Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
From '' Can't Make My Mind Up ''
Label: Baal – BDN 38048
Format: Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Single, Promo, Solid Centre
Country: UK
Released: 1977
Tracklist
A Can't Make My Mind Up
Written-By – Alan Green, Dave Rodwell, John Westwood
B Johnny B Good
Written-By – Chuck Berry
Producer – Agnes Strange, Jay Shotam
Manufactured By – Pye Records
Distributed By – Pye Records
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Baal Records Ltd.
Published By – Jewel Music
Published By – Baal Records Music
Notes
Big A on the A-side of label.
Solid Centre, other than 4 prong "Agnes Strange - Can't Make My Mind Up / Johnny B Good".
Recorded in England
------------------------
"Johnny B. Goode" is a song by American musician Chuck Berry, written and sung by Berry in 1958. Released as a single in 1958, it peaked at number two on the Hot R&B Sides chart and number eight on its pre-Hot 100 chart.
The song remains a staple of rock music.
"Johnny B. Goode" is considered one of the most recognizable songs in the history of popular music. Credited as "the first rock & roll hit about rock & roll stardom", it has been covered by various other artists and has received several honors and accolades. These include being ranked 33rd and 7th, respectively on Rolling Stone magazine’s 2021 and 2004 versions of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". It was also included as one of the 27 songs on the Voyager Golden Record, a collection of music, images, and sounds designed to serve as an introduction and record of global humanity’s achievements, innovations and culture, to alien/otherworldly inhabitants.
Composition and recording
Written by Berry in 1955, the song is about an illiterate "country boy" from the New Orleans area, who plays a guitar "just like ringing a bell", and who might one day have his "name in lights". Berry acknowledged that the song is partly autobiographical and that the original lyrics referred to Johnny as a "colored boy", but he changed it to "country boy" to ensure radio play. As well as suggesting that the guitar player is good, the title hints at autobiographic elements, because Berry was born at 2520 Goode Avenue, in St. Louis.
The song was initially inspired by Johnnie Johnson, the regular piano player in Berry's band, but developed into a song mainly about Berry himself. Johnson played on many recordings by Berry, but for the Chess recording session Lafayette Leake played the piano, along with Willie Dixon on bass and Fred Below on drums. The session was produced by Leonard and Phil Chess. The guitarist Keith Richards later suggested that the song's chords are more typical of compositions written for piano than for guitar.
The opening guitar riff of "Johnny B. Goode" borrows from the opening single-note solo on Louis Jordan's "Ain't That Just Like a Woman" (1946), played by guitarist Carl Hogan.
One notable feature of Berry's recording is the contrast between the swing of the drums and piano backing, and the "straight" (non-swinging) rhythm and lead guitar.
Legacy
When Chuck Berry was inducted during the first Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on January 23, 1986, he performed "Johnny B. Goode" and "Rock and Roll Music", backed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. The Hall of Fame included these songs and "Maybellene" in their list of the 500 songs that shaped rock and roll. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, for its influence as a rock and roll single.
The song was included on the 1973 American Graffiti soundtrack album.
Devo paid homage to the song with their own song Come Back Jonee on its debut album Q. Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!.
The song is included, as the eleventh track of disc 1, in the Voyager Golden Record, traveling into deep space outside the solar system.
A cover version is featured in the film Back to the Future (1985), when the lead character Marty McFly, played by actor Michael J. Fox, performs it at a high school dance. This is heard by Marvin Berry, a fictional cousin of Chuck who calls him up and makes him listen to the song, telling him it's "the new sound you've been looking for", thus making it a bootstrap paradox. Fox explained his approach was to "incorporate all the characteristics and mannerisms and quirks of my favorite guitarists, so a Pete Townshend windmill, and Jimi Hendrix behind the back, and a Chuck Berry duckwalk. And we worked all that in."
The Grateful Dead often performed the song live, purportedly playing it 287 times.
