Maybellene : Rolling Stone

Written by: Berry
Produced by: Leonard and Phil Chess
Released: July '55 on Chess
Charts: 11 weeks
Top spot: No. 5

Rock & roll guitar starts here. The pileup of hillbilly country, urban blues and hot jazz in Chuck Berry's electric twang is the primal language of pop-music guitar, and it's all perfected on Berry's first record. The entire song is a two-minute chase scene packed with car-culture vernacular and Berry's hipster-lingo inventions ("As I was motorvatin' over the hill..."). Berry was in high school when he started writing "Maybellene," originally called "Ida Red." According to Berry's pianist Johnnie Johnson, producer Leonard Chess insisted on the name change, inspired by a Maybelline mascara box lying on the floor at the Chess Records studio in Chicago, during the May 21st, 1955, session. Berry said he remembered the name from an old schoolbook. DJ Alan Freed had nothing to do with writing "Maybellene," although he got co-credit and royalties for years in return for playing it on the radio: payola in all but name.

Appears on: The Anthology (Chess)

Next: Hound Dog

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