree in hairdressing and cosmetology and worked for a time as a beautician; he married Themetta Suggs in 1948 and started a family. She survives him, as do four children: Ingrid Berry, Melody Eskridge, Aloha Isa Leigh Berry and Charles Berry Jr.

By the early 1950s, he was playing guitar and singing blues, pop standards and an occasional country tune with local combos. Shortly after joining Sir John's Trio, led by the pianist Johnnie Johnson, he reshaped the group's music and took it over.

From the Texas guitarist T-Bone Walker, Mr. Berry picked up a technique of bending two strings at once that he would rough up and turn into a rock 'n' roll talisman, the Chuck Berry lick, which would in turn be emulated by the Rolling Stones and countless others. He also recognized the popularity of country music and added some hillbilly twang to his guitar lines. Mr. Berry's hybrid music, along with his charisma and showmanship, drew white as well as black listeners to the Cosmopolitan Club in St. Louis.

In 1955, Mr. Berry ventured to Chicago and asked one of his idols, the bluesman Muddy Waters, about making records. Waters directed him to the label he recorded for, Chess Records, where one of the owners, Leonard Chess, heard potential in Mr. Berry's song "Ida Red."

A variant of an old country song by the same name, "Ida Red" had a 2/4 backbeat with a hillbilly oompah, while Mr. Berry's lyrics sketched a car chase, the narrator "motorvatin'" after an elusive girl. Mr. Chess renamed the song "Maybellene," and in a long session on May 21, 1955, Mr. Chess and the bassist Willie Dixon got the band to punch up the rhythm.

"The big beat, cars and young love," Mr. Chess outlined. "It was a trend, and we jumped on it."

The music was bright and clear, a hard-swinging amalgam of country and blues. More than 60 years later, it still sounds reckless and audacious.

Mr. Berry articulated every word, with precise diction and no noticeable accent, leading some listeners and concert promoters, used to a different kind of rhythm-and-blues singer, to initially think that he was white. Teenagers didn't care; they heard a rocker who was ready to take on the world.

The song was sent to the disc jockey Alan Freed. Mr. Freed and another man, Russ Fratto, were added to the credits as songwriters and got a share of the publishing royalties. Played regularly on Mr. Freed's show and others, "Maybellene" reached No. 5 on the Billboard pop chart and was a No. 1 R&B hit.

In Mr. Berry's groundbreaking early songs, his guitar twangs his famous two-stringed lick. It also punches like a horn section and sasses back at his own voice. The drummer eagerly socks the backbeat, and the pianist - usually either Mr. Johnson or Lafayette Leake - hurls fistfuls of tinkling anarchy all around him.

From 1955 to 1958, Mr. Berry knocked out classic after classic. Although he was in his late 20s and early 30s, he came up with high school chronicles and plugs for the newfangled music called rock 'n' roll.

No matter how calculated songs like "School Day" or "Rock and Roll Music" may have been, they reached the Top 10, caught the early rock 'n' roll spirit and detailed its mythology. "Johnny B. Goode," a Top 10 hit in 1958, told the archetypal story of a rocker who could "play the guitar just like ringin' a bell."

Mr. Berry toured with rock revues and performed in three movies with Mr. Freed: "Rock, Rock, Rock," "Mr. Rock and Roll" and "Go, Johnny, Go." On film and in concert, he dazzled audiences with his duck walk, a guitar-thrusting strut that involved kicking one leg forward and hopping on the other.

Through the 1950s, Mr. Berry had pop hits with his songs about rock 'n' roll and R&B hits with less teenage-oriented material. He spun surreal tall tales that Bob Dylan and John Lennon would learn from, like "Thirty Days" and "Jo Jo Gunne." In "Brown Eyed Handsome Man," from 1956, he offered a barely veiled racial pride. His pithiness and humor rarely failed him.

In 1957, Mr. Berry bought 30 acres in Wentzville, where he built a short-lived amusement park, Berry Park, and a restaurant, the Southern Air. In 1958, he opened Club Bandstand in the theater district of St. Louis.

