ABBA

This R&B song was written by Chuck Berry and issued as the first recorded by him after he had been released in 1963 from serving an 18 month prison sentence.

It is basically the story of a man noticing a lady he thinks is the titular Nadine, who he describes in the song as his “future bride”. He then sets out on chasing her everywhere on various modes of transport, but the song doesn’t have the happy ending a listener may want as he never achieves his goal of reaching her.

After the song was released in February 1964 it achieved No. 7 on the Billboard R& B Chart and No. 23 on the Billboard Top 100. Across the Atlantic it made it to No. 27 in the UK chart and re-entered that same year to reach No. 43.

The single was issued with “O Rangutang” as the flip side and became the first of five songs to achieve chart status for Chuck Berry in 1964, with the others being “No Particular Place To Go”, “You Never Can Tell”, “Little Marie” and “Promised Land” respectively. It was also the last year he charted until 1972 when he topped the charts all over the world with “My Ding-a-Ling”.

The song has been heard on many of Chuck Berry’s compilation albums and appeared in the movies and TV on the soundtracks of Cadillac Records, Cheech & Chong’s The Corsican Brothers, My Best Friend’s Birthday and The T.A.M.I. Show.

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