Little Richard (originally, Penniman, Richard)

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Little Richard (originally, Penniman, Richard)

Little Richard (originally, Penniman, Richard), the self-styled “King of Rock ’n’ roll,” Little Richard personified the music’s wildness and danger, and probably was the first to gain widespread popularity on the basis of a frantic and furious presence in recording and performance; b. Macon, Ga., Dec. 5,1932.

Little Richard was singing on the streets of Macon by the age of seven. He became the lead singer in a local church choir at the age of 14 and later joined Dr. Hudson’s Medicine Show and Sugarfoot Sam’s Minstrel Show. He began performing R&B at Macon’s Tick Tock Club and won an Atlanta talent contest in 1951 that led to a recording contract with RCA. His blues-based recordings (which surfaced on Camden Records in 1958 and 1970) failed to sell. He switched to the Houston-based Peacock label for recordings in 1953, again with little success, and worked with The Tempo Toppers in 1953 and 1954.

In 1955, with the encouragement of Lloyd Price, Little Richard sent a demonstration record to Art Rupe of the L. A.-based Specialty label that resulted in a new recording contract. Recording under producer Robert “Bumps” Blackwell at Cosimo Matassa’s J & M Studios in New Orleans, accompanied by saxophonists Lee Allen and Alvin “Red” Tyler and drummer Earl Palmer, Little Richard’s first session yielded the smash R&B and major pop hit classic “Tutti Frutti,” quickly covered by Pat Boone. Following the top R&B / smash pop hit “Long Tall Sally” (also covered by Pat Boone) backed with “Slippin’ and Slidin’,” Little Richard achieved a major crossover hit with “Rip It Up” backed by “Ready Teddy,” and an R&B near-smash with “She’s Got It” (recorded in L. A.). In 1956–57 he appeared in the early rock ’n’ roll films Don’t Knock the Rock, The Girl Can’t Help It (with its hit title song) and Mister Rock ’n’ Roll The hits continued into 1958 with “Lucille,” backed by the unusually soulful “Send Me Some Lovin’,” “Jenny, Jenny,” “Keep a Knockin’” (recorded in Washington, D.C.), and “Good Golly, Miss Molly.”

While touring Australia in October 1957, Little Richard announced his intention to leave rock ’n’ roll in favor of the ministry. He subsequently enrolled in Ala.’s Oakwood Coll. Seminary to study theology and was ordained a minister of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in 1961. Sessions in N.Y. in 1959 produced gospel recordings later issued on 20th Century-Fox Records, Goldisc, Crown, Custom, Spin-O-Rama, and Coral. Early 1060s sessions for Mercury yielded the gospel album It’s Real.

Little Richard returned to rock ’n’ roll in 1963, touring Europe with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. He subsequently recorded for Specialty, where he managed a minor crossover hit with “Bama Lama Bama Loo,” then VeeJay, Modern, Okeh, and Brunswick. During this period Jimi Hendrix was briefly Little Richard’s guitar accompanist. Enjoying renewed popularity with the rock ’n’ roll revival of the late 1960s, Little Richard signed with Reprise Records in 1970 and scored a moderate pop and R&B hit with “Freedom Blues.” For The Second Coming, he was reunited with Bumps Black-well, Lee Allen and Earl Palmer. In 1976 Little Richard returned to Christianity and, by 1979, he had recorded God’s Beautiful City for World Records and become a full-time evangelist. In October 1985, he was seriously injured in an automobile accident in West Hollywood.

Little Richard was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in its inaugural year, 1986, the year he appeared in the hit comedy movie Down and Out in Beverly Hills—which included his first moderate hit in 16 years, “Great Gosh A’Mighty”—and recorded Lifetime Friend for Warner Bros. He dueted with Phillip Bailey on the title song to the 1988 film Twins and sang background vocals on the minor U2-B.B. King hit “When Love Comes to Town” in 1989. In 1993 Little Richard performed at Bill Clinton’s presidential inaugural.

Little Richard was, along with Chuck Berry, one of rock ’n’ roll’s first composers, with his 1956 hit “Tutti Frutti” one of the first important rock ’n’ roll hits (coming shortly after Chuck Berry’s “Maybellene”). His boisterous stage act influenced everyone from Jerry Lee Lewis and James Brown to Mick Jagger and Jimi Hendrix. Moreover, his use of outrageous costumes and makeup, a practice later taken up by the likes of David Bowie, Boy George and Prince, made him perhaps the first androgynous rock star. Little Richard’s intensely sexual persona, with its thinly veiled homosexuality, predated the open homosexuality of Bowie, Boy George and Queen by decades. One of rock ’n’ roll’s most erratic characters, Little Richard later denounced the music and retreated into Christian fundamentalism, only to return to secular music in the 1970s and again in the late 1980s.

Discography

Here’s Little Richard (1957); Little Richard (1958); Little Richard, Vol. 2 (1958); The Fabulous Little Richard (1959); Little Richard Is Back (1964); Greatest Hits/Recorded Live (1966); Wild and Frantic Little Richard (1966); Explosive (1967); Greatest Hits Recorded Live (1967); Forever Yours (1968); The Rill Thing (1970); The King of Rock and Roll (1971); Cast a Long Shadow (1971); The Second Coming (1972); Little Richard Live (1976); Lifetime Friend (1986); Shag on Down by the Union Hall (rec. 1955–64; rel. 1996). GOSPEL RECORDINGS: Little Richard Sings Gospel (1960); Pray Along with Little Richard (1960); Pray Along with Little Richard, Vol. 2 (1960); Clap Your Hands (1960); It’s Real (1961); Coming Home (1963); Little Richard with Sister Tharpe (1963); King of the Gospel Singers (1964); God’s Beautiful City (1979); Little Richard Sings the Gospel (1995). children’s album:Shake It All About (1992).