Chuck Berry Songs Ranked
Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. Nicknamed the “Father of Rock and Roll”, Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive with songs such as “Maybellene” (1955), “Roll Over Beethoven” (1956), “Rock and Roll Music” (1957) and “Johnny B. Goode” (1958). Writing lyrics that focused on teen life and consumerism, and developing a music style that included guitar solos and showmanship, Berry was a major influence on subsequent rock music.
By the end of the 1950s, Berry was an established star, with several hit records and film appearances and lucrative touring career. He had also established his own St. Louis nightclub, Berry’s Club Bandstand. He was sentenced to three years in prison in January 1962 for offenses under the Mann Act—he had transported a 14-year-old girl across state lines. After his release in 1963, Berry had several more hits, including “No Particular Place to Go”, “You Never Can Tell”, and “Nadine”. But these did not achieve the same success, or lasting impact, of his 1950s songs, and by the 1970s he was more in demand as a nostalgic performer, playing his past hits with local backup bands of variable quality. In 1972 he reached a new level of achievement when a rendition of “My Ding-a-Ling” became his only record to top the charts. His insistence on being paid in cash led in 1979 to a four-month jail sentence and community service, for tax evasion.
Berry was among the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on its opening in 1986; he was cited for having “laid the groundwork for not only a rock and roll sound but a rock and roll stance.” Berry is included in several of Rolling Stone magazine’s “greatest of all time” lists; he was ranked fifth on its 2004 and 2011 lists of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll includes three of Berry’s: “Johnny B. Goode”, “Maybellene”, and “Rock and Roll Music”. Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” is the only rock-and-roll song included on the Voyager Golden Record. Here are all of Chuck Berry’s songs ranked.
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20. Little Queenie (Chuck Berry Is on Top, 1959)
“Little Queenie”, which is the superior side, is an uptempo rocker featuring fine piano and guitar throughout and a powerful rhythm section, Chuck trying to pluck up courage to approach a stunningly attractive girl he has seen”
19. Havana Moon (After School Session, 1983)
“As much as everybody loves Chuck Berry’s rockers, the strange and atmospheric “Havana Moon” adds a little shade to his bright, energetic canon. With its Caribbean patois and rhythms, it reflects Berry’s little-known affection for the music of the region.”
18. You Can’t Catch Me (Rock, Rock, Rock!, 1956)
“I think maybe Chuck Berry, more than most, set the standard for guitar oriented rock and roll. Somewhere in the USA, some bar band is slamming away playing this tune as we speak. Not many tunes survive seven decades.”
17. Back In the U.S.A. (Chuck Berry Is on Top, 1959)
“Back in the U.S.A is a wonderful celebration of American pop culture in the 1950s, delighting in everything from hamburgers to drive-ins and jukeboxes. It is as if his vision of the times is the one that has lasted in the popular consciousness.”
See more: Chuck Berry Albums Ranked
16. Promised Land (St. Louis to Liverpool, 1964)
“Chuck Berry was one of the true great pioneers and innovators from the earliest days of rock. He had a second burst of creativity around 1964 that produced some of his best songs, including No Particular Place to Go and this gem.”
15. Route 66 (New Juke Box Hits, 1961)
“Saw this documentary on PBS about Route 66. It was awesome and had some really awesome music. This was one of the songs featured in the documentary. Cool song from a cool decade.”
14. Around and Around (The Animals, 1964)
“Around and Around shouldn’t be ignored, it’s a track in many ways as jamming and dancy as the first one, it’s very fun and shuffle and that. This song brought blues to the spotlight like never before and its lasting ability is testament to its near perfection.”
13. Down Bound Train (After School Session, 1957)
“Down Bound Train is a song that surprised me by how decent it was for being a lesser heard of Berry song. Either way, Berry’s music will live on and his guitar riffs and sound will continue to remain an iconic reminder of the revolutionary time period Berry was changing the direction music was being played and he’s now another dead rock star in the pile of growing aging rock n rollers who survived.”
12. Reelin’ and Rockin’ (One Dozen Berrys, 1958)
“Some good old time rock and roll from Chuck Berry, released ironically at around the time when the likes of the Beatles, Stones and other prime psychedelic rockers of the Summer of Love were getting back to their roots too.”
11. Brown Eyed Handsome Man (After School Session, 1957)
“The superlative song, one of the greatest of the 1950s, positively oozes an aura of pride in being black, of the sexual braggadocio of a black man and his erotic effect on women, and of the powerful sporting prowess of African Americans, the use of “brown eyed” clearly being a thinly disguised euphemism for “brown / black skinned”.”
10. Carol (Chuck Berry Is on Top, 1959)
“Great song and great lyrics on this tune from Chuck Berry. He also plays a masterful guitar, as usual, with a solid backing band, as usual.”
9. Too Much Monkey Business (After School Session, 1957)
“The excellent “Too Much Monkey Business” is uptempo with powerful drumming, rolling piano and a fine guitar solo from Berry in support of his frustrated, angry vocal at just about everything daily existence and life generally seems to throw at him.”
8. You Never Can Tell (St. Louis to Liverpool, 1964)
“I love the story, the guitars, and the energetic barroom piano. God bless Pulp Fiction for bringing attention to this classic, the obvious highlight on St. Louis to Liverpool and one of the best rock & roll songs of all time, in my opinion.”
7. No Particular Place to Go (St. Louis to Liverpool, 1964)
“At this point in his career, Mr. Berry is starting to run out of ideas I guess. This tune sounds very much like a reworking of another Berry tune, they are his tunes so he can do that if he wants to or so they say.”
See more: Bo Diddley Albums Ranked
6. School Days (After School Session, 1957)
“He was an incredibly gifted songwriter and an equally talented musician. And obviously he was one of the greatest showman in the history of rock & roll. In April 1957 he released ” School Days” which would prove to be one of the biggest hits of his career.”
5. Rock and Roll Music (Rock and Roll Music, 1957)
“Berry’s particular version of rock and roll became the standard by which the genre was judged by. But though that aspect of it was indeed revolutionary, it’s the other tracks that sound to me a little more conservative than we’d expect and that’s why I feel like maybe – just maybe – it’s not quite the equal of its peers.”
4. Sweet Little Sixteen (One Dozen Berrys, 1958)
“”Sweet Little Sixteen” would be ripped off by the Beach Boys for one of their feminine surf songs, and is nothing otherworldly, in fact it should be the B-side to the frantic “Reelin and Rockin”, that he stretches to ten minutes in concerts.”
3. Roll Over Beethoven (Rock, Rock, Rock!, 1956)
“I could listen to the guitar intro on this song a 1000 times. Like many of Berry’s songs, there is a proud defiance here, with the singer gleefully casting aside the tired old classics to make way for the new- as rock then was. Berry is such an original guitar player that not enough is made of his skills as a lyricist.”
2. Maybellene (Chuck Berry Is on Top, 1955)
“In “Maybellene,” Berry found a vehicle for both. The song’s tempo allows for his storytelling to take on a compelling cadence, while the drawn out syllables of the chorus provide an opportunity for his expressive vocals to take center stage.”
1. Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry Is on Top, 1955)
“We all know this is it. The song is timeless, it’s as popular now as it was when it first came out. The first 5 seconds alone are legendary”
