"Back in the U.S.A." was written by Chuck Berry and released on Chess Records in 1959. The single reached number 37 in the Billboard Hot 100 and number 16 on the R&B chart.

"Back In the U.S.A." sounds like every other Chuck Berry song. Like literally every single Chuck Berry song, it starts off with the same little guitar riff as "Johnny B. Goode" or "Sweet Little Sixteen," and runs on off into a nice little classic Chuck Berry song. The entire song is about how wonderful the U.S.A. is and how happy Berry is to be back in the country. It is said that this song was inspired by a trip he took to Australia after seeing the living conditions of the Australian Aborigines. Berry was so relieved he didn't live that way, so he wrote this song.

"Back In the U.S.A." has been covered numerous times and was parodied by the Beatles on their White Album and made into "Back in The U.S.S.R.." A song that not only parodied Chuck Berry, but the Beach Boys as well.

Born to a middle-class family in St. Louis, Missouri, Berry started playing music when he was young and never stopped, other than a brief stop in prison and to graduate from beauty school with a degree in hairdressing and cosmetology.

Over roughly a five-year period, Chuck Berry charted a number of hits that established him as one of the great pioneers in rock music. Chuck also had a keen understanding of the irony that, as a 30-year-old black ex-con, he was writing songs and selling records primarily to an audience of middle-class white teenagers.

In his later years, Chuck Berry began touring without a band. This saved him money as he could just hire a local group and pay them a pittance. He would demand a cash payment before he performed, and it was not unusual for Chuck to show up immediately before a performance and instruct the musicians just to follow him. Not surprisingly this led to some crappy live performances, with considerable unhappiness on the part of the audience despite many of his classic stage moves such as his famous duck-walk.

He was a shoo-in for induction into the 1986 inaugural class at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. One of the comments in his bio was that he “laid the groundwork for not only a rock and roll sound but a rock and roll stance.” Chuck, the born showman, is ranked fifth on the Rolling Stone 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Various Sources