Maybellene (1955)

"Maybellene" is a rock and roll song by American artist Chuck Berry, adapted in part from the western swing fiddle tune "Ida Red". Released in 1955, Berry’s song tells the story of a hot rod race and a broken romance, the lyrics describing a man driving a V8 Ford and chasing his unfaithful girlfriend in her Cadillac Coupe DeVille. It was released in July 1955 as a single by Chess Records, of Chicago, Illinois. Berry's first hit, "Maybellene" is considered a pioneering rock and roll song. Rolling Stone magazine wrote of it, "Rock & roll guitar starts here." The record was an early instance of the complete rock and roll package: youthful subject matter; a small, guitar-driven combo; clear diction; and an atmosphere of unrelenting excitement.

The song was a major hit with both black and white audiences, reaching number 1 on Billboard's Rhythm and Blues chart and number 5 on the Popular Records chart. It has received numerous honors and awards. Soon after its initial release, cover versions were recorded by several other artists. The title is misspelled "Maybelline" on several releases.

Origins and writing

"Maybellene" adapted parts of the Western Swing song "Ida Red", as recorded by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys in 1938. According to Berry, Wills's version, an uptempo dance number, was his favorite song to sing at racially integrated clubs ("salt and pepper clubs", as he called them). Encouraged by Muddy Waters, in 1955 Berry brought to Chess Records a recording of Wills's song, renamed "Ida May" and a blues song he wrote, "Wee Wee Hours", which he said was inspired by Big Joe Turner's "Wee Baby Blue". To Berry's surprise, Leonard Chess showed little interest in the blues material but was enthusiastic about the commercial possibilities in a "hillbilly song sung by a black man".

Chess wanted a bigger beat for the song and added a bass and a maracas player to Berry's trio at the recording session. He also thought the titles "Ida Red" and "Ida May" were "too rural". Spotting a mascara box on the floor of the studio, according to Berry's pianist Johnnie Johnson, Chess said, "Well, hell, let's name the damn thing Maybellene", altering the spelling to avoid a suit by the cosmetic company (the song would be covered as "Maybelline" almost as often as with the altered spelling). The lyrics were rewritten, also at the direction of Chess. "The kids wanted the big beat, cars and young love," Chess recalled. "It was the trend and we jumped on it." According to Berry he abridged the song's lyrics (Chuck Berry quote:) "from memories of high school and trying to get girls to ride in my 1934 V-8 Ford", adding that "Maybellene" was his own choice as "Ida May"'s replacement title, Maybellene being a name he recalled from a third-grade reader in which it was the name of a cow.

As Chess had predicted, the lyrics appealed to teenagers fascinated by cars, speed, and sexuality. "Maybellene" was one of the first records to be a hit on the rhythm and blues, country and western, and pop charts. Featuring some classic Berry riffs, some blues-style picking on a guitar and Johnson's piano, which added a hummable rhythm to the steady backbeat, "Maybellene" was a pivotal song in the emergence of rock-and-roll. The fusion of a rhythm-and-blues beat with a rural country style was a catalyst for the emergence of rock-and-roll in the mid-1950s.

When Berry first saw a copy of the record, he was surprised that two other individuals, including DJ Alan Freed, had been given writing credit; that would entitle them to some of the royalties. After a court battle, Berry was able to regain full writing credit.

Personnel

• Chuck Berry – vocals, guitar
• Johnnie Johnson – piano
• Willie Dixon – bass
• Jerome Green – maracas
• Ebby Hardy – drums

Co-composers

In the 1950s, some record companies assigned publishing credits to disc jockeys and others who helped to promote a record, a form of payola by means of composer royalties. For this reason, the disc jockey Alan Freed received credit as a co-writer of "Maybellene". Robert Christgau's October 1972 essay on Berry suggests this was the case for Freed's publishing credit. Leonard Chess, in Christgau's words, "flipped" for Berry's "Maybellene" and "forwarded it to Alan Freed". "Having mysteriously acquired 25 percent of the writer's credit," Christgau writes, "Freed played 'Maybellene' quite a lot, and it became one of the first nationwide rock and roll hits."

Russ Fratto, who had loaned money to Chess, also received credit. (Some Chess insiders have said that Chess owed money to Fratto, a printer and stationer, for producing record labels. Other accounts describe Fratto as "a record distributor".) The Freed and Fratto credits, which do not appear on the original Chess single (see the photograph above), were withdrawn in 1986. However, as of 2014, these credits still appear on some reissues of Berry's recordings.