“Johnny B Goode” by Chuck Berry

"Johnny B. Goode" is pure Chuck Berry, words and music his own, written and sung by the man himself in 1958, and it moves like a freight train with the brakes cut. It has been called the first rock and roll hit about rock and roll stardom, and that's the trick of it: the music is selling the dream it's describing.

Released as a single that year, it rose to No. 2 on the R&B chart and No. 8 on the pop chart that came before the Hot 100. Its reputation only grew. Rolling Stone ranked it 7th on its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004 and 33rd in the 2021 revision, and it was chosen as one of the 27 pieces of music on the Voyager Golden Record, sent off into space as a portrait of humanity.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.