Buffalo Boy's Blog

Chuck Berry at 84 collapsed last night and maybe it takes something like that toward the end of his incredible and long career (still touring at 84) to bring him back into the limelight where he belongs. This guy has influenced rock and roll from the 50's to the present from Keith Richards and the Stones to Green Day and everyone in between.

He made sounds come out of his guitar that back in the 50's no one thought possible. One of the first truly legendary guitarists ranking right up there with Hendrix, Beck, Clapton, Page, you name the guitarist and Berry is amonst the truly elite.

Last night after his collapse like the true legend he is came out and explained things to the audience and even did a little duck walk to prove he felt okay, but the show would not go on as doctors warned against:

So I wonder, how many bands/artists have covered Chuck Berry's signature work Johnny B. Goode?

It's listed as number 7 all time amonst Rolling Stone's 500 most important songs of all time and has been covered by this incredible list of bands/artists, I just had to copy and paste this from Wikipedia:

"Johnny B. Goode" is among the most widely covered rock and roll songs in history. The list of performers includes: AC/DC Aerosmith Alvin and the Chipmunks Andrés Calamaro Bad Religion BB King Beach Boys Big Tom And The Mainliners Bill Haley & His Comets Bon Jovi Bon Scott (with Cheap Trick) Brian Wilson Buck Owens Buddy Holly Burning Carlos Santana Celine Dion Cidade Negra Dion Down Low Dr. Feelgood Earthlings? Eddie Meduza Elton John Elvis Presley Five Iron Frenzy Frank Marino Freddie & the Dreamers Grateful Dead George Thorogood Green Day Hanson Jerry Lee Lewis Jim & Jesse Jimi Hendrix John Denver John Farnham John Mayer Trio Johnny Dowd Johnny Rivers Johnny Winter Jonny Lang Judas Priest Julian Lennon Led Zeppelin Living Colour LL Cool J ("Go Cut Creator Go") Los Suaves Lynyrd Skynyrd Marc Broussard Marty McFly Mark Campbell as Marty McFly Meat Loaf Men at Work MF Doom Motörhead NOFX NRBQ Off Kilter Operation Ivy Peter Tosh (1983) Phillip Magee Phish Prince Ratdog Rory Gallagher Slade Slaughter & The Dogs Stray Cats The Beatles The Carpenters The Grateful Dead The Rolling Stones The Sex Pistols The Shadows The Stimulators The Tornadoes The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain The Who Twisted Sister Uncle Tupelo Wes Paul Will Hoge

Talk about a diverse list of performers who have been influenced, I couldn't help but notice Celine Dion?

Some of my favorites include:

Brian Wilson who has covered it solo:

And done the Surfer version which we all know:

The Sex Pistols did one of my personal favorites:

Green Day does a decent cover live:

But of course the one that is probably the most famous is from Back to the Future:

of course just like most covers, nothing beats the original, at the young age of 82, Chuck Berry still doin it and shredding that guitar like no one else: