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April 18, 2005
I see that Johnnie Johnson, who played piano on most of Chuck Berry's big records, has died.
Johnson incorporated the boogie-woogie style of piano playing into rock 'n' roll.
I hadn't realized that Johnson had also composed most of the music of the big Chuck Berry songs, such as "Maybelline," Rock 'n' Roll Music", "School Day" and "Sweet Little Sixteen" and "Carol."
Johnson often composed on the piano and Berry converting it to guitar and writing lyrics. However,Johnson was never given co-writing credit. So it is understandable that Johnson sued Berry in 2000 for a share of the songs they had composed together.
Berry and Johnson split in 1973, but they reunited in 1986 for Berry's 60th birthday concert in St. Louis, captured in Taylor Hackford's acerbic documentary "Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll."
Keith Richards remembers.
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