Rock and Roll Music

(Berry)

Quick Facts

Lead Vocal	John
Recorded	Oct 1964
Length	2:30
Key	A
Noted Takes	1
Producer	George Martin
Engineer	Norman Smith

Originally released on

Beatles for Sale

Parlophone — PMC 1240

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Story

“Rock and Roll Music” is a song by American musician and songwriter Chuck Berry, written and recorded by Berry in May 1957. It has been widely covered and is one of Berry’s most popular and enduring compositions. [Wikipedia]

Rock and Roll Music is a song by The Beatles, written by Chuck Berry and led on vocal by John Lennon. Within the catalogue, its cover thread connects it to Anna (Go to Him), Chains, Boys; its chuck-berry thread connects it to Roll Over Beethoven; its one-take thread connects it to Twist and Shout, Long Tall Sally. Chuck Berry’s canonical rock’n’roll standard, recorded 18 October 1964 in a single take at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, Studio Two. Lewisohn describes it as “a scintillating one-take recording” with “a slightly echoed Lennon vocal, all the Beatles on their familiar instruments and George Martin again displaying his prowess as a rock’n’roll pianist. No overdubs, just a magnificent live performance.”

What’s distinctive

At 2:30 it sits near the median by length. One of 101 songs led primarily by John. A non-original — one of 23 cover versions in the canon. Recorded during the marathon 18 October 1964 session that also produced Kansas City, Mr. Moonlight, I Feel Fine, and five other recordings. Take count: 1 — a complete live performance in a single uninterrupted pass with no overdubs.¹

Recording

Rock and Roll Music is one of the Beatles’ purest one-take recordings — “a scintillating one-take recording of Chuck Berry’s ‘Rock and Roll Music’, with a slightly echoed Lennon vocal, all the Beatles on their familiar instruments and George Martin again displaying his prowess as a rock’n’roll pianist. No overdubs, just a magnificent live performance.” The entire released master is take 1 from the marathon 18 October 1964 session, captured in a single uninterrupted pass on the Telefunken M10 four-track in Studio Two. Unlike most Beatles recordings from this period, where at least vocals or a guitar solo were overdubbed onto a backing track, Rock and Roll Music went to tape complete — all instruments, Martin’s piano, and Lennon’s vocal performed simultaneously.¹
The recording employs Repeat Echo (STEED) on Lennon’s vocal, one of only two Beatles for Sale tracks to use the effect (the other being Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby). The application was “likely inspired by its similarity to the ‘slapback echo’ heard on many of the Beatles’ favourite records by American ‘rock-a-billy’ and R&B artists such as Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, and Chuck Berry.” Berry’s own 1958 recording of “Rock and Roll Music” featured a similar effect. The Repeat Echo was “always printed to tape during this period, rather than being applied at the time of mixing” — meaning Norman Smith committed the echo to the four-track during the live take itself, not at the 26 October remix session.²
George Martin’s piano is a significant feature of the arrangement. Lewisohn notes Martin “again displaying his prowess as a rock’n’roll pianist”, linking the performance to Martin’s similar contribution on Kansas City during the same session (where the piano “is barely discernible on record”). On Rock and Roll Music, Martin’s piano is much more prominent in the mix, driving the rhythm alongside Lennon’s vocal. The K/R four-track tape layout for Kansas City from the same session shows piano on Track 4 alongside vocals — the same track allocation likely applies to Rock and Roll Music.^1,2
The session that produced Rock and Roll Music was one of the most prolific single-day sessions in the Beatles’ recording career. In a nine-hour window (2.30–11.30pm), the group recorded edit pieces for Eight Days a Week, then tracked Kansas City (takes 1–2), the Mr. Moonlight re-make (takes 5–8), I Feel Fine (takes 1–9), I’ll Follow The Sun (takes 1–8), Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby (take 1), Rock and Roll Music (take 1), and Words of Love (takes 1–3) — eight recordings in a single day, reflecting the pressures of the concurrent UK concert tour that had begun on 9 October.¹

Equipment

Studio	EMI Studios, Abbey Road, Studio Two (recording, 18 Oct 1964; mono mix, 26 Oct; stereo mix, 4 Nov)
Tape machine	Telefunken M10 four-track²
Console	REDD.51²
Microphones	AKG D19c (drum overhead), AKG D20 (bass drum, bass amp), Neumann U47/U48 (vocals, guitars, piano)²
Outboard / effects	RS124 Altec compressor (Main Faders I–II), Fairchild 660 limiter (Main Faders III–IV), Repeat Echo (STEED) on vocal²
Guitars	Rickenbacker 325 Capri (Lennon), Gretsch Country Gentleman / Tennessean (Harrison), Höfner 500/1 bass (McCartney), Ludwig Oyster Black Pearl kit (Starr)
Amplifiers	Vox AC100 Super De-Luxe (from August 1964)²

Recording Timeline

18 October 1964 (Sun) — take 1 (complete live performance), Studio Two — Studio Two, 2.30–11.30pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Geoff Emerick. Recording: Rock and Roll Music (take 1). The Beatles had begun a UK concert tour on 9 October and were “having to cram in recording sessions on infrequent days off.” Rock and Roll Music was the seventh of eight recordings that day, slotted between Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby and Words of Love. The entire performance — all four Beatles on their regular instruments, with George Martin on piano and Repeat Echo applied live to Lennon’s vocal — was captured in a single take with no overdubs.^1,2
26 October 1964 (Mon) — mono mixing from take 1, Studio Two control room — Studio Two (control room only), 10.00am–12.45pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Tony Clark. Mono mixing: Rock and Roll Music (from take 1), alongside mono mixes of Words of Love, I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party, Baby’s in Black, I’m a Loser, and Kansas City. The Beatles attended this mix session — “perhaps one of the first times they did this.” The same day saw the recording of Honey Don’t (takes 1–5) and the What You’re Doing re-make (takes 13–19) in the afternoon and evening.¹
4 November 1964 (Wed) — stereo mixing from take 1, Studio Two control room — Studio Two (control room only), 10.00am–1.00pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Mike Stone. Stereo mixing: Rock and Roll Music (from take 1), alongside nine other tracks — “the remaining stereo mixes for the LP.” Ten stereo remixes were completed in a three-hour session; the week before (27 October), Norman Smith had mixed five stereo tracks in just half an hour, prompting Lewisohn to observe: “There can’t be many albums released today containing five songs remixed for stereo in half an hour! By comparison with the time spent on the mono mixes it is clear which format was considered the most important in 1964.”¹

[T]he Beatles performed a scintillating one-take recording of Chuck Berry’s ‘Rock and Roll Music’, with a slightly echoed Lennon vocal, all the Beatles on their familiar instruments and George Martin again displaying his prowess as a rock’n’roll pianist. No overdubs, just a magnificent live performance.— Mark Lewisohn¹

