EDITOR’S NOTE: Just a quick little reminder about how to get the most out of the music-themed posts that I publish. By now I have written about some of the music world’s most popular and noteworthy artists/bands more than once. In fact, some like Chuck Berry (who is featured today) have been profiled four or five times or even more in the past. Consequently, going forward, I have made the deliberate editorial choice not to rehash certain aspects of, for example, a singer’s childhood or career stats, every time I write about them. Instead, within each new post I often include links to previously-written posts that I feel can act as a source of additional information that would add layers of context and meaning to what I am writing about that day. I encourage you, as a reader, to explore this linked content should you require further information beyond what I have written in this post. With that having been said, on to today’s post we go. Enjoy.
In the 1950s, a new genre of music was making its presence felt. Rock n’ Roll, with all of its sexually charged, hot and powerful, Blues-based energy, had arrived on the scene and nothing was ever to be the same again. When a man named Chuck Berry first appeared on the airwaves of the Alan Freed radio show in 1956 with a song called “Maybellene”, it heralded the arrival of someone who was going to change music history in a very fundamental way. In no time at all, Berry had released some of the most iconic tunes in history. Songs like “Johnny B. Goode”, “Little Queenie”, “Too Much Monkey Business”, “Roll Over Beethoven”, “Sweet Little Sixteen” and “Rock n’ Roll Music” and many others helped to define the characteristics that would shape the new genre going forward. His music was fast, it was loud, it was easy to dance to and it had a lot of sexual energy being released through the nature of his lyrics, as well as the swagger and strut of his live performance style. When Chuck Berry came to play, things got steamy quickly. Let’s just say that his final Top Ten hit, “My Ding-a-Ling” is not about a bell. I hope you get my point.
When the originators of Rock n’ Roll, like Chuck Berry, first began making their musical presence felt, they did so against the backdrop of the age of the crooners. The song stylings of people like Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Robert Goulet, Pat Boone and others were silky smooth and extremely popular. Coming out of traumatic times such as the Great Depression and WWII, America was in the mood to be soothed and comforted. It took some time for the status quo of society to re-establish itself. But as the decade of the 1950s began to roll out, there were some in the country who felt that a complete return to the conservative, white, button-down structure of society was not what was needed. Instead, what they felt was needed was for America to become all shook up, so to speak. Thus, in simplistic terms, the music of Rock n’ Roll (which had existed for some time as a form of the Blues, in the purview of so-called “Black” music world) bubbled up across cultural lines and became a popular clarion call for those white audiences who felt as though the music of the crooners was not exciting enough or boundary pushing enough for them. A song such as “Roll Over Beethoven” by Chuck Berry was a direct declaration of the arrival of Rock music and the implications for those who remained fixated on the past. If someone like Mr. Berry could break down societal barriers by having “black” music played regularly on “white” radio, then it was felt that he could also achieve the same success by challenging another sacred area of the music world, which was the world of Christmas music. Berry did this with his rocking holiday tune “Run Rudolph Run” which was released in 1958.
“Run Rudolph Run” is arguably the very first rock n’ roll holiday song. It is a blistering guitar driven track that tells the story of Santa asking boys and girls what they want for Christmas and then, when they answer, summoning Rudolph to help deliver the goods. The song sounds musically similar to “Johnny B. Goode” and “Little Queenie”, both of which were recorded around the same time as “Run Rudolph Run” In the decades that have followed since this song was released, “Run Rudolph Run” has maintained its popularity and can be heard in regular rotation on radio stations, in shopping malls and anywhere else people gather to listen to holiday tunes. The successful integration of Rock n’ Roll into the sub-genre of modern Christmas music has allowed others to follow suit such as Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band with their own rockin’ version of “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”.
As songs go, “Run Rudolph Run” is fairly straight-forward. However, the historical fallout from the song is something else altogether. The main wrinkle can be found in the story of the writing credits involved for this song. If you read the post I wrote about “Maybellene”, you will learn about the great “Payola Scandal” that shook the music world as Rock n’ Roll was just becoming a thing. The short strokes of the scandal were that record publishers used to give songwriting credits to popular radio DJs (as a form of bribery) to get them to play certain songs more often than others. Thus, the true writers of these hit songs would be deprived of money that they were legally entitled to. This happened to Chuck Berry when he first heard his song “Maybellene” being played on the radio. After hearing it, he rushed to the nearest record store to buy a copy of the single for himself. After purchasing the single, he was shocked to discover four names listed as songwriters…himself, the owner of Chess Records who produced the single, DJ Alan Freed, as well as another man who was a printer who accepted a songwriting credit in lieu of payment on a debt by Chess Records. In essence, this arrangement meant that Chuck Berry, the sole actual songwriter, only received one-quarter of what he was rightfully entitled to for every sale of the song “Maybellene”. Chuck Berry sued for lost royalties and eventually won his case years later.
I will always stand behind the principle of fighting for your rights in all cases that apply. However, the reality of the world that we live in is that by standing up for your rights (especially if doing so results in litigation) you draw attention to yourself. Depending on who is on the other end of that attention, you may end up having other battles brought to you in the future from those who seek to preserve the status quo. This proved to be the case for Chuck Berry. His lawsuit over songwriting rules was not viewed kindly by some in the music industry. Thus no one was surprised, least of all Chuck Berry, when he was immediately sued in response to the release of his holiday song “Run Rudolph Run” As soon as “Run Rudolph Run” hit the airwaves, Chuck Berry was hit by a lawsuit for copyright infringement by none other than Johnny Marks. You may remember Johnny Marks *(from a previous post that you can read here) as the man who wrote the iconic Christmas song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”. If you remember the story behind that song, the character of Rudolph was created by staff of the Montgomery Ward department store for their annual children’s holiday activity book. Montgomery Ward ownership assigned staff copywriter Robert L. May to create the character and write its backstory. May’s sister ended up marrying holiday songwriter extraordinaire Johnny Marks who, in turn, worked with Robert L. May to create the famous Christmas song that children have come to know and love so much. Thus, when Montgomery Ward’s licensed character was used without approval by Chuck Berry in his own song, Montgomery Ward and Johnny Marks sued right away. Chuck Berry lost this case, much to the quiet delight of record executives across the land who had thought that upstarts like Chuck Berry needed to be put in their place until they learned how the game was really played and who created the rules. To add insult to injury for Berry, not only was he forced by the court to give Johnny Marks a songwriting credit but he was also forced to give a credit to a mysterious person named Marvin Brodie who, Berry claims, is someone who doesn’t even exist in real life. The old Payola-inspired way of having mystery credits appearing on songs being sold in stores came back to haunt Berry in the form of this court-ordered sanction.
There is a saying that states that Rock n’ Roll is a vicious game. The story of “Run Rudolph Run” is a case in point. This happy little rockin’ holiday tune is an example that shows that individuals can challenge the system (and even change it at times) but, invariably, the system will fight back to protect itself. Admittedly, my honest opinion is that Montgomery Ward/Johnny Marks sued Chuck Berry to protect their copyrighted investment, first and foremost. However, I wouldn’t at all be surprised to learn that this lawsuit was launched with the unspoken backing of the music industry at the time. Christmas time is supposed to be a time of empathy and charity and goodwill but it is also a time when a lot of businesses make enormous sums of money. In the case of “Run Rudolph Run”, we are given a reminder of who is really in charge around here. Let me tell ya, it isn’t Santa. Or Chuck Berry.
The link to the video for the song “Run Rudolph Run” by Chuck Berry, Johnny Marks and Marvin Brodie can be found here.
The link to the official website for Chuck Berry can be found here.
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