In the early 1960s, Mr. Berry's songs inspired both California rock and the British Invasion. The Beach Boys reworked his "Sweet Little Sixteen" into "Surfin' U.S.A." (Mr. Berry sued them and won a songwriting credit.) The Rolling Stones released a string of Berry songs, including their first single, "Come On," and the Beatles remade "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Rock and Roll Music."

But by the time his music started reaching a new audience, Mr. Berry was in jail.

He had been arrested in 1959 and charged with transporting a teenage girl - who briefly worked as a hatcheck girl at Club Bandstand - across state lines for immoral purposes. He was tried twice and found guilty both times; the first verdict was overturned because of racist remarks by the judge. When he emerged from 20 months in prison in 1964, his wife had left him (they later reconciled) and his songwriting spark had diminished.

He had not totally lost his touch, though, as demonstrated by the handful of hits he had in 1964 and 1965, notably "Nadine," "No Particular Place to Go," "You Never Can Tell" and "Promised Land." He appeared in the celebrated all-star 1964 concert film "The TAMI Show," along with James Brown, the Rolling Stones, Marvin Gaye, the Beach Boys and the Supremes.

While he toured steadily through the 1960s, headlining or sharing bills with bands that grew up on his songs, his recording career stalled after he moved from Chess to Mercury Records in 1966. He remade some of his old hits and tried to reach the new hippie audience, recording "Live at the Fillmore Auditorium" with the Steve Miller Band, billed as the Steve Miller Blues Band at the time. When he returned to Chess in 1970, he recorded new songs, like "Tulane" and "Have Mercy Judge," that flashed his old wit but failed to reach the Top 40.

In 1972, Mr. Berry had the biggest hit of his career with "My Ding-a-Ling," a double-entendre novelty song that was included on the album "The London Chuck Berry Sessions" (even though he recorded the song not in London but at a concert in Coventry, England). The New Orleans songwriter Dave Bartholomew wrote and recorded it in 1952; Mr. Berry recorded a similar song, "My Tambourine," in 1968, and is credited on recordings as the sole songwriter of the 1972 "My Ding-a-Ling."

It was a million-seller and Mr. Berry's first and only No. 1 pop single. It was also his last hit. His 1973 follow-up album, "Bio," was poorly received; "Rockit," released by Atlantic in 1979, did not sell. But he stayed active: He appeared as himself in a 1979 movie about 1950s rock, "American Hot Wax," and he continued to tour constantly.

In July 1979, he performed for President Jimmy Carter at the White House. Three days later, he was sentenced to 120 days in federal prison and four years' probation for income tax evasion.

He had further legal troubles in 1990 when the police raided his home and found 62 grams of marijuana and videotapes from a camera in the women's room of his restaurant. In a plea bargain, he agreed to a misdemeanor count of marijuana possession, with a suspended jail sentence and two years' probation.

By the 1980s, Mr. Berry was recognized as a rock pioneer. He never won a Grammy Award in his prime, but the Recording Academy gave him a lifetime achievement award in 1984. He was in the first group of musicians inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

Around his 60th birthday that year, he allowed the director Taylor Hackford to film him at his home in Wentzville for the documentary "Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll," which also included performances by Mr. Berry with a band led by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones and special guests. "Chuck Berry: The Autobiography" was published in 1988.

Mr. Berry continued performing well into his 80s. He usually played with local pickup bands, as he had done for most of his career, but sometimes he played with fellow rock stars. When the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum opened in Cleveland in 1995, Mr. Berry performed at an inaugural concert, backed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

In 2012, he headlined a Cleveland concert in his honor with a genre-spanning bill that included Darryl McDaniels of Run-D.M.C. and Merle Haggard. Although he told reporters before the show, "My singing days have passed," he performed "Johnny B. Goode" and "Reelin' and Rockin'" and joined the other musicians for the closing number, "Rock and Roll Music."

From 1996 to 2014, Mr. Berry performed once a month at Blueberry Hill, a restaurant in St. Louis where he appeared regularly until Oct. 24.

