Fact #32139
When:
Short story:
At Universal Studios in Chicago, Illinois, USA, Chuck Berry records his first Chess Records single, Maybellene, a re-written version of a country fiddle tune called Ida Red.
Full article:
Chuck Berry : My music, it is very simple stuff. I wanted to play blues. But I wasn't blue enough. I wasn't like Muddy Waters, people who really had it hard. In our house, we had food on the table. So I concentrated on this fun and frolic. I wrote about cars because half the people had cars, or wanted them. I wrote about love, because everyone wants that. I wrote songs white people could buy, because that's nine pennies out of every dime. That was my goal. to look at my bank book and see a million dollars there.
Marshall Chess (son of Leonard Chess, founder of Chess Records). Chuck Berry was the first artist that crossed over for us. Chuck came to Chicago and he went to see Muddy Waters. That's like, when you're in London, you go to see Mick Jagger. Muddy was Chuck's idol. Berry was a blues singer. The b-side of Maybellene is Wee Wee Hours, a twelve-bar blues song in the Muddy Waters style. Anyway, Chuck went to see Muddy, and he walked up to him after, the set and said, "Look, I have a band. I have music. Where should I go?"
Muddy said, "Go see Chess." Chuck Berry came in with a song called Ida Red.
Johnny Johnson (pianist for Chuck Berry) : Chuck took a tape of old hillbilly songs to Chicago's Chess Records – it was an old fiddle tune called Ida Red. I changed the music and re-arranged it.
Leonard Chess (MD, Chess Records) : He was carrying a wire recorder and played us a country music take-off called Ida Red.
Chuck Berry : Leonard listened to my tape and, when he heard one hillbilly selection I'd included, called Ida Red, played back on the one-mike, one-track home recorder, it struck him most as being commercial. He couldn't believe that a country tune (he called it a 'hillbilly song') could be written and sung by a black guy. He said he wanted us to record that particular song, and he scheduled a recording session for May 21, 1955, promising me a contract at that time.
Phil Chess (co-owner, Chess Records) : Chuck Berry walked in. I listened to the song and I said, 'That's a good song', you know, but it sounded too much like that country song, Ida Red.
(Interview with Mary Katherine Aldin in CD box set The Chess Story, 1947-1975)
Marshall Chess : My father listened to it and said, "You've got something here that's different, but I don't like the lyrics. Come back with some new ones."
Chuck Berry : I wrote Maybellene with a different title, Ida Red, and the people at Chess Records told me that there was already another song with this name and I could not use it, so we did it over as Maybellene.
Johnny Johnson (pianist for Chuck Berry) : Chuck re-wrote the words, and the rest, as they say, was history. Leonard Chess asked me to come up to record it live. At that time, someone else already had a song out by the same name, so we had to change our version. We noticed a mascara box in the corner, so we changed the name to Maybellene.
Marshall Chess : One week later, he came back with Maybellene, and my father instantly recorded it. My father used to say, "If Chuck Berry were white, he'd be bigger than Elvis Presley. "
Phil Chess : He come back in a couple of weeks and changed it round, and he did, he came back. But he went to Mercury, they turned him down, he went to Vee-Jay, and they turned him down, and he came across to us.
(Interview with Mary Katherine Aldin in CD box set The Chess Story, 1947-1975)
Maybellene had nothing to do with the cosmetic thing. I was through with hairdressing by that time, and the cow's name was Maybelle. I just got to playing with the song, trying different names and Maybellene popped up. Anyway, Maybelle wouldn't fit.
Phil Chess (co-owner, Chess Records) : Maybellene, I'd say, was about the biggest one we had.
(Interview with Mary Katherine Aldin in CD box set The Chess Story, 1947-1975)
Marshall Chess : But that whole period - '54, '55, '56, '57- it wasn't just Chuck Berry. We were flying. We had Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Memphis Slim, John Lee Hooker, Etta James. In doo-wop, we had The Moonglows and The Flamingos. In comedy, we had Moms Mabley.
Keith Richards (guitarist, Rolling Stones) : It became a mission for me to learn to play like that. He influenced every guitar player of my generation - and probably me more than any of the others.
(Source : not known)
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Marshall Chess (son of Leonard Chess, founder of Chess Records). Chuck Berry was the first artist that crossed over for us. Chuck came to Chicago and he went to see Muddy Waters. That's like, when you're in London, you go to see Mick Jagger. Muddy was Chuck's idol. Berry was a blues singer. The b-side of Maybellene is Wee Wee Hours, a twelve-bar blues song in the Muddy Waters style. Anyway, Chuck went to see Muddy, and he walked up to him after, the set and said, "Look, I have a band. I have music. Where should I go?"
Muddy said, "Go see Chess." Chuck Berry came in with a song called Ida Red.
Johnny Johnson (pianist for Chuck Berry) : Chuck took a tape of old hillbilly songs to Chicago's Chess Records – it was an old fiddle tune called Ida Red. I changed the music and re-arranged it.
Leonard Chess (MD, Chess Records) : He was carrying a wire recorder and played us a country music take-off called Ida Red.
Chuck Berry : Leonard listened to my tape and, when he heard one hillbilly selection I'd included, called Ida Red, played back on the one-mike, one-track home recorder, it struck him most as being commercial. He couldn't believe that a country tune (he called it a 'hillbilly song') could be written and sung by a black guy. He said he wanted us to record that particular song, and he scheduled a recording session for May 21, 1955, promising me a contract at that time.
Phil Chess (co-owner, Chess Records) : Chuck Berry walked in. I listened to the song and I said, 'That's a good song', you know, but it sounded too much like that country song, Ida Red.
(Interview with Mary Katherine Aldin in CD box set The Chess Story, 1947-1975)
Marshall Chess : My father listened to it and said, "You've got something here that's different, but I don't like the lyrics. Come back with some new ones."
Chuck Berry : I wrote Maybellene with a different title, Ida Red, and the people at Chess Records told me that there was already another song with this name and I could not use it, so we did it over as Maybellene.
Johnny Johnson (pianist for Chuck Berry) : Chuck re-wrote the words, and the rest, as they say, was history. Leonard Chess asked me to come up to record it live. At that time, someone else already had a song out by the same name, so we had to change our version. We noticed a mascara box in the corner, so we changed the name to Maybellene.
Marshall Chess : One week later, he came back with Maybellene, and my father instantly recorded it. My father used to say, "If Chuck Berry were white, he'd be bigger than Elvis Presley. "
Phil Chess : He come back in a couple of weeks and changed it round, and he did, he came back. But he went to Mercury, they turned him down, he went to Vee-Jay, and they turned him down, and he came across to us.
(Interview with Mary Katherine Aldin in CD box set The Chess Story, 1947-1975)
Maybellene had nothing to do with the cosmetic thing. I was through with hairdressing by that time, and the cow's name was Maybelle. I just got to playing with the song, trying different names and Maybellene popped up. Anyway, Maybelle wouldn't fit.
Phil Chess (co-owner, Chess Records) : Maybellene, I'd say, was about the biggest one we had.
(Interview with Mary Katherine Aldin in CD box set The Chess Story, 1947-1975)
Marshall Chess : But that whole period - '54, '55, '56, '57- it wasn't just Chuck Berry. We were flying. We had Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Memphis Slim, John Lee Hooker, Etta James. In doo-wop, we had The Moonglows and The Flamingos. In comedy, we had Moms Mabley.
Keith Richards (guitarist, Rolling Stones) : It became a mission for me to learn to play like that. He influenced every guitar player of my generation - and probably me more than any of the others.
(Source : not known)