Studio Notes

Repeat Echo (STEED) — slapback homage to the Chuck Berry original — The Repeat Echo on Lennon’s vocal is audible from the first line (“0:01” in the K/R Repeat Echo examples table). The effect involved taking a delayed signal from the Playback head of a BTR tape recorder and feeding it back into the machine to create a regenerating delay. On Rock and Roll Music, the delay was set short enough to produce the “slapback” quality associated with 1950s American rock’n’roll recordings — a deliberate homage to Berry’s own Chess Records sound. Norman Smith committed the echo to tape during the live recording, not at mixing; the effect heard on the released master is exactly as it was captured in the studio on 18 October.²
REDD.51 console + Fairchild 660 signal chain — By the Beatles for Sale sessions, Norman Smith had fully transitioned to the Fairchild 660 limiters on Main Faders III and IV of the REDD.51 desk, replacing the earlier RS114 limiters. Since vocals were recorded on Tracks 3 and 4 under the standard four-track layout, Lennon’s vocal on Rock and Roll Music passed through the Fairchild 660 during the live take. The RS124 Altec compressors remained on Main Faders I and II, handling the rhythm track (drums, bass, guitar).²
AKG drum microphones — the new BFS-era standard — By the September–October 1964 sessions, Norman Smith had retired the STC 4038 overhead and STC 4033-A bass-drum microphones in favour of the AKG D19c overhead and AKG D20 on bass drum. “The D19c was significantly brighter than the STC 4038, requiring less onboard EQ. The cardioid pattern of the D19c was also tighter than the figure-of-eight STC and picked up only the sound directly in front of — or in this case, below — the microphone. It was a much ‘deader’ microphone overall and likely allowed Smith to compress the drums more heavily without simultaneously compressing — and therefore accentuating — the bass and electric guitar leakage.” Smith also used the D20 on Paul’s bass amp, “completing the move from all-STC rhythm section mics to all-AKG.”²
Four-track live recording without headphones — The Beatles never recorded with headphones during this period. When overdubbing, they listened to playback through the RLS10 “White Elephant” speaker with the Neumann microphone positioned so its “dead” side faced the speaker to minimise leakage. On Rock and Roll Music, however, the headphone question is moot: the entire take was a live performance with all parts recorded simultaneously, so there was no pre-recorded playback to monitor. The standard four-track layout from this period placed drums, bass and rhythm guitar on Track 1, lead guitar on Track 2, vocals on Track 3, and additional instruments (piano, second vocal) on Track 4.²
Double-tracking absent — contextual significance — Double-tracking was “as popular in 1964 as it had been in 1963 — in fact more so: every single song on A Hard Day’s Night featured double-tracked vocals at some point.” However, Rock and Roll Music has no double-tracked vocal, consistent with Lewisohn’s “no overdubs” description. K/R notes that “most of the songs double-tracked were new compositions, whereas those not double-tracked were older songs the band had been playing for years” — Rock and Roll Music, a long-standing stage number, fits this pattern precisely.²
Telefunken M10 four-track (not Studer J37) — The Telefunken M10 was the primary four-track machine used for Beatles sessions from January 1964. “‘A Hard Day’s Night’, ‘Eight Days a Week’, ‘I Feel Fine’, and ‘I’ll Follow The Sun’ — to name but a few — were all recorded to the M10 in 1964.” The M10 and its companion T9U were housed in dedicated machine rooms (1A and 1B), separate from the control room, operated by the tape op via the REDD.36 column speaker communication system. The Studer J37 would not arrive at Abbey Road until early 1965.²

Releases

1964 UK mono LP Beatles for Sale (4 December 1964, Parlophone PMC 1240, side A track 4) — Released mono master mixed at EMI Studio Two on 26 October 1964 (mono remix from take 1). P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Tony Clark. The mono mix sums the Repeat Echo–treated vocal to centre; the slapback delay is audible on every vocal line from the opening bar. The Beatles attended the 26 October mix session — one of the first times they did so.¹
1964 UK stereo LP Beatles for Sale (4 December 1964, Parlophone PCS 3062, side A track 4) — Stereo master mixed at EMI Studio Two on 4 November 1964 (stereo remix from take 1). P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Mike Stone. Under the standard REDD.51 four-track stereo-mixing convention, the rhythm track (Track 1) pans hard left, lead guitar (Track 2) hard right, and vocals (Track 3) and piano/additional vocals (Track 4) spread to centre via the Spreader control. The Repeat Echo on the vocal is preserved in the stereo image. Lewisohn notes that the 4 November stereo session mixed the remaining LP tracks in approximately half an hour.^1,2
1965 UK EP Beatles for Sale (6 April 1965, Parlophone GEP 8931) — The same mono master as the LP, issued on the EP alongside No Reply, I’m a Loser, and Baby’s in Black.¹
2009 Stereo Remasters — Beatles for Sale (9 September 2009, Apple/EMI) — Allan Rouse / Guy Massey / Steve Rooke 24-bit flat transfer of the 1964 stereo master, with the original REDD.51 panning and Repeat Echo preserved unchanged. The Mono Masters companion carries the 1964 mono master.

Sources

Mark Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (New York: Harmony Books, 1988), 50–53.
Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew, Recording the Beatles: The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used to Create Their Classic Albums (Houston: Curvebender Publishing, 2006), 285–86, 289–90, 371–85.

Frequently asked

Who wrote Rock and Roll Music?

“Rock and Roll Music” was written by Chuck Berry in 1957.

Who sings lead on Rock and Roll Music?

The lead vocal on “Rock and Roll Music” is by John Lennon.

When was Rock and Roll Music recorded?

“Rock and Roll Music” was recorded on 18 October 1964 at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, Studio Two, in a single take.¹

How many takes did Rock and Roll Music require?

One — Lewisohn describes it as “a scintillating one-take recording” with no overdubs.¹

On this page

Story

What’s distinctive

Recording

Equipment

Recording Timeline

Studio Notes

Releases

Sources

Frequently asked