Chuck Berry: "Sweet Little Sixteen"

March 10, 1958 (2 weeks)

Look up Chuck Berry in Fred Bronson's The Billboard Book of Number One Hits or on either Tom Ewing's Popular site or Tom Briehan's Number Ones over on Stereogum and you'll discover that the legendary rock 'n' roll pioneer only had one chart topper in the US and UK. Worse still, it wasn't' with "Rock and Roll Music" or "Johnny B. Goode" or "Memphis, Tennessee" or "Nadine" or any of the numerous great songs in his discography from the fifties. No, his lone number one hit on pop's two major charts didn't occur until the end of 1972 and it was with the abomination that is "My Ding-a-Ling". Luckily, Canadians made up for this injustice somewhat by taking "Sweet Little Sixteen" to the top in the early part of 1958 — even if they ended up spoiling it by also having bloody "Ding-a-Ling" go to number one. Failing to land a number one at his peak in either the US or Britain would be a grievous injustice but for three matters: (1) it's only the bloody pop charts, (2) Berry was by most accounts a pretty vile human being and (3) much of what he recorded in his prime isn't all that brilliant.

For all of Chuck Berry's many talents — songwriting, guitar playing, showmanship — his biggest weakness as a recording artist was his poor voice. While there are rock stars who have lacked conventional vocal prowess — Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Billy Bragg...bloody hell, are they all men? — the bulk of them were able to add a degree of character to their otherwise workmanlike singing. This is why many people have favourite vocalists who aren't technically very good and why most people would opt for Madonna over Annie Lennox in spite the chasm that separates their voices. But this doesn't apply to Chuck Berry who couldn't sing well and lacked vocal personality, even though this seldom gets mentioned by critics and music nerds. But while few knock his crummy voice, you never hear of anyone praise him for his singing either.

Perhaps this is why The Beatles did so well with their Chuck Berry covers. Only two ended up on albums — "Roll Over Beethoven" on With The Beatles and "Rock and Roll Music" on Beatles for Sale — but the Fab Four thought highly enough of his work to do several more on their BBC sessions, several of which popped up on their Live at the BBC and On Air: Live at the BBC Vol. 2 collections. They were accomplished enough musically to recreate Berry's trademark guitar flourishes and in John Lennon, Paul McCartney and even George Harrison they had the vocal chops to sing his nibs under the table. (Call me a hater but I think I'd even take Ringo over him) Outstripping the source material is an overlooked Beatles strength from their early period and they never did it better then when handling Chuck Berry's works.

Recorded for the radio show Pop Go The Beatles in the summer of 1963, Lennon attacks the lyrics as he tended to do with early rock 'n' roll hits that he loved. Equally true to form is Berry sounding nonchalant on his original. This is understandable. As someone who was already a veteran performer in his late-twenties when rock 'n' roll broke, he couldn't possibly sound as excited as up and coming stars who were ten years his junior or, indeed, all those teenagers listening to him on transistor radios and jukeboxes. And, just to belabour the point above, his limited range couldn't have pulled off a full-throated take anyway.

Berry's arrest at the end of 1959 for transporting a teenage girl across state lines ought to have ensured that "Sweet Little Sixteen" would become problematic though this didn't prevent The Beatles from performing it nor Brian Wilson from retooling it into "Surfin' USA", The Beach Boys' first Top 10 hit. Having it pose as a list song of tour destinations all over America may have been a good way to obscure that it's otherwise about young groupies who get dolled up the night before only to have to be back in school the next day. Sure was the state of the creepy rock star-fan dynamic that he could report on highly inappropriate (not to mention illegal) behaviour but all everyone at the time heard was a celebration of the teenage dream.

Chuck Berry was an influential figure in rock 'n' roll's formative period. Better yet, he wrote some stellar pop songs that others, particularly The Beatles, were able to get more out of than he ever could. Budding guitarists in the fifties like George Harrison and Carl Wilson would study his playing. When he was in the mood and enticed with a sufficient amount of cash, he could no doubt put on an incredible show. All that really matters in the end though is how the influence trickled back. The only reason I have to appreciate Chuck Berry is down to what The Beatles ended up doing for him which means a great deal more than what he did for them.

Score: 4