Chuck Berry and John Lennon Rock 'The Mike Douglas Show' in 1972

(Image credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

In February 1972, John Lennon and Yoko Ono took over The Mike Douglas Show for a full week.

It was a week filled with unusual guests, including Ralph Nader, Jerry Rubin and Surgeon General Dr. Jesse Steinfeld. Douglas called it "probably the most memorable week I did in all my 20-something years on air."

The musical highlight of the week, however, was an appearance by one of Lennon's biggest heroes, Chuck Berry. Berry and Lennon even performed Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" and "Memphis, Tennessee" with Lennon's average-in-every-possible-way 1972 backing band, Elephant's Memory. You can watch both performances below.

As we've seen in two similar one-off Lennon performances from 1969 (with Eric Clapton) and 1971 (with Frank Zappa), Yoko Ono likes to scream into the microphone for reasons that are not immediately obvious, often taking otherwise-decent performances to unexpected places (and quality levels). Her appearance with Berry and Lennon was no exception. Check out Berry's facial expression at 1:21 during "Memphis, Tennessee" (the middle video) when Ono starts doing her thing.

"[Berry] was writing good lyrics and intelligent lyrics in the 1950s when people were singing 'Oh baby, I love you so,'" Lennon said during the show. "It was people like him that influenced our generation to try and make sense out of the songs rather than just sing 'do wah diddy.'"

Berry died March 18, 2017, at age 90.

Thank you for reading 5 articles this month**

Join now for unlimited access

US pricing $3.99 per month or $39.00 per year

UK pricing £2.99 per month or £29.00 per year 

Europe pricing €3.49 per month or €34.00 per year

*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription

Join now for unlimited access

Prices from £2.99/$3.99/€3.49

Damian Fanelli
Editor-in-Chief, Guitar World

Damian is Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine. In past lives, he was GW’s managing editor and online managing editor. He's written liner notes for major-label releases, including Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'The Complete Epic Recordings Collection' (Sony Legacy) and has interviewed everyone from Yngwie Malmsteen to Kevin Bacon (with a few memorable Eric Clapton chats thrown into the mix). Damian, a former member of Brooklyn's The Gas House Gorillas, was the sole guitarist in Mister Neutron, a trio that toured the U.S. and released three albums. He now plays in two NYC-area bands.