New And Verified Information About Chuck Berry's 1950's Recording Sessions

In a previous blog post we reported on Tim McFarlin's research on the Johnson v. Berry case filed in the year 2000. Tim received permission from Frances Johnson (Johnnie's widow) and Berry's attorneys from that lawsuit to copy materials from the case file and use them for purposes of his research. Among the materials provided were the original studio recording contracts for several of Berry's and Johnson's recording sessions with Chess Records. Tim shared information from a number of these contracts with me to get my expert analysis on the "who played on what" issue relevant to Tim's work. Based on this information, I am now able to correct, update and append information about some of Berry's early recording sessions.

The earlier information has been built up over the years from various publications. For instance the session which created Roll Over Beethoven has for many years been placed in February 1956. I think this was stated first in an early edition of Blues Records. This date was then subsequently used in the discography on the sleeve of Golden Decade Vol 2. as well as in the books by Howard DeWitt and Michel Ruppli. Chuck's discography in his autobiography listed the recording date as April 16, 1956, though. This is what I used in Long Distance Information: Chuck Berry's Recorded Legacy (Music Mentor Books, 2001). On the recording contract the date is stated as April 19, 1956 and I feel this is the most reliable info we have.

Likewise a lot of information about personnel has built up over the years. Blues fans would ask artists about old sessions and I'm sure some guys like Willie Dixon would try to placate fans by giving info that was not always correct. Lafayette Leake was a big friend of Willie's and I suspect he got named as pianist for wont of someone else at times. Johnnie Johnson was not part of the Chess studio clique (he never recorded in his own name at Chess) and I think he may have been overlooked. The contract information now gives us some more reliable data as the contracts list names, instruments and the local musicians union code the musicians were assigned to. The recording of the names is a bit haphazard and it seems like they are phonic interpretations of names (Odie for Otis; Thompson for Thomas etc.). But remember Chess had far more interest in making a hit record than recording musicians names.

All the musicians named on the RoB session (except Dixon) were in the St Louis local musicians union (197) so it seems all the musicians on the 1956 session traveled up with Chuck. Roy Davis is Leroy Davis - sax, Melvin Billups was a St Louis drummer, Vincent Pitts was a trumpet player (both recorded with other artists). I always thought there was a trumpet on Roll Over Beethoven (listen to the very end note) but recently dismissed it, have I now reinstated it.

This is how I understand the recording contracts and this is how I will list these sessions in future publications:

The 16.4.56 Session
New:
April 19, 1956; Chess Records Studio, 4750-2 South Cottage Grove Avenue, Chicago, Illinois
Chuck Berry & His Combo: Chuck Berry: vocal/guitar; Willie Dixon: double bass; Melvin Billups: drums; Johnnie Johnson: piano; Leroy C. Davis: tenor saxophone (except Brown Eyed Handsome Man), Vincent Pitts: trumpet (on Roll Over Beethoven)

The 6.1.58 Session
This session produced Johnny B. Goode and the contract details give Johnnie Johnson as pianist!!!!!! It is strange Johnnie's name appears against JBG especially as both Chuck and Johnnie said he didn't play on the recording (even more strange that neither parties' lawyer picked up on this fact even though they had access to the session contract). However, we have it in black and white on a contemporary document which for me is better than trusting the memory of musicians for whom the session was but a fleeting moment in time without any historic significance.
Therefore:
January 6, 1958; Sheldon Recording Studio, 2120 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois
Chuck Berry: vocal/guitar/overdubbed guitar (on the released version of Johnny B. Goode); Willie Dixon: double bass; Jasper Thomas: drums; Johnnie Johnson: piano

The 27.2.58 Session.
The previously listed date differs by one day from the date on the contract which also gives personnel for piano, drums and bass. Bob Bushnell was a bass player who went on to play with Elmore James, Dylan, Hendrix.
New:
February 28, 1958; Sheldon Recording Studio, 2120 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois
Chuck Berry: vocal/guitar; overdubbed second guitar/steel guitar (on Blues For Hawaiians); Bob Bushnell: bass; Jasper Thomas: drums; Johnnie Johnson: piano

