He was among the first class of inductees into the Rock Hall. The museum's Curatorial Director Howard Kramer says there's a good reason for that.
HOWARD KRAMER: Chuck Berry is, without question, one of the reasons that there is something called Rock and Roll. He's the guy who saw that there was a need for music that expressed the interests and thoughts of teenagers. And he also understood that the way to do that was through upbeat dance music.
MUSIC: "Up in the morning and off to school, the teacher is teaching the golden rule. American History, Practical Math, studying hard and hoping to pass..."
Berry's 1957 hit "School Day" is a litany of teenage concerns: angsting over homework, being teased by a classmate, and the joy of dancing at a juke joint after school. In the 1987 documentary "Hail, Hail Rock and Roll", the African American performer revealed himself to be a canny businessman who understood his market.
CHUCK BERRY: Working for my father in the white neighborhoods, I never heard Muddy Waters, I never heard Elmore James. I DID hear Frank Sinatra, I heard Pat Boone. And then I thought, "Why can't I do like Pat Boone does and play good music for the white people and sell as well there as I could in "the neighborhood". And that's what I shot for, and it caught on.
In a time when the music business consisted of separate songwriters, singers and musicians, Howard Kramer says Chuck Berry was the whole package.
HOWARD KRAMER: He wrote his own songs, and he sang them and he performed them with his band. That was the template for Buddy Holly and the Crickets, that was the template for the Beatles, and so many other groups to follow.
And over a nearly 60 year career, Berry has had dozens of hit records. That musical legacy will be honored with series of lectures and films, culminating in a star-studded concert on October 27th. Berry himself will be in attendance and the organizers are hoping that the 86-year-old will be moved to pick-up his guitar and join in.
