The Chuck Berry Collectors Blog

CBID is the Chuck Berry International Directory, a 2.200 page pile of Chuck Berry records information published in four volumes between 2008 and 2013. For details see the bibliography section of this site.

CBID is never complete as new records and CDs appear and some old rarities are discovered. This section presents interesting additions and corrections to CBID.

Today: It's time to update the summary pages of CBID which showed the number of artists who covered a certain Chuck Berry song as well as the top list of Berry songs most often covered.

As of May 2024, Morten Reff's counting results in this top list of Berry songs covered. Included are only those cover versions which have been released on Vinyl or CD to the public more than one hundred times. Other recordings such as those from live performances, TV shows, bootlegs or Berry's multiple own recordings do not count in this regard.

Rank	Chuck Berry Song	Cover Versions Count
1.	JOHNNY B. GOODE	814
2.	MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE	536
3.	ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN	438
4.	SWEET LITTLE SIXTEEN	317
5.	MAYBELLENE	273
6.	YOU NEVER CAN TELL	268
7.	RUN RUDOLPH RUN	248
8.	ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC	243
9.	PROMISED LAND	220
10.	LITTLE QUEENIE	157
11.	NADINE	156
12.	TOO MUCH MONKEY BUSINESS	150
13.	CAROL	148
14.	NO PARTICULAR PLACE TO GO	145
15.	THIRTY DAYS	143
16.	BYE BYE JOHNNY	142
17.	AROUND AND AROUND	141
18.	SCHOOL DAY	133
19.	BROWN EYED HANDSOME MAN	126
20.	LET IT ROCK	122
21.	I’M TALKING ABOUT YOU	116
22.	REELIN’ AND ROCKIN’	109

In comparison with page 1030 in Vol. 3 of the Chuck Berry International Directory (2012), except for #1 - #6 who are still at the top with the highest numbers of covers there are several changes to the rest of the above list. “Run Rudolph Run” especially! “Let It Rock” and “Reelin’ And Rockin’“ are new entries.

“I’m Talking About You” didn’t have that many covers at the time of publishing Vol. 3 in 2012, but it was included back then as 20 song titles sounded better than 19 (!).

Lesser known Chuck Berry songs, even the most obscure ones have been covered as well. Here is the complete list as of May 2024 which once again proves the importance of Chuck Berry’s lyrics and melodies to the evolution of pop and rock music throughout the decades.

'Run Rudolph Run' (Marvin Brodie-Johnny Marks), 'Too Pooped To Pop' (Billy Davis) and “Mad Lad” (Billy Davis) are included in this survey because they are Berry originals, even though they were not written by him (at least, that's what the composer credits say). Conversely, although Berry's versions of 'I Got To Find My Baby' (1960) and 'Too Late' (1975) were both credited to him, they were actually covers of originals by Little Walter and Jimmy Wakely respectively. In addition there’s a lot more cover versions of 'My Ding-A-Ling', but this is not an original song by Berry in the first place. Written by Dave Bartholomew and recorded by him in 1952, although Berry changed some of the lyrics and added new ones.

