Chuck Berry - My Ding-A-Ling (1972)

What this video is

Captured at the Lanchester Arts Festival at the Locarno Ballroom, Coventry, England on 3 February 1972, this performance document captures Chuck Berry at a pivotal commercial moment. Despite being one of the founding architects of rock and roll — with over 25 Billboard chart entries between 1955 and the mid-1960s — Berry had not scored a Top 40 hit since 1964. The live recording of 'My Ding-A-Ling,' a cover of Dave…

Why it matters

This live document represents the commercial apex of Chuck Berry's career and stands as a primary artifact of the early-1970s rock and roll nostalgia circuit in the UK. As Berry's sole number-one single in both the US and UK, it demonstrates how live audience-participation recordings could achieve…