Chuck Berry's Jazz Career

Chuck Berry’s career is one full of power, hope, rock and roll, sex, and despair. All of these attributes go hand in hand with a real musician. Chuck’s early life was rare for most afro American men in the 1940’s. He was middle class; his mother was a principal and his father was a contractor and a deacon for a community church in St. Louis. With this type of upbringing it allowed him to persue music. However, with all this it did not prevent him from getting into trouble, while he was still in highschool he had attempted armed robbery in Kansas City and stolen a vehicle at gun point. If anything, this incident could forshadow the events that would later hamper his professional carreer. After his release from prison on his twenty first birthday he got married and performed a number of odd jobs to support his wife Themetta Suggs. They included working in a factory, assembly line worker, janitor, and even a beautician. To make a little extra money, he started working with bands in St. Louis perfecting his bluesy style. St. Louis Missouri has always had a large influence of blues and jazz. Due to it being directly in the Midwest it has the luxury of having the ability to be influenced by all types of music. Just below it are the origins of the delta blues where Robert Johnson, Muddy
In 1955 Muddy brought Chuck into the studio and Chuck tried to impress them with his blues songs that he thought would appeal to Chess. By this time blues was fading from the scene and no longer moving as many records as it once was. What mostly appealed the Chess was Chuck’s western and country sound. His first big hit with Chess was “Maybelline” an adaptation of an Ida Reid song. “Maybelline” hit number one on Billboard charts and sold over 1 million copies in 1955. His follow up hit, “Roll over Beethoven” reached number 29 on the Top 100 Billboard