From '' Can't Make My Mind Up ''
Label: Baal – BDN 38048
Format: Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Single, Promo, Solid Centre
Country: UK
Released: 1977
Tracklist
A Can't Make My Mind Up
Written-By – Alan Green, Dave Rodwell, John Westwood
B Johnny B Good
Written-By – Chuck Berry
Producer – Agnes Strange, Jay Shotam
Manufactured By – Pye Records
Distributed By – Pye Records
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Baal Records Ltd.
Published By – Jewel Music
Published By – Baal Records Music
Notes
Big A on the A-side of label.
Solid Centre, other than 4 prong "Agnes Strange - Can't Make My Mind Up / Johnny B Good".
Recorded in England
------------------------
"Johnny B. Goode" is a song by American musician Chuck Berry, written and sung by Berry in 1958. Released as a single in 1958, it peaked at number two on the Hot R&B Sides chart and number eight on its pre-Hot 100 chart.
The song remains a staple of rock music.
"Johnny B. Goode" is considered one of the most recognizable songs in the history of popular music. Credited as "the first rock & roll hit about rock & roll stardom", it has been covered by various other artists and has received several honors and accolades. These include being ranked 33rd and 7th, respectively on Rolling Stone magazine’s 2021 and 2004 versions of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". It was also included as one of the 27 songs on the Voyager Golden Record, a collection of music, images, and sounds designed to serve as an introduction and record of global humanity’s achievements, innovations and culture, to alien/otherworldly inhabitants.
Composition and recording
Written by Berry in 1955, the song is about an illiterate "country boy" from the New Orleans area, who plays a guitar "just like ringing a bell", and who might one day have his "name in lights". Berry acknowledged that the song is partly autobiographical and that the original lyrics referred to Johnny as a "colored boy", but he changed it to "country boy" to ensure radio play. As well as suggesting that the guitar player is good, the title hints at autobiographic elements, because Berry was born at 2520 Goode Avenue, in St. Louis.
The song was initially inspired by Johnnie Johnson, the regular piano player in Berry's band, but developed into a song mainly about Berry himself. Johnson played on many recordings by Berry, but for the Chess recording session Lafayette Leake played the piano, along with Willie Dixon on bass and Fred Below on drums. The session was produced by Leonard and Phil Chess. The guitarist Keith Richards later suggested that the song's chords are more typical of compositions written for piano than for guitar.
The opening guitar riff of "Johnny B. Goode" borrows from the opening single-note solo on Louis Jordan's "Ain't That Just Like a Woman" (1946), played by guitarist Carl Hogan.
One notable feature of Berry's recording is the contrast between the swing of the drums and piano backing, and the "straight" (non-swinging) rhythm and lead guitar.
Legacy
When Chuck Berry was inducted during the first Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on January 23, 1986, he performed "Johnny B. Goode" and "Rock and Roll Music", backed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. The Hall of Fame included these songs and "Maybellene" in their list of the 500 songs that shaped rock and roll. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, for its influence as a rock and roll single.
The song was included on the 1973 American Graffiti soundtrack album.
Devo paid homage to the song with their own song Come Back Jonee on its debut album Q. Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!.
The song is included, as the eleventh track of disc 1, in the Voyager Golden Record, traveling into deep space outside the solar system.
A cover version is featured in the film Back to the Future (1985), when the lead character Marty McFly, played by actor Michael J. Fox, performs it at a high school dance. This is heard by Marvin Berry, a fictional cousin of Chuck who calls him up and makes him listen to the song, telling him it's "the new sound you've been looking for", thus making it a bootstrap paradox. Fox explained his approach was to "incorporate all the characteristics and mannerisms and quirks of my favorite guitarists, so a Pete Townshend windmill, and Jimi Hendrix behind the back, and a Chuck Berry duckwalk. And we worked all that in."
The Grateful Dead often performed the song live, purportedly playing it 287 times.
