Little Richard - 'Here's Little Richard!' & 'Little Richard'

 

Richard Wayne Penniman, known professionally as Little Richard, had one of the longest and most bizarre careers in rock and roll history.  He set the standard for uptempo rock and roll in 1955 with "Tutti Frutti" and almost immediately every would-be hip singer was covering his every single.  But the cover versions always fell flat because the songs were designed especially for Richard's 12-cylinder vocal delivery, wild-eyed outrageous persona, the joyful abandon of his piano playing, and his top-flight backing band, the Upsetters. 

Following fifteen frantic months after hitting it big, he quit the devil's music for gospel.  After getting kicked out of Oakwood College seminary school, he started a comeback effort that lasted nearly forty years, scratching his way onto the charts a few times in the 60s before scoring one hit in the early 70s with "Freedom Blues" and one in the mid-80s "Great Gosh A'mighty", but never again coming close to his former glory either commercially or artistically.

By the time 'Here's Little Richard!' was released in 1957, he had already been recording hits for the Specialty for over a year, and the label put together a flat-out classic.  Aside from the historical impact, this contains several of the finest rock 'n' roll vocal performances ever recorded: "Long Tall Sally," "She's Got It" and especially "Tutti Frutti," Richard's first Specialty single and the tune which, more than anything except maybe "Rock Around The Clock," put rock music on the map.  'Here's Little Richard!' is mostly blistering fast rockers with "Rip It Up" and "Ready Teddy", though he includes a few slower numbers for balance, but all are belted out at a force of ten tons per square inch.  With the brief track times and Richard wailing like crazy, you may not notice the Upsetters, whom are tighter than a pair of Levi’s 501 shrink-to-fit jeans that are a size too small, and the tenor sax players get in some admirable honking, though neither gets a solo.

'Little Richard' released in 1958 is more consistent and varied than the first Specialty LP, from the ballad "Send Me Some Lovin'" to the ridiculously fast "Keep A-Knockin'."  It's also the source of his two best songs ever, "Good Golly Miss Molly" and "Lucille," plus the hilarious, amazingly single-minded "Ooh! My Soul."  Half these tracks are from late 1956 and 1957 the rest were already in the can when 'Here's Little Richard' was released, but are far from "also-rans".  So despite the impact of Richard's debut and the brilliance of Chuck Berry's album 'Berry Is On Top', to my ears, this stands out as the best early rock and roll LP.

For the freeload tell us what your favorite 1950s rock 'n' roll song is.