I'd heard it was named after a cow, but there are other theories...plus some hints of scandal http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=703
Lot was made by some people th other day of the fact that rock and roll stemmed from black music.i said t the time it was a fusion of. Lot of different styles. Chuck Berry was recommended to Chess Records by Willie Dixon. He played the tune in the video, Ida Red, to them. It was first done in the 1930s. They said they liked him but it wasn't the sort of thing they were after. He went away and rewrote the lyrics based on this tune in bout 10 minutes. He chose the name Maybellene as it was the name of a popular cosmetics brand and he saw posters of it everywhere. Route 66 is associated itch Chuck Berry, a lot of people, myself included, thought the Stones record was a cover of a Berry song. But it was written by a white guy's called Bobby Troup. Though it was first recorded by the great Nat King Cole. Anyway here is Ida Red. BTW the band in the video did Cotton Eye Joe, a version of whichwhich was a hit a few years ago for Rednex, back in the 1930s as well.
