“Johnny B. Goode” (1958) – Chuck Berry * Written by Chuck Berry * Produced by Leonard Chess and Phil Chess * 45: “Johnny B. Goode” / “Around and Around” * LP: Chuck Berry Is on Top (1959) * Label: Chess * Billboard Charts: Hot 100 (#8); R&B (#2)
Pop music lyrics serve up “Johnny” stories galore. As early as 1904, the first published version of the song “Frankie and Johnny” gave us a prototype of the cheatin’ song, with Johnny as the wrong-doer. In its many versions, he ends up shot. The Johnny in Lesley Gore’s “It’s My Party” (1963) was also a cheater and certainly provided grounds for different lyrics than what she sang. Something like this, maybe?: “Johnny and Judy just walked through the door / I met them with my 44.” In John Leyton’s “Johnny Remember Me,” a ghostly 1961 UK number 1, we are led to guess that the girl who sings the “Johnny” refrain is dead, but it could be that Johnny the lead vocalist is the one who’s dead. Another gunned-down cheater maybe? Chuck Berry’s 1958 Johnny is a refreshingly different kind of figure, a “Goode” country boy who doesn’t cheat at anything and earns his way to success. That famous, much-copied guitar riff, though, signifies so much, including the commanding rat-tat-tat-tat-tat of an automatic weapon and the jackhammering of machinery (of the technological and business variety), things that bring faster results but foul up country-boy simplicity.