Chuck Berry's big comeback: 'From St. Louis to Liverpool'

Mar. 28—Many musical histories will relate that it took British bands in the 1960s to remind American teens of rock 'n' roll's debt to Black blues and rhythm and blues artists — but that's not 100% true.

Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Fats Domino, among others, had already been a big hit with American teens on their own in the 1950s.

However, by the time the next generation of teens came around in the early 1960s, some of the original rockers' influence had waned a bit — as music executives tried to force- feed American teens a new brand of rock 'n' roll stars.

With Elvis Presley in the Army, the loss of Buddy Holly on The Day the Music Died, Little Richard turning temporarily to preaching and Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis facing troubles of their own, those running the still young rock 'n' roll industry saw a chance to bypass the raucous southerners who had helped create the genre.

They decided instead to focus on a new, more whitewashed version of the music, bringing forth singers such as Frankie Avalon, Fabian and the like to replace all those rockabilly and R&B cats.

It wasn't a complete loss. Paul Anka wrote his own biggest hits, including "Put Your Head on My Shoulder." Dion DeMucci of Dion and the Belmonts never lost his street grittiness and is still making great albums today, with an accent on the blues on his last two outings.

Still, Dion hailed from the Bronx and Paul Anka from Canada — so the move to subvert the original southern rockabilly and rock 'n' roll artists seemed to be taking hold.

They shouldn't have counted out Berry so soon, though. After spending a couple of years in prison on his conviction of violating the Mann Act for taking an underage girl across a state line, (Berry maintained he was trying to help her get a job as a waitress) he roared back following his release from incarceration with a new record in February 1964, called "Nadine (Is It You)."

"Nadine" came fully-stocked with Berry's clever wordplay about a guy riding on a bus when he thinks he's spied his future bride walking up the street and yells for the bus driver to let him exit the vehicle.

"I saw her from the corner when she turned and doubled back and started walkin' toward a coffee colored Cadillac," Berry sings. "I was pushin' through the crowd trying to get to where she's at; I was campaign shouting like a southern diplomat."

"Nadine" rocked and even included some cool saxophone riffs between the lines of the chorus.

Along with the release of Berry's new record, something else also happened in 1964 that deeply affected the music world. The Beatles landed in America, performed on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and a few other select venues — and the world, music and otherwise, would never be the same.

Now, Berry not only had to compete with The Beatles, but also a horde of other British bands, including the Rolling Stones, Gerry and the Pacemakers and others of that ilk — along with Motown, which presented a smoother version of music than Berry had offered up.

Nevertheless, "Nadine" made it all the way to #23 on the Billboard charts, showing this Berry still had plenty of juice.

Better still, even though Berry now had to compete with a slew of British bands on the U.S. charts, the Brits were not shy about the debt they owed him — especially The Beatles and the Stones.

They came not to bury Berry, but to praise him.

The Beatles even recorded one of Berry's songs, "Roll Over Beethoven" for their imaginatively-titled second American LP, called "The Beatles Second Album," giving Berry even more exposure to the new generation of rock 'n' roll fans. Not only that, but they placed the song on an EP, or extended play single, from the album, drawing even more attention to it.

Also generating more attention for the song, lead guitarist George Harrison sang the lead vocal, shining even more of a spotlight on "Roll Over Beethoven," since Harrison's vocals were a rarity on the Fab Four's early albums.

They also recorded Berry's song "Rock and Roll Music," featuring an outstanding vocal by John Lennon, one of the most popular tracks from the album "Beatles for Sale," that also included a number of original songs by Lennon and Paul McCartney.

Not to be outdone by their British counterparts, American artists also hurried to record Berry's songs.

A year before Berry released "Nadine (Is That You)" guitarslinger Lonnie Mack recorded and released an instrumental version of Berry's song "Memphis," filled with Mack's trademark guitar licks, but also giving a nod to Berry's instrumental lead guitar-playing from Berry's own earlier version of the song.

Lonnie Mack's "Memphis" climbed to #5 on Billboard's Pop Chart and #3 on Billboard's R&B Chart, keeping Berry's music alive while Berry himself was on his prison-related hiatus.

An American solo artist, perhaps seeing the luck Mack had with an instrumental version of "Memphis," recorded his own version, including Berry's original lyrics with the twist ending near the song's conclusion. Johnny River's version of "Memphis" climbed all the way to #2 on the charts in 1964.

Rivers came close to repeating that success with his followup, a new version of Berry's 1955 hit "Maybelline," which made it to #12 on the charts.

The Beach Boys were also big Chuck Berry fans — so much so that the band's chief songwriter, Brian Wilson, lifted the tune from "Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen"and used it for the Beach Boys hit, "Surfin' USA." Berry's music publishers were not amused and started a legal action, settled when Berry's contributions were credited and he was compensated.

I guess the Beach Boys didn't hold a grudge, though. They included a live cover of Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" on their "Beach Boys Concert" album.

Back in England, the Rolling Stones had recorded Berry's song, "Come On," as their first British single.

Berry, back in the midst of the music world in 1964 with his hit, "Nadine," had another hit later that year with his amusing "No Particular Place to Go," filled with a couple of his trademark electric guitar solos, as if to show the youngsters, this is how it's done.

"No Particular Place to Go" proved to be an even bigger hit than "Nadine," peaking at the #10 spot on the Billboard Top Ten Pop Chart.

On a run, Berry recorded a new album, that included "No Particular Place to Go," along with two more songs that would become standards, "Promised Land" and "You Never Can Tell."

He also embarked on a British tour, where his opening acts included British Invasion bands such as The Animals and the Nashville Teens, who despite their name, were from Surrey, England.

Just to make sure everyone got the point, Berry titled his then-new album, "From St. Louis to Liverpool."

A few years later, in 1969, The Beatles released what many consider one of the greatest albums, "Abbey Road." The lead single featured Harrison's resplendent "Something" and Lennon's song, "Come Together."

McCartney noticed the similarity between "Come Together" and a song of Berry's titled "You Can't Catch Me," prior to The Beatles recording the song. McCartney suggested they "swamp it up" a bit to make the similarities less obvious.

They did, put apparently not enough. It wasn't long before Berry's publishers contacted Lennon, who agreed to a settlement.

Still, Lennon denied that "Come Together" had been lifted from "You Can't Catch Me."

It made a it a little tougher to argue his case when it was noted both songs included a nearly identical line. Lennon sang "Here comes old flat-top, he comes groovin' up slowly" while Berry had sang in his earlier song, "Here come's a flat-top, he was moving up with me."

Thanks to those old flat-tops, Berry once again came out on top.

Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.com.