Legendary Chuck Berry Dies At 90

Music News | Mar 18th, 2017

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The legendary Chuck Berry has passed away at the age of 90 years old. The Rock N Roll pioneer is known songs like “Maybellene,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Rock and Roll Music,” “Johnny B. Goode,” and one of my favorites “You Never Can Tell.” His amazing guitar work and soulful rockin’ vocals will be missed!

Rolling Stone wrote:

Chuck Berry, whose rollicking songs, springy guitar riffs and onstage duck walk defined rock & roll during its early years and for decades to come, has died. The St. Charles County Police Department confirmed the news on Facebook. Berry was 90 years old.

“St. Charles County police responded to a medical emergency on Buckner Road at approximately 12:40 p.m. today (Saturday, March 18),” the Facebook post reads. “Inside the home, first responders observed an unresponsive man and immediately administered lifesaving techniques. Unfortunately, the 90-year-old man could not be revived and was pronounced deceased at 1:26 p.m.” It went on to confirm that the man was Berry and added that his family was requesting privacy at this time.

Variety wrote:

Berry hammered out the then-nascent sound’s groundwork in a series of self-penned singles for the Chicago R&B label Chess Records that successfully crossed over into the pop mainstream.

The tunes showcased Berry’s droll singing, inventive guitar licks and acute eye and ear for the nuances of teenage life. In a matter of years, his repertoire would be adopted by such British acolytes as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones; California band the Beach Boys surrendered some of the copyright for its 1963 hit “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” which shamelessly copped the melody of Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen” without credit.

Like early contemporaries Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis, Berry put his music over with a showman’s flair. The pompadoured, mustachioed musician’s “duck walk” — a crouched, head-bobbing march across the stage — was an onstage trademark that became familiar to viewers of the ’50s exploitation films like “Rock, Rock, Rock!” and “Go, Johnny, Go!” in which he starred.

and of course can’t have a Chuck Berry tribute without this:

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