YEAR
1986
INDUCTED BY
Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones)
CATEGORY
Performers
After Elvis Presley, only Chuck Berry had more influence on the formation and development of rock & roll.
The St. Louis native internalized country, blues and R&B influences to create a singular guitar technique.
Chuck Berry
HALL OF FAME
ESSAY
By Michael Hill
Chuck Berry describing his first car: “A ’33 Ford. It cost me thirty-four dollars. Man, it took me three months to pay for it, and I had to have some older friend sign for it, ’cause I was only seventeen.” Chuck Berry’s first car song,”Maybellene,” released on the Chess label in 1955, was also his first smash, reaching Number Five on the pop chart and Number One on the R&B chart.
If it had been up to Berry himself, though, “Maybellene” would have been the B-side of “Wee Wee Hours,” a Hues number that Berry had hoped Leonard Chess would use as his debut.
