Johnny B. Goode

Chuck Berry, 1958. Solo by Chuck Berry.

The intro lick is rock guitar's first sentence. Nearly every player learns it first.

The intro is the part everyone knows: a ringing burst of double-stop bends and chiming two-string licks that became the basic vocabulary of rock and roll guitar. It is closely modelled on Carl Hogan's playing on a 1946 Louis Jordan record, and the mid-song break owes something to T-Bone Walker, but Berry sharpened those ideas into something brighter and more insistent. He plays with a bright, slightly overdriven tone over a driving shuffle, alternating rhythmic double stops with quick bluesy runs. Keith Richards has observed that the moves feel almost like piano parts, a reflection of Berry's work with Johnnie Johnson. Listen for the double stops in the opening bars, two strings bent and struck together like a pianist hammering chords.

Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry is ranked #16 in our consensus of 79 guitar-solo lists. The solo is played by Chuck Berry and the song was released in 1958. It appears on 28 lists, placing as high as #1 (ROCK FM (Russia)).

The story of Johnny B. Goode

Chuck Berry wrote "Johnny B. Goode" around 1955, telling the story of a poor country boy from the backwoods near New Orleans who can barely read or write but plays guitar so well that people stop to listen and dream of seeing his name in lights. Berry acknowledged that the song was partly about himself, though he changed details: he grew up in St. Louis, and the surname Goode came from the street where he was raised, 2520 Goode Avenue.

The character's first name nodded to Johnnie Johnson, Berry's longtime pianist and collaborator, although the song gradually became a portrait of Berry's own ambitions. In his original lyric Berry described Johnny as a colored boy, but he changed it to country boy so the record would get radio play with white audiences. Songfacts adds that Berry recalled the thrill of seeing his name posted around town at an early New Orleans show as part of the inspiration.

Berry cut the song at Chess in Chicago on 6 January 1958 with Lafayette Leake on piano, Willie Dixon on bass and Fred Below on drums, with Leonard and Phil Chess producing. Released that March with "Around and Around" on the B-side, it reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 2 on the R&B chart, and was later included on the album Chuck Berry Is on Top.

Berry returned to the character in "Bye Bye Johnny" (1960), which follows Johnny as he heads off to chase stardom. The original, meanwhile, grew into one of the most covered and quoted songs in rock and roll. It has since been recorded by artists across genres, from Buck Owens' chart-topping country version to Peter Tosh's reggae take and Judas Priest's metal cover, and in 1977 it was chosen for the Voyager Golden Record, a committee selection led by Carl Sagan.

The solo

The song's fame rests heavily on its opening: a ringing burst of double-stop bends and chiming two-string licks that has become the archetypal rock and roll guitar intro. Wikipedia notes it is closely modelled on Carl Hogan's single-note guitar solo in Louis Jordan's 1946 record "Ain't That Just Like a Woman", and Songfacts traces the mid-song break partly to T-Bone Walker's "Strollin' with Bones". Berry's main guitar in this era was a Gibson ES-350T thinline, according to Guitar World, though the exact session instrument is not documented. Keith Richards has pointed out that the chord moves feel more like piano parts than guitar parts, reflecting Berry's long partnership with Johnnie Johnson. Berry plays with a bright, slightly overdriven tone over a driving shuffle, alternating rhythmic double stops with quick bluesy runs, a vocabulary that became essential for later rock guitarists.

Legacy

Few songs define rock and roll as clearly. Rolling Stone named it the greatest guitar song of all time in 2008 and ranked it No. 7 on its 2004 list of the 500 greatest songs. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, and a copy of the recording travels on the Voyager Golden Record, launched in 1977 as a sample of human culture. Marty McFly's performance in Back to the Future (1985) introduced it to a new generation, and guitarists from Keith Richards to Jimi Hendrix have cited Berry's playing as foundational.

Top 10 facts about Johnny B. Goode

The surname Goode came from 2520 Goode Avenue in St. Louis, where Berry grew up.
Wikipedia
Berry changed 'colored boy' to 'country boy' in the lyrics to make the song acceptable for radio.
Wikipedia
The famous intro draws on Carl Hogan's guitar solo on Louis Jordan's 1946 record 'Ain't That Just Like a Woman'.
Wikipedia
Songfacts credits the song's guitar break partly to T-Bone Walker's 1950 recording 'Strollin' with Bones'.
Songfacts
The session band included Lafayette Leake on piano, Willie Dixon on bass and Fred Below on drums.
Wikipedia
Rolling Stone ranked it No. 1 on its 2008 list of the 100 greatest guitar songs of all time.
Wikipedia
The song is the 11th track on disc one of the Voyager Golden Record sent into space in 1977.
Wikipedia
In Back to the Future, singer Mark Campbell provided Marty McFly's vocals, credited only as 'Marty McFly'.
Songfacts
Buck Owens took a country version of the song to No. 1 on Billboard's country chart in 1969.
Wikipedia
Berry's principal guitar of the era was the Gibson ES-350T, a thinline model Gibson introduced in 1955.
Guitar World

Live versions

Jimi Hendrix: Hendrix in the West (1972) Blistering live cover released posthumously; charted in the UK.
Johnny Winter at Woodstock (1969) Winter played it at the festival and cut a studio version on Second Winter.
Summer Jam at Watkins Glen (1973) The Band, the Allman Brothers and the Grateful Dead played it together as an encore.
Grateful Dead concerts The Dead reportedly performed the song around 287 times.

Notable covers

Buck Owens (1969) Country version that topped the Billboard country chart.
Johnny Winter (1969) Hard-driving blues-rock version on Second Winter.
Jimi Hendrix (1972) Live version on Hendrix in the West; UK No. 35.
Peter Tosh (1983) Reggae reworking that charted in the US, UK and Netherlands.
Judas Priest (1988) Heavy metal version for the film Johnny Be Good; UK No. 64.

In our lists

The Most-Taught Solos — #8
The Greatest Solo of Every Year — #15
Genre Champions — #26
The Road Trip 50 — #5
The 25 Greatest Rock and Roll Guitar Solos — #1
The Pioneers: 1950s & 60s — #4
Short & Perfect — #1
Solos in Hit Singles — #5
Most Agreed-Upon — #17
Critics' Picks — #7

Sources

Who played the guitar solo on Johnny B. Goode?

Chuck Berry played the solo on Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode (1958).

What guitar was used on the Johnny B. Goode solo?

A gibson es-350t, according to widely reported accounts.

Where does Johnny B. Goode rank among the greatest guitar solos?

#16 in the GreatestSolos consensus of 79 published lists; it appears on 28 of them.

Who wrote Johnny B. Goode?

Chuck Berry wrote it, partly as an autobiographical story.

Who is Johnny B. Goode based on?

Largely on Berry himself, with the first name nodding to his pianist Johnnie Johnson and the surname from Goode Avenue in St. Louis.

Where does the Johnny B. Goode intro come from?

It is adapted from Carl Hogan's guitar solo on Louis Jordan's 1946 'Ain't That Just Like a Woman'.

What guitar did Chuck Berry play?

His main guitar in the late 1950s was a Gibson ES-350T thinline hollowbody.

Is Johnny B. Goode in space?

Yes. It is on the Voyager Golden Record launched aboard NASA's Voyager probes in 1977.