Chuck Berry - Sweet Little Rock and Roller

First performance: 31/07/1982


Coverinfo

Bruce covered the song only once as a snippet:
 
 
1982-07-31 Big Man's West, Red Bank, NJ
 
Performed in the midsection of "Around And Around". With Sonny Kenn* & The Wild Ideas.
 
*Sonny Kenn is a Jersey-shore musician with a career spanning over 40 years. His first band Sonny & The Starfires featured Springsteen's future drummer Vini Lopez.
 
 
 

Songinfo

'Sweet Little Rock And Roller' is a song written en recordered by Chuck Berry in 1959. It appears on the album 'Chuck Berry Is On Top'.
 
 
  

Other cover versions

Bruce on the artist

When Chuck Berry died Bruce tweeted :

"Chuck Berry was rock's greatest practitioner, guitarist, and the greatest pure rock 'n' roll writer who ever lived. This is a tremendous loss of a giant for the ages."

Springsteen and Berry played together on at least two occasions. As back up at the University of Maryland in 1973. Springsteen asked what songs they were going to do. Berry said : " we're going to do some Chuck Berry songs." More than 20 years later, Springsteen again played backup for Berry, at a concert at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, celebrating the opening of the Rock and Roll Music Hall of Fame.
 
Bruce had 3 performances together with Chuck Berry:

1995-09-02 Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Cleveland, OH
The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame inauguration concert
 
 
 
1987-01-21 Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City, NY
The second annual Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame ceremony. 

1973-04-28 Cole Field House, University Of Maryland, College Park, MD
One show, triple bill, with Chuck Berry headlining, [Lee Lewis]] second billed and Bruce and the boys opening. A show now steeped in legend. Berry's contract stipulated that it was the promoter's responsibility to supply him with a backing band for this concert. Apparently Bruce learned about a week before the show that the promoter was seeking a group to support Berry and immediately volunteered his band's services for free, which the promoter gladly accepted. There was no rehearsal or soundcheck with Berry, so Bruce and the boys improvised as best they could. The show was Bruce's first known appearance in Maryland. Bruce and the boys opened their part of the show with a 50-minute set, followed by a 60-minute set by Jerry Lee Lewis and his band. Chuck Berry (with Springsteen's entire band backing him, including Bruce and Southside Johnny) closed the evening's festivities with a 70-minute performance. Springsteen recounts some hilarious details in the 1987 Chuck Berry documentary Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll, but does not mention Southside Johnny’s appearance. Fearing that Berry might not want a harp player Bruce positioned Southside in the shadows at the extreme end of the stage. However Berry enjoyed the harp playing and near the end of the show he actually acknowledged Southside to the crowd saying "that white boy can blow, can’t he!" This almost sold out gig in the 15,000 seat Cole Field House was not without some controversy. Such was the demand to see the show that the school newspaper reported that twenty people were arrested when police spotted individuals sneaking into the concert via an open female lavatory window at the back of the building. Apparently 200-300 people made it in before the police caught wind of what was going on. 
 
Watch Bruce tells the story here  
 
List of songs co-credited to Bruce Springsteen and Chuck Berry:
 
   

Lyrics

She's 9 years old and sweet as she can be
All dressed up like a downtown christmas tree
Dancin' and hummin' a rock-roll melody

She's the daughter of a well-respected man
Who taught her how to judge and understand
Since she became a rock-roll music fan

Sweet little rock and roller, sweet little rock and roller
Her daddy don't have to scold her, her mother can't hardly hold her
She never gets any older, sweet little rock and roller

Should've seen her eyes when the band began to play
And the famous singers sang and barred away
When the stars performed, she screamed and yelled "hooray!"

Ten thousand eyes were watching them leave the floor
Five thousand tongues were screaming "more! more!"
And about 15 hundred waitin' outside the door

Sweet little rock and roller, sweet little rock and roller
Sweet little rock and roller, sweet little rock and roller
Sweet little rock and roller, sweet little rock and roller
Sweet little rock and roller, sweet little rock and roller...