He made a surprising announcement on his 90th birthday, Oct. 18, 2016: He was planning to release his first studio album in almost 40 years. The album, called simply "Chuck" and scheduled for release in June, was to consist primarily of new compositions.

And Mr. Berry's music has remained on tour extraterrestrially. "Johnny B. Goode" is on golden records within the Voyager I and II spacecraft, launched in 1977 and awaiting discovery.

Christopher Mele contributed reporting.
Read more obituaries and follow our coverage on Twitter.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B6 of the New York edition with the headline: Chuck Berry, Rock 'n' Roll's Master Theorist and Statesman, Dies at 90. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Chuck Berry, Rock 'n' Roll Pioneer, Dies at 90

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Chuck Berry, who with his indelible guitar licks, brash self-confidence and memorable songs about cars, girls and wild dance parties did as much as anyone to define rock 'n' roll's potential and attitude in its early years, died on Saturday at his home near Wentzville, Mo. He was 90. The St.

# data[].attributes.body
Chuck was developing a criminal history that got him sent to reform school for three years

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Jon Pareles, a music critic for The New York Times, reflects on the pioneering music and attitude of the rock legend Chuck Berry.

Chuck Berry, who with his indelible guitar licks, brash self-confidence and memorable songs about cars, girls and wild dance parties did as much as anyone to define rock 'n' roll's potential and attitude in its early years, died on Saturday at his home near Wentzville, Mo. He was 90.

The St. Charles County Police Department confirmed his death on its Facebook page. The department said that it responded to a medical emergency at the home, about 45 miles west of St. Louis, and that lifesaving measures were unsuccessful.

While Elvis Presley was rock's first pop star and teenage heartthrob, Mr. Berry was its master theorist and conceptual genius, the songwriter who understood what the kids wanted before they knew themselves. With songs like "Johnny B. Goode" and "Roll Over Beethoven," he gave his listeners more than they knew they were getting from jukebox entertainment.

His guitar lines wired the lean twang of country and the bite of the blues into phrases with both a streamlined trajectory and a long memory. And tucked into the lighthearted, telegraphic narratives that he sang with such clear enunciation was a sly defiance, upending convention to claim the pleasures of the moment.

In "Sweet Little Sixteen," "You Can't Catch Me" and other songs, Mr. Berry invented rock as a music of teenage wishes fulfilled and good times (even with cops in pursuit). In "Promised Land," "Too Much Monkey Business" and "Brown Eyed Handsome Man," he celebrated and satirized America's opportunities and class tensions. His rock 'n' roll was a music of joyful lusts, laughed-off tensions and gleefully shattered icons.

Mr. Berry was already well past his teens when he wrote mid-1950s manifestoes like "Roll Over Beethoven," "Rock and Roll Music" and "School Day." Born Charles Edward Anderson Berry on Oct. 18, 1926, in St. Louis, he grew up in a segregated, middle-class neighborhood there, soaking up gospel, blues, and rhythm and blues, along with some country music.

He spent three years in reform school after a spree of car thefts and armed robbery. He received a degree in hairdressing and cosmetology and worked for a time as a beautician; he married Themetta Suggs in 1948 and started a family. She survives him, as do four children: Ingrid Berry, Melody Eskridge, Aloha Isa Leigh Berry and Charles Berry Jr.

By the early 1950s, he was playing guitar and singing blues, pop standards and an occasional country tune with local combos. Shortly after joining Sir John's Trio, led by the pianist Johnnie Johnson, he reshaped the group's music and took it over.

From the Texas guitarist T-Bone Walker, Mr. Berry picked up a technique of bending two strings at once that he would rough up and turn into a rock 'n' roll talisman, the Chuck Berry lick, which would in turn be emulated by the Rolling Stones and countless others. He also recognized the popularity of country music and added some hillbilly twang to his guitar lines. Mr. Berry's hybrid music, along with his charisma and showmanship, drew white as well as black listeners to the Cosmopolitan Club in St. Louis.

