"Rock and Roll Music" is a song by American musician and songwriter Chuck Berry, written and recorded by Berry in May 1957. It has been widely covered and is one of Berry's most popular and enduring compositions.
"Rock and Roll Music" was met with instant success, reaching the top 10 in the United States. The Beatles' 1964 recording topped singles charts in Europe and in Australia, and the Beach Boys had a U.S. top 10 hit with the song in 1976.
Original song
The sessions for "Rock and Roll Music" took place in May 1957 in Chicago.[3] The session was produced by Leonard Chess and Phil Chess.[3] Backing Berry were Lafayette Leake (piano), Willie Dixon (bass), and Fred Below (drums).[3] Chess records issued the song as a single in September 1957 on both the 45 and 78 rpm formats. It reached number six on Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart and number eight on Hot 100 chart before the year's end.[4]
The Beatles performed the song in many of their early Hamburg shows, and also played it on the BBC program Pop Go The Beatles. In late 1964, exhausted from non-stop touring and recording and short of original material, they decided to record several of their old rock and rhythm and blues favorites to fill out their LP release Beatles for Sale.[citation needed]
John Lennon provided the vocal. In contrast to Berry's even-toned rendition, Lennon sang it as loudly and dynamically as his voice would permit.[citation needed] In the U.S., it was released on the LP Beatles '65. The song was part of the set list for the group's final tour in 1966;[citation needed] the performance from their show of June 30 at the Nippon Budokan was included in 1996's Anthology 2 – and was also performed during the Get Back/Let It Be Sessions in January 1969. It also served as the title song to the Beatles' 1976 compilation album Rock 'n' Roll Music.
Credits for the piano vary. The original Beatles for Sale liner notes, by Derek Taylor, state that "George Martin joins John and Paul on one piano", implying an overdub by all three that was added after the basic take.[8] In the 1988 book The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn described the recording as a single take with no overdubs, with "all The Beatles on their familiar instruments" and Martin on piano.[9]
In some countries, "Rock and Roll Music" was released as a single, with "I'm a Loser" as the B-side, in early 1965. It topped the charts in Norway,[10] Sweden,[11] Finland[12] and Australia.[13] The single peaked at number two in Germany[14] and the Netherlands, and number three in Belgium.[15]
The Beach Boys' version includes the use of backing vocals which repeat the phrase "Rock, roll, rockin' and roll".[citation needed] There is a difference between the LP version and the single version in that the single version has more synthesizer.[citation needed] Their version reached No. 5 on the US chart and No. 11 in Canada during the summer of 1976.[16]
Australian band Mental As Anything covered the song Rock and Roll Music. It was released as the first single from the bands seventh studio album Cyclone Raymond.[24] The song was released on November 1988 and charted at number 5 on the Kent Music Report and it stayed on the chart for 22 weeks.[25]
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