Maybellene

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"Maybellene"

Single by Chuck Berry
B-side(s)	"Wee Wee Hours"
Released	July, 1955
Format	7" 45rpm, 10" 78rpm
Recorded	May 21, 1955 at Chess Records, Chicago
Genre	Rock and Roll
Length	2 min 22 s
Label	Chess 1604 (US)
Producer(s)	Leonard Chess
Chart positions
#1 (Billboard R&B) #5 (Billboard Rock)
Chuck Berry singles chronology
	"Maybellene" (1955)	"Thirty Days" (1955)

"Maybellene" is a song by Chuck Berry that tells the story of a hot rod race and a broken romance. It was released in July 1955 as a single on Chess Records of Chicago, Illinois.^[1] It was Berry's first single release, and his first hit. "Maybellene" is considered one of the pioneering rock and roll singles: Rolling Stone magazine said, "Rock & roll guitar starts here."^[2] The record is an early instance of the complete rock and roll package: youthful subject matter, small guitar-driven combo, clear diction, and an atmosphere of unrelenting excitement.

In 1955, the song peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard rock charts, and was a #1 R&B hit. In 2004, "Maybellene" was ranked number 18 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.^[3] In 1999, National Public Radio included it in the "NPR 100," the one hundred most important American musical works of the 20th century as chosen by NPR music editors.^[4]

The title is often misspelled as Maybelline, even on some of Berry's compilation CDs. That spelling is used by a popular cosmetics line. Berry worked as a hairdresser before achieving stardom.

1 Co-composers
2 "Ida Red" and "Maybellene"
3 Cover versions
4 Notes
5 External links

[edit] Co-composers

In the 1950s, some record companies assigned co-composer credits to disc jockeys and others who helped "break" a record, a form of "payola" via composer royalties. This accounts for disk jockey Alan Freed receiving co-writer credit for "Maybellene". Russ Frato, who had been loaning money to Chess, also received credit. ^[5] The Freed and Frato credits were later withdrawn.

[edit] "Ida Red" and "Maybellene"

According to some sources, the song was originally recorded by Bob Wills in 1938 under the title "Ida Red" and was written by Russ Frato. "Ida Red" is a traditional American fiddle tune dating back to the 19th century, and has been recorded numerous times (and in numerous arrangements) from as early as 1924. Wills' 1938 version was substantially more than a fiddle tune. It included piano, steel guitar, and the unprecedented use of drums in a "country" song. It is this 1938 version that is cited as Berry's model for both for his own version of "Ida Red" and the "Maybellene" that was recorded.^[6]^[7]

Piano player Johnnie Johnson says that he and Berry rewrote the song at the suggestion of Leonard Chess: "It was an old fiddle tune called 'Ida Red.' I changed the music and re-arranged it, Chuck re-wrote the words, and the rest, as they say, was history. Leonard Chess asked me to come up to record it live. At that time, somone else already had a song out by the same name, so we had to change our version. We noticed a mascara box in the corner, so we changed the name to 'Maybellene.'"^[8]