Maybellene

Chuck Berry walked into Chess Records in 1955 with two recordings, a blues he had written called "Wee Wee Hours" and a version of the Bob Wills western swing tune "Ida Red", renamed "Ida May". Muddy Waters had encouraged him to go. To his surprise, Leonard Chess had little interest in the blues but loved the commercial possibilities of a "hillbilly song sung by a black man". Chess wanted a bigger beat. He added a bass player and a maracas player to Berry's trio for the session.

Chess also thought the titles were too rural. According to Johnnie Johnson, he spotted a mascara box on the studio floor and said, "let's name the damn thing Maybellene", changing the spelling to dodge a lawsuit from the cosmetics company. Berry remembered the name from a third-grade reader in which it belonged to a cow. The lyrics were rewritten around a hot rod race and a man in a V8 Ford chasing his unfaithful girlfriend in her Cadillac Coupe DeVille.

Chess released it in July 1955. It reached number 1 on the Billboard rhythm and blues chart and number 5 on the Popular Records chart. Berry was surprised to find two other people, including the DJ Alan Freed, listed as writers. After a court battle he regained full credit.