"Memphis, Tennessee" | ||||
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Single by Chuck Berry | ||||
A-side | "Back in the U.S.A." | |||
Released | 1959 | |||
Format | 7-inch single | |||
Genre | Rhythm and blues, rock and roll | |||
Label | Chess 1729 | |||
Songwriter(s) | Chuck Berry | |||
Chuck Berry singles chronology | ||||
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"Memphis" | |
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Single by Lonnie Mack | |
from the album The Wham of that Memphis Man! | |
Released | 1963 |
Recorded | 1963 |
Genre | Blues Rock |
Songwriter(s) | Chuck Berry |
"Memphis" | ||||
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Single by Johnny Rivers | ||||
from the album At the Whisky à Go Go | ||||
B-side | "It Wouldn't Happen with Me" | |||
Released | 1964 | |||
Format | 7-inch single | |||
Recorded | 1964 | |||
Genre | Country, rockabilly | |||
Label | Imperial 66032 | |||
Songwriter(s) | Chuck Berry | |||
Johnny Rivers singles chronology | ||||
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"Memphis, Tennessee", sometimes shortened to "Memphis", is a song by Chuck Berry, first released in 1959. In the UK, the song charted at #6 in 1963; at the same time Decca Records issued a cover version in the UK by Dave Berry and the Cruisers, which also became a UK Top 20 hit single. "Memphis, Tennessee" was most successfully covered by Johnny Rivers, whose version of the song was a #2 US hit in 1964.
In the song the narrator is speaking to a long-distance operator, trying to find out the number of a girl named Marie, who lives in Memphis, Tennessee, "on the southside, high upon a ridge, just a half a mile from the Mississippi bridge." The narrator offers little information to the operator at first, only that he misses Marie and that they were separated by Marie's mother. The final verse reveals that Marie is, in fact, the narrator's six-year-old daughter; her mother, presumably the narrator's ex-wife, left their home and took Marie with her.
Chuck Berry later composed a sequel, "Little Marie", which appeared in 1964 as a single and on the album St. Louis to Liverpool.
The song was “probably recorded in St. Louis with overdubs in Chicago, September 28, 1958.”
The song was released as Chess single 1729.
The Beatles recorded five versions of "Memphis, Tennessee" for BBC Radio. One version that was recorded on 30 July 1963 for the Pop Go The Beatles radio show was included on Live at the BBC in 1994. Another version that was recorded a few months later on 5 October 1963 for the Saturday Club radio show was included on On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2 in 2013.
The group first performed it for their failed Decca audition on 1 January 1962, with Pete Best on drums.
In 1963, guitarist Lonnie Mack recorded a fast-paced instrumental version, which he called "Memphis". It went to #5 on Billboard's Pop chart and #4 on Billboard's R&B chart.