The Chuck Berry Covers That Built Keith Richards' Rhythm Sound

During their 1962–63 residency at the Crawdaddy Club and in Richmond pubs, the Rolling Stones covered at least a dozen Chuck Berry songs. “Carol,” “Around and Around,” “Bye Bye Johnny,” “Little Queenie,” “You Can’t Catch Me,” and “Sweet Little Sixteen” were regulars in their set, often played as high-energy closers. Brian Jones usually took the lead parts, but Keith Richards anchored everything with a rhythm approach lifted straight from Berry’s records.

On “Carol” and “Around and Around,” Richards didn’t just copy Berry’s open-chord strumming—he internalized the way Berry used double-stops and a picked, almost percussive attack to drive the song forward. Berry’s stage show, with the duck walk and swinging guitar, taught Keith that rhythm wasn’t just about keeping time; it was about physicality and momentum. Richards later said Berry taught him “how to make a guitar ring like a piano” on “Around and Around,” where the bass strings snap against the treble notes in a way that feels like the whole band is bouncing. That syncopated, hard-picked style became the DNA of every Stones rhythm track that followed.