In 1955, Mr. Berry ventured to Chicago and asked one of his idols, the bluesman Muddy Waters, about making records. Waters directed him to the label he recorded for, Chess Records, where one of the owners, Leonard Chess, heard potential in Mr. Berry's song "Ida Red."

A variant of an old country song by the same name, "Ida Red" had a 2/4 backbeat with a hillbilly oompah, while Mr. Berry's lyrics sketched a car chase, the narrator "motorvatin'" after an elusive girl. Mr. Chess renamed the song "Maybellene," and in a long session on May 21, 1955, Mr. Chess and the bassist Willie Dixon got the band to punch up the rhythm.

"The big beat, cars and young love," Mr. Chess outlined. "It was a trend, and we jumped on it."

The music was bright and clear, a hard-swinging amalgam of country and blues. More than 60 years later, it still sounds reckless and audacious.

Mr. Berry articulated every word, with precise diction and no noticeable accent, leading some listeners and concert promoters, used to a different kind of rhythm-and-blues singer, to initially think that he was white. Teenagers didn't care; they heard a rocker who was ready to take on the world.

The song was sent to the disc jockey Alan Freed. Mr. Freed and another man, Russ Fratto, were added to the credits as songwriters and got a share of the publishing royalties. Played regularly on Mr. Freed's show and others, "Maybellene" reached No. 5 on the Billboard pop chart and was a No. 1 R&B hit.

In Mr. Berry's groundbreaking early songs, his guitar twangs his famous two-stringed lick. It also punches like a horn section and sasses back at his own voice. The drummer eagerly socks the backbeat, and the pianist - usually either Mr. Johnson or Lafayette Leake - hurls fistfuls of tinkling anarchy all around him.

From 1955 to 1958, Mr. Berry knocked out classic after classic. Although he was in his late 20s and early 30s, he came up with high school chronicles and plugs for the newfangled music called rock 'n' roll.

No matter how calculated songs like "School Day" or "Rock and Roll Music" may have been, they reached the Top 10, caught the early rock 'n' roll spirit and detailed its mythology. "Johnny B. Goode," a Top 10 hit in 1958, told the archetypal story of a rocker who could "play the guitar just like ringin' a bell."

Mr. Berry toured with rock revues and performed in three movies with Mr. Freed: "Rock, Rock, Rock," "Mr. Rock and Roll" and "Go, Johnny, Go." On film and in concert, he dazzled audiences with his duck walk, a guitar-thrusting strut that involved kicking one leg forward and hopping on the other.

Through the 1950s, Mr. Berry had pop hits with his songs about rock 'n' roll and R&B hits with less teenage-oriented material. He spun surreal tall tales that Bob Dylan and John Lennon would learn from, like "Thirty Days" and "Jo Jo Gunne." In "Brown Eyed Handsome Man," from 1956, he offered a barely veiled racial pride. His pithiness and humor rarely failed him.

In 1957, Mr. Berry bought 30 acres in Wentzville, where he built a short-lived amusement park, Berry Park, and a restaurant, the Southern Air. In 1958, he opened Club Bandstand in the theater district of St. Louis.

In the early 1960s, Mr. Berry's songs inspired both California rock and the British Invasion. The Beach Boys reworked his "Sweet Little Sixteen" into "Surfin' U.S.A." (Mr. Berry sued them and won a songwriting credit.) The Rolling Stones released a string of Berry songs, including their first single, "Come On," and the Beatles remade "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Rock and Roll Music."

But by the time his music started reaching a new audience, Mr. Berry was in jail.

He had been arrested in 1959 and charged with transporting a teenage girl - who briefly worked as a hatcheck girl at Club Bandstand - across state lines for immoral purposes. He was tried twice and found guilty both times; the first verdict was overturned because of racist remarks by the judge. When he emerged from 20 months in prison in 1964, his wife had left him (they later reconciled) and his songwriting spark had diminished.

