Brown Eyed Handsome Man

"Brown Eyed Handsome Man" is a rock and roll song by Chuck Berry, which was originally released by Chess Records in September 1956 as the B-side to "Too Much Monkey Business". It was also included on Berry's 1957 debut album After School Session. The song title was also used as the title of a biography of Berry.^[3]

Background and recording

"Brown Eyed Handsome Man" was written following a visit that Chuck made in several African American and Hispanic areas in California. During his time there, Chuck saw an Hispanic being arrested by a policeman when "some woman came up shouting for the policeman to let him go."^[4]

"Brown Eyed Handsome Man" was recorded on April 16, 1956 in Chicago, Illinois. The session was produced by the Chess Brothers – Leonard and Phil – and backing Chuck Berry was Johnnie Johnson on piano, L. C. Davis on tenor saxophone, Willie Dixon on bass, and Fred Below on drums.^[2]

The song was released in September 1956,^[1] and sometime after reached #5 on Billboard magazine's R&B Singles later in the year.^[5]

Relevance in race relations

Glenn C. Altschuler explains that the lyrics of this song "played slyly with racial attitudes and even fears."^[6] Martha Bayles elaborates, noting that "Berry's penchant for bragging about his "Brown Eyed Handsome Man"’s appeal for white females outraged a lot of people."^[7]

Cover versions

The song has been covered by many artists, including Buddy Holly, who posthumously had a top-five hit with the song in the United Kingdom in 1963 and was released on Reminiscing.^[8] Johnny Rivers also covered the song on his first album At the Whisky à Go Go in 1964, as did Nina Simone on her 1967 album, High Priestess of Soul and Waylon Jennings on a single from his 1970 album, Waylon. It was also covered by Robert Cray on the 1987 live tribute album to Berry, Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll, and by Paul McCartney on his 1999 album Run Devil Run and also released as a double A side single with "No Other Baby". Johnny Cash covered it with Carl Perkins on his posthumous 2003 album Unearthed. The so-called "Million Dollar Quartet", a December 4, 1956 jam-session which consisted of Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley, also performed the song.^[9]

"Brown Eyed Handsome Man" was included in the Broadway musical entitled Million Dollar Quartet, which opened in New York in April 2010,^[10] and on the Million Dollar Quartet original Broadway cast recording. The song was covered by the company of the production, which included Lance Guest as Johnny Cash; Robert Britton Lyons as Carl Perkins; Levi Kreis as Jerry Lee Lewis, and Eddie Clendening as Elvis Presley.^[11]

Influences in other songs

John Fogerty used the line "A-roundin’ third, and headed for home, it’s a brown-eyed handsome man" in his 1985 song "Centerfield" from the album of the same name.

References