No Money Down (Chuck Berry song)

"No Money Down" is a song written and recorded by Chuck Berry in December 1955. The recording session at Universal Recording Corporation was organized by Chess Records following the success of "Maybellene" and "Wee Wee Hours" singles the same year.^[2] "No Money Down" was first released as a single in January 1956,^[1] with "Down Bound Train" on the B-side, reaching number 8 in the Billboard R&B chart. The song was later included into Chuck Berry's 1957 album After School Session.

"No Money Down"
Single by Chuck Berry
from the album After School Session
B-side	"Down Bound Train"
Released	January 1956[1]
Recorded	December 1955[2]
Studio	Universal Recording Corp. (Chicago)[3]
Genre	Rock and roll
Label	Chess
Songwriter(s)	Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry singles chronology
"Thirty Days" (1955) "No Money Down" (1956) "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956)

"No Money Down" features a repeating stop-time riff similar to the one that had previously appeared in Willie Dixon's "Hoochie Coochie Man", Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man" and Muddy Waters's "Mannish Boy".^[4] It tells a story of a man who enters a Cadillac showroom to trade in his Ford.^[5][4]

References

1. "45cat - Chuck Berry - No Money Down / The Downbound Train - Chess - USA - 1615". 45cat. Retrieved 2017-05-27.
2. Rudolph, Dietmar. "A Collector's Guide to the Music of Chuck Berry: The Chess Era (1955–1966)". Retrieved 2009-09-03.
3. "The Chuck Berry Database Details For Recording Session: 20. 12. 1955". A Collector's Guide to the Music of Chuck Berry. Dietmar Rudolph. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
4. "Chuck Berry – No Money Down". Broaden Your Horizons — News, Info and Reviews About Rock Legends. 2010-03-07. Retrieved 2017-05-27.
5. Collins, Thomas (August 2015). "Chuck Berry — Not So Much a Poet as a Storyteller". Perfect Sound Forever. Retrieved 2017-05-27.