He had not totally lost his touch, though, as demonstrated by the handful of hits he had in 1964 and 1965, notably "Nadine," "No Particular Place to Go," "You Never Can Tell" and "Promised Land." He appeared in the celebrated all-star 1964 concert film "The TAMI Show," along with James Brown, the Rolling Stones, Marvin Gaye, the Beach Boys and the Supremes.

While he toured steadily through the 1960s, headlining or sharing bills with bands that grew up on his songs, his recording career stalled after he moved from Chess to Mercury Records in 1966. He remade some of his old hits and tried to reach the new hippie audience, recording "Live at the Fillmore Auditorium" with the Steve Miller Band, billed as the Steve Miller Blues Band at the time. When he returned to Chess in 1970, he recorded new songs, like "Tulane" and "Have Mercy Judge," that flashed his old wit but failed to reach the Top 40.

In 1972, Mr. Berry had the biggest hit of his career with "My Ding-a-Ling," a double-entendre novelty song that was included on the album "The London Chuck Berry Sessions" (even though he recorded the song not in London but at a concert in Coventry, England). The New Orleans songwriter Dave Bartholomew wrote and recorded it in 1952; Mr. Berry recorded a similar song, "My Tambourine," in 1968, and is credited on recordings as the sole songwriter of the 1972 "My Ding-a-Ling."

It was a million-seller and Mr. Berry's first and only No. 1 pop single. It was also his last hit. His 1973 follow-up album, "Bio," was poorly received; "Rockit," released by Atlantic in 1979, did not sell. But he stayed active: He appeared as himself in a 1979 movie about 1950s rock, "American Hot Wax," and he continued to tour constantly.

In July 1979, he performed for President Jimmy Carter at the White House. Three days later, he was sentenced to 120 days in federal prison and four years' probation for income tax evasion.

He had further legal troubles in 1990 when the police raided his home and found 62 grams of marijuana and videotapes from a camera in the women's room of his restaurant. In a plea bargain, he agreed to a misdemeanor count of marijuana possession, with a suspended jail sentence and two years' probation.

By the 1980s, Mr. Berry was recognized as a rock pioneer. He never won a Grammy Award in his prime, but the Recording Academy gave him a lifetime achievement award in 1984. He was in the first group of musicians inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

Around his 60th birthday that year, he allowed the director Taylor Hackford to film him at his home in Wentzville for the documentary "Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll," which also included performances by Mr. Berry with a band led by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones and special guests. "Chuck Berry: The Autobiography" was published in 1988.

Mr. Berry continued performing well into his 80s. He usually played with local pickup bands, as he had done for most of his career, but sometimes he played with fellow rock stars. When the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum opened in Cleveland in 1995, Mr. Berry performed at an inaugural concert, backed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

In 2012, he headlined a Cleveland concert in his honor with a genre-spanning bill that included Darryl McDaniels of Run-D.M.C. and Merle Haggard. Although he told reporters before the show, "My singing days have passed," he performed "Johnny B. Goode" and "Reelin' and Rockin'" and joined the other musicians for the closing number, "Rock and Roll Music."

From 1996 to 2014, Mr. Berry performed once a month at Blueberry Hill, a restaurant in St. Louis where he appeared regularly until Oct. 24.

He made a surprising announcement on his 90th birthday, Oct. 18, 2016: He was planning to release his first studio album in almost 40 years. The album, called simply "Chuck" and scheduled for release in June, was to consist primarily of new compositions.

And Mr. Berry's music has remained on tour extraterrestrially. "Johnny B. Goode" is on golden records within the Voyager I and II spacecraft, launched in 1977 and awaiting discovery.

Christopher Mele contributed reporting.
Read more obituaries and follow our coverage on Twitter.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B6 of the New York edition with the headline: Chuck Berry, Rock 'n' Roll's Master Theorist and Statesman, Dies at 90. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Chuck Berry, Rock 'n' Roll Pioneer, Dies at 90

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Chuck Berry, who with his indelible guitar licks, brash self-confidence and memorable songs about cars, girls and wild dance parties did as much as anyone to define rock 'n' roll's potential and attitude in its early years, died on Saturday at his home near Wentzville, Mo. He was 90. The St.