Song title	original year	no. of artists	no. of covers
ALL ABOARD	1961	8	8
ALMOST GROWN	1959	46	58
ANTHONY BOY	1958	2	2
AROUND AND AROUND	1958	116	141
BACK IN THE USA	1959	76	79
BACK TO MEMPHIS	1967	15	18
BEAUTIFUL DELILAH	1958	41	44
BETTY JEAN	1959	10	10
BLUE FEELING (instr)	1957	2	2
BLUES FOR HAWAIIANS (instr)	1958	1	1
BROKEN ARROW	1959	2	2
BROWN EYED HANDSOME MAN	1956	115	126
BYE BYE JOHNNY	1960	120	142
CAROL	1958	125	148
CHILDHOOD SWEETHEART	1959	2	3
CHRISTMAS	1970	1	1
CLUB NITTY GRITTY	1966	2	2
COME ON	1961	35	36
COUNTY LINE	1959	3	3
DARLIN’	1994	1	1
DEAR DAD	1964	17	18
DEEP FEELING (instr)	1957	5	5
DOWN BOUND TRAIN	1955	23	26
DRIFTING HEART	1956	3	3
FORTY DAYS (see THIRTY DAYS)
GO, GO, GO	1961	4	4
GO BOBBY SOXER	1964	2	2
GOOD LOOKING WOMAN	1969	1	1
GUITAR BOOGIE (instr)	1957	17	18
HAVANA MOON	1956	28	29
HAVE MERCY JUDGE	1969	1	1
HELLO LITTLE GIRL, GOODBYE	1973	1	1
HOW YOU’VE CHANGED	1957	4	4
IF I WERE	1979	1	1
I GOT A BOOKING	1965	2	2
I LOVE YOU	1972	1	1
I’M A ROCKER	1970	6	18
I’M TALKING ABOUT YOU	1961	102	116
I STILL GOT THE BLUES	1961	1	1
IT DON’T TAKE BUT A FEW MINUTES	1958	11	11
IT’S MY OWN BUSINESS	1965	14	14
IT WASN’T ME	1965	8	11
I'VE CHANGED	1958	1	1
I WANT TO BE YOUR DRIVER	1964	17	17
JAGUAR AND THE THUNDERBIRD	1960	14	14
JO JO GUNNE	1958	4	4
JOHNNY B. GOODE	1957	697	814
LA JUANDA	1957	2	2
LET IT ROCK	1959	100	122
LITTLE MARIE	1964	3	3
LITTLE QUEENIE	1958	141	157
LOUIE TO FRISCO	1968	3	3
MA DEAR	1968	2	2
MAD LAD (instr)	1960	1	1
MAN AND THE DONKEY	1961	3	3
MAYBELLENE	1955	242	273
MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE	1958	484	536
MOVE IT	1979	2	2
MY DING-A-LING	1972	29	30
MY LITTLE LOVE LIGHT	1965	3	3
MY MUSTANG FORD	1965	3	4
NADINE	1963	149	156
NO MONEY DOWN	1955	60	65
NO PARTICULAR PLACE TO GO	1964	126	145
OH BABY DOLL	1957	14	16
OH LOUISIANA	1957	1	1
OH WHAT A THRILL	1979	12	13
OH YEAH	1958	1	1
OUR LITTLE RENDEZVOUS	1960	6	6
PROMISED LAND	1964	170	220
RAMONA SAY YES	1966	3	3
REELIN’ AND ROCKIN’	1957	101	109
ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC	1957	228	243
ROCK AT THE PHILARMONIC (instr)	1957	3	4
ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN	1956	376	438
RUN RUDOLPH RUN	1958	242	248
SCHOOL DAY	1957	115	133
SOUL ROCKIN’	1967	1	2
STOP AND LISTEN	1960	2	2
SWEET LITTLE ROCK AND ROLLER	1958	71	80
SWEET LITTLE SIXTEEN	1958	282	317
THE LITTLE GIRL FROM CENTRAL	1963	1	1
THIRTEEN QUESTION METHOD	1958	12	12
THIRTY DAYS	1955	128	143
TOGETHER (WE’LL ALWAYS BE)	1955	1	1
TOO MUCH MONKEY BUSINESS	1956	131	150
TOO POOPED TO POP	1959	2	2
TRICK OR TREAT	1961	1	1
TULANE	1969	22	25
VACATION TIME	1958	3	3
VIVA, VIVA ROCK & ROLL	1966	4	4
WEE WEE HOURS	1955	53	56
WHY SHOULD WE END THIS WAY	1965	1	1
WUDEN’T ME	1979	1	1
YOU CAN’T CATCH ME	1956	59	61
YOU NEVER CAN TELL	1964	255	268
YOU TWO	1960	1	1

Comparing this report to the same list of covers on pages 1635 to 1675 (Vol. 4) plus the additions on pages 2074-2085 and of course all the CBID Updates on this blog, there are 11 new Berry titles added to this survey. Which mean that a total of 96 titles have been recorded by various artists and groups. A total number of 6034 versions! And if you look at page 1675 you will see that in 2013 we had just 4556 versions, which means the total number has increased by some 1500 versions. Pretty amazing!
For those readers who don’t want to search the complete Volumes 3 and 4 as well as the updates in this site's blog for a specific cover version, we provide here a PDF file containing an update to the corresponding chapter in the book. It lists all the artists and recording dates which make up for the No. of Artists column in the table above. For more details about the corresponding album such as label and release date, read the books and the updates on this site's blog.

As mentioned so many times before, this survey of Berry covers will never be completed in full since his catalog is always interesting for various artists without regard to musical genre. And also there will be covers that we still don’t know about.