Rock and Roll Music

Over the course of their numerous appearances on BBC Radio, the Beatles paid tribute to many of their rock and roll heroes, and foremost among them was the great Chuck Berry.  Arguably, nobody was more responsible for the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll than Berry, as he managed to appeal to both black and white teenagers.  The Beatles played nine of his compositions on various radio programs, some of them multiple times, with each song appearing at least once on the collections Live at the BBC and On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2.

In 1957, Berry wrote Rock and Roll Music, a song celebrating the genre that he had helped to create.  Over in Liverpool, John Lennon's band the Quarrymen, usually quick to jump on any new song from America, somehow waited until 1959 before they added this tune to their repertoire, first playing it at Mona Best's Casbah Coffee Club (pictured above), long before they found themselves in need of a drummer and asked her son Pete to join the group.  Once established, the song remained in their setlist for the next few years as they became the Beatles and gradually worked their way up to a record deal with the Parlophone label.

As their fame grew larger, their setlist grew shorter, and the song all but disappeared from their act - until they were forced to resort to some of their old favorites during sessions for their fourth album Beatles for Sale.  On October 18th, 1964, that album was only half-finished, and the pressure was on to record as many titles as possible.  After spending a good portion of the day working on some of their new compositions, the band cranked out three oldies in just a few quick takes.

Rock and Roll Music required only one take, played by the boys and their producer George Martin on piano.  They drive through the song in high gear, with the addition of the piano plus the echo on John's vocal creating a very full sound.  Still, Martin did not feel that it was strong enough to close out the album. That honor went to George's cover of the Carl Perkins number Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby.  Instead, this song wound up in the middle of side one, occupying the same position in the running order on the Capitol album Beatles '65.

The song then returned to their stage act and remained there for the rest of their performing days.  It was part of the setlist for Another Beatles Christmas Show performed in London during the 1964-65 holiday season.  I have in my possession a bootleg tape of a June 1965 concert in Paris, which contains an enthusiastic performance of the song.  It opened their shows during the international and North American tours in 1966, including their final official concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

In the UK, the song appeared on the EP Beatles for Sale in 1965.  Of course, it was the title track of the 1976 compilation Rock and Roll Music.  Live at the BBC includes what is surprisingly their one and only recording of the song on radio, to promote the release of Beatles for Sale on the program Saturday Club.  And a shockingly lackluster performance of the song appears on Anthology 2 from a 1966 concert at Budokan in Japan.