The 12.6.58 Session
The contract info gives the date of June 12, 1958 and includes different personnel to previous publications. Willie Dixon is listed instead of George Smith, and Odie Payne in place of Hardy or Thomas. Rather than Johnnie Johnson the pianist is given as Paul Cayton from the New Orleans local musical union. This probably is a miss-spelling for New Orleans pianist Paul Gayten who recorded for Chess and was their agent / musical fixer in New Orleans. The elusive George Smith (who is not the famous harmonica playing Little George Smith) doesn't seem to appear in any other Chess Recordings and has been removed from the line-up.
According to the contract this was a Double Session and also produced the recordings previously listed as from a separate session dated April 20, 1958.
The songs given are also interesting with some alternative titles. Beautiful Delilah is typed in as "Rebecca and Delila" with "Rebecca" crossed through and "Beautiful" pencilled in. The original title for Vacation Time / 21 is listed as "When You're Twenty-One". Hey Pedro is typed in as "Lazy Pedro" with "Lazy" crossed through and "Hey" pencilled in. "Blues Of Hawaii" seems to be another try at Blues For Hawaiians which remains unissued / lost.
Therefore:
June 12, 1958; Sheldon Recording Studio, 2120 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois
Chuck Berry: vocal/guitar/overdubbed guitar; Willie Dixon: double bass; Odie Payne: drums; Paul Gayten: piano

The 28. 9 58 Session
There is a discrepancy in the date by a couple of days as the contract states 26.9.58.
The piano player is given as Otis Spann rather than Johnnie Johnson which is a surprise as this session may have produced Long Fast Jam and Slow Fast Jam which are felt to be archetypal Chuck & Johnny cuts!! The date on the tape box for these two instrumentals is just "9/58" so I have split this session and name Spann as pianist on Anthony Boy and Sweet Little Rock And Roller. From the contract we also learn that Memphis (as "Long Distance Telephone", crossed through and "Memphis" pencilled in) and Jo Jo Gunne (as “Joe Joe Gun”) were recorded at this studio date. This is at odds with the reminiscences about the recording of Memphis by Chuck in his autobiography in which he says it was cut by him alone in his St Louis office. I don't doubt that Chuck did record a demo in St Louis on his $79 reel-to-reel Sears-Roebuck tape recorder but my feeling is that the finished cut was produced in the studio. This also goes for Jo Jo Gunne where the off-mic shouts have a studio ambience. Chuck also contradicts himself in that in his song list at the back of his book he lists the four song titles as being recorded at one date. Finally by placing the two songs in this session, the matrix numbers now run consecutively.
Therefore:
September 26, 1958; Ter-Mar Studio, 2120 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois
Chuck Berry: vocal/guitar/overdubbed guitar; Willie Dixon: double bass; Jasper Thomas: drums; Otis Spann: piano; band: vocal (on Anthony Boy)
Songs: Anthony Boy, Jo Jo Gunne, Sweet Little Rock And Roller, Memphis
September 1958; Ter-Mar Studio, 2120 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois
Chuck Berry: guitar; Willie Dixon: double bass; Jasper Thomas: drums; Johnnie Johnson: piano
Songs: Long Slow Jam and Long Fast Jam

The 19.11.58 Session
The only variation here is that Odie Payne is given as the drummer in the contract details rather than Fred Below.
Therefore:
November 19, 1958; Ter-Mar Studio, 2120 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois
Chuck Berry: vocal/guitar/overdubbed guitar (except on the LP version of Merry Christmas Baby and That's My Desire); Willie Dixon: double bass; Odie Payne: drums; Ellis 'Lafayette' Leake: piano; unknown tambourine (on That's My Desire)