Johnny B. Goode

Early rock and roll star from the Chuck Berry song of the same name. Berry wrote the semiautobiographical "Johnny B. Goode" in 1955, but it was not recorded and released until 1958.

What you probably don't know is there's more to it than that. Goode appears in other Chuck Berry songs:

• "Bye Bye Johnny" (1960), where Momma says bye to Johnny as he goes to Hollywood to make some motion pictures. Johnny falls in love there, and promises to build his momma a mansion after he's married.
• "Go Go Go" (1963, from the album Chuck Berry on Stage. Johnny starts going jazz! "Backed up by a jazz band, layin' on the wood, Mixin Ahmad Jamal in my Johnny B Goode. Sneaking Errol Garner in my Sweet Sixteen, Now they tell me Stan Kenton's cutting Maybelline."
• "Johnny B. Blues" ?

In 1969, Berry released the album Concerto in B Goode, but the title track is an 18 minute instrumental.

Mr. Goode gets a mention in Ricky Nelson's 1972 hit song "Garden Party":

Someone opened up a closet door and out stepped Johnny B. Goode

Playing guitar like a-ringing a bell and lookin' like he should.

More impressive are the balls of the band Devo, who killed off Goode in their song "Come Back Jonee" from their 1978 album Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!:

"Johnny jumped into his Datsun. Drove out on the expressway. Went head on into a semi. His guitar's all that's left now."