Chuck Berry

Chuck Berry (1926-2017) is one of the primary architects of rock and roll. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he signed to Chess Records in 1955 and immediately began producing a string of records that defined the form: Maybellene, Roll Over Beethoven, School Day, Rock and Roll Music, Johnny B. Goode, and Sweet Little Sixteen. His guitar playing — fast, rhythmically precise double-string runs and the signature duck walk — established the vocabulary that virtually every rock guitarist who followed him learned from. John Lennon said that if you tried to give rock and roll another name you might call it Chuck Berry. Keith Richards has said Berry's guitar style was the template for the Rolling Stones. He played a Gibson ES-335 and later a Gibson ES-355 throughout his career and continued performing his monthly residency at Blueberry Hill in St. Louis until shortly before his death at 90.