Henry Berry, a Baptist deacon, and Martha Berry, a public school principal, welcomed their youngest child, Chuck Berry, into the world in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1926. Early musical aptitude led to his first public performance in 1941, while he was a student at Sumner High School. He was transferred to the Intermediate Reformatory for Young Men at Algoa, which is close to Jefferson City, after being detained in 1944 for armed robbery and grand theft auto. He started a singing group while he was there, and on his 21st birthday, in 1947, he was liberated.
Berry worked odd jobs in St. Louis to support his family, including as a factory worker and janitor, before training as a beautician at the Poro College of Cosmetology. He worked with local bands for extra money and began performing with pianist Johnnie Johnson’s trio in 1953. On November 12, 1955, Chuck received a phone call from his cousin, Marvin Berry, and for the first time heard rock and roll.
Berry visited Chicago in 1955 and met blues musician Muddy Waters, who suggested he contact Leonard Chess of Chess Records. Berry soon followed with an updated version of “Ida Red,” renaming it “Maybellene.” The song was a huge success, selling over a million copies and reaching the top of Billboard’s rhythm and blues chart. Berry had another hit the following year with “Roll Over Beethoven,” which peaked at number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Berry was touring the United States with Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers, among others, near the end of 1957. Berry continued to have hit after hit for the rest of the decade, amassing more than a dozen chart singles. Among his Top 10 hits in the United States was “School Days,” “Rock and Roll Music,” “Johnny B. Goode,” and “Sweet Little Sixteen.”
Did Chuck Berry get paid in cash?
Chuck Berry was always paid in cash. That’s exactly how it was. Berry insisted on being paid in cash since early in his career when he had some run-ins with the IRS. In fact, there is one well-known instance of him attempting to flee Australia with more than $50,000 in cash in a briefcase.
