When I was about 12, I got my hands on a compilation of Chuck Berry’s earlier hits. It was on a cassette (remember those?), and I listened to that thing on a loop for a good long while. Even then, my tastes in music – and cars – veered towards the older stuff. This was circa 1991-92 and nothing on the radio sounded as good as Roll Over Beethoven or Sweet Little Sixteen. The real highlight of the tape was Maybellene, though. Great riff, sweet piano licks, infectious beat – and a Ford in hot pursuit of a Coupe de Ville.
For the record (and what a record!), the Coupe de Ville in the song would not have looked exactly like this, as the song – Berry’s first million-selling single – came out in July 1955. But it’s better that way, as I prefer these ’57s over the 1954-56 generation. Or the one before it, come to that (except the ’49, which is lovely). Apparently, some people at the time didn’t like the shape of the fins, prompting designers to make them more aggressive for 1958. They look almost understated to me, but we do have the benefit of hindsight.
It’s the same up front: there are many who prefer the quads fitted to the Eldorado Brougham and generalized to the whole range for 1958. To my eye, this less busy front end works better. And “less busy” is a very relative term anyway. There’s plenty to look at here: the hooded lights, the twin gunsights, the high-set Dagmars… It’s hardly plain vanilla. More like a distillation of the best of the ‘50s, just like that Chuck Berry compilation.
Here’s the heart of the juke-box, in its Wurlitzeresque glory. This Caddy was photographed at a huge car meet in France, where the American contingent was pretty well-represented. It was nice to see classics in nowhere-nearly-perfect condition like this one. After all these years in Japan, where almost every vehicle is washed and waxed to a mirror shine, it was heartening to see cars that showed their age a bit. This Maybellene was being true.
Well, true-ish. I don’t know 1957 Cadillac interiors all that intimately, but that upholstery is anything but original, for a start. But it’s the right tone and feel, which is what’s important.
Not too sure about the colour, either. If I had a car like that, I think I’d take a hint from the 1957 Cadillac brochure and paint it black. Another good record. Different than Maybellene, but you can’t be rolling Stones without first rocking Berry.
It’s only with a little age that I started to get the double-entendres and coded language used in older popular music that songs like Maybellene. The protruding rubber-tipped Dagmars on this Cadillac have a similar effect…
I was fortunate enough to see Chuck Berry in concert once. He was about 80 years old by then. It had been a while since he had caught Maybellene at the top of the hill, and he was well over it, but it was still a fantastic experience to see him live. Now, all we have are his recordings, be they on stage or those legendary ones at Chess studios. And a bunch of period Coupes de Ville survivors, of course. More ‘50s Americana to come throughout the week!
Related posts:
CC For Sale: Finding Othmar H. Ammann’s 1957 Cadillac, 65 Years Later, by Stephen Pellegrino
CC For Sale: 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz In Mexico, by Rich Baron
Cohort Outtake: 1957 Cadillac with 15 MPH Bumper, by PN
CC Outtake: Cadillac Catarra, 1957 Edition – It Doesn’t Zig, But It Does Share A Roof With A Chevy, by PN
Vintage Postcards: 1957 and 1967 Cadillac Fleetwood 75’s With Their Proud Chauffeurs, by PN
COAL #6: 1957 Cadillac Sedan de Ville, by Jose Delgadillo
The vehicle of choice for Divine in the classic film Pink Flamingos
MY love affair with Cadillac began at age 11. A local business man had a black 58 Sixty Special often parked on the street! Even more representative of The Standard of the WORLD OTT excessively chromed Devine Decadence of the Fabulous 50s. The dual headlights added to the massive front end. The longer tail fins were at least partially a response to the opinion of traditional Cadillac buyers that the forward slant made the cars seem smaller. My last Cadillac ( 93 RWD Brougham) was a disappointment compared to my 89 Fleetwood Brougham deElegance. I turned to LINCOLN Town Cars and have never looked back to Cadillac, finding all CADILLACKING.
Back in the day,Cadillac was THE most popular car mentioned in rock `n roll music. I have no idea what car it is today.
I still miss wide-whites on these cars.
ravenuer: Me too. But for me, it’s the (I think 2″) white walls that were on my parents first Cadillac DeVille in 1975. When I see those same Caddy’s today with the narrow WW’s or worse yet, black walls, it makes me feel like the car is just not a true Cadillac.
Interestingly, just yesterday I cleaned my WW’s and wire wheel covers on my 1986 Seville. They weren’t terrible, but still looked so much better after they were cleaned. When I purchased this Seville nearly 2 years ago, it had black wall tires that were brand new Michelin’s with it’s wire wheel covers. It looked terrible. Interestingly, I had purchased a nice 1988 Cimarron about 2 years earlier and it had a brand new set of white stripe tires. The best? Both being 14″ and nearly identical size, I swapped them out and now my Cimarron has the proper black side walls and the Seville looks fantastic with it’s white walls and wires.
A nice survivor .
Colors are always a subjective thing .
I still have my LP record of Chuck Berry’s London Sessions, lots of fun tunes there too .
-Nate
I absolutely love the reverse slant fins, beautifully done!
The next years pointed fins look outlandish and a caricature of excess.
I am also of the opinion that just about every car and model in ’57 was well done. The excessive ’58s were a bad turn with many chromed mishmashes. And it seemed also a big challenge to all to integrate 4 headlights.
One of my elementary school teachers, Mr. Green (who drove a purple Mazda MX-3), used to play music every day before class. One day, he was playing the “Chuck Berry, His Best Vol 1” CD…and I was hooked. I persuaded my mom to buy me a copy, and my Dad converted it to MiniDisc since he had gotten a couple free portable MD players from the radio station (and I didn’t own a portable CD player – this was 1998).
“No Money Down” is another great Chuck Berry song involving a Cadillac…but that would take me awhile to discover since it was a B side.
The car? Love the color. Chuck however seemed to like other colors in his collection…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynQHbWYWpRI
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again no doubt – optimism and excitement came together in 1950s Detroit. Love it, but not in black!
I thought the rear seat backs might be, but an image search shows that none of the upholstery is original. The upper leather should be ribbed, with 3 rows of buttons in the cloth parts.
I don’t believe velour was in US cars before the 70s–the ’74 Talisman had Cadillac’s first, followed by the luscious Monticello (bordello) velour in ’75. Didn’t the ’72 Olds 98 Regency start both the velour and the loose cushion look trends?
The ’57 dual headlights are miles better than the quads, which look bug-eyed to me.
I am another who appreciates Chuck Berry and his music!
As for the car, I will defer to Ralph, above, on whether the upholstery is original. Me, I wonder about that color. It looks like a slightly jazzed version of Bahama Blue (below), but I wonder if the car started out another color with that interior shade, which doesn’t quite work with the color as applied to the car now.
What a great car to take when you have no particular place to go!
Now that’s a Cadillac, its properly vulgar and wild. Thats been Cadillac’s problem for decades, in their glory days Cadillacs were big, shouty, show off cars.
Now days they look like everything else on the road. With a few exceptions, CTS coupe and wagon, the Escalade, the new electric Lyriq(sp??), those stand out in a crowd and are proper Cadillacs IMO. Id actually LOVE to have a CTS-V wagon or coupe.
Getting back to the 1957 in question, the blue does seem a shade off. I swear Ford had that shade on the 1995 Mustang and Honda painted Civics that color in the late 90s