Here's Little Richard

by Little Richard

Overview

Little Richard had been making records for four years before he rolled into Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studio in New Orleans and cut the epochal "Tutti Frutti" in the fall of 1955, but everything else he'd done -- and much of what others had recorded -- faded into insignificance when Richard wailed "A wop bop a loo mop a lomp bomp bomp" and kicked off one of the first great wailers in rock history. In retrospect, Little Richard's style doesn't seem so strikingly innovative as captured in 1956's Here's Little Richard -- his boogie-woogie piano stylings weren't all that different from what Fats Domino had been laying down since 1949, and his band pumped out the New Orleans backbeat that would define the Crescent City's R&B for the next two decades, albeit with precision and plenty of groove. But what set Richard apart was his willingness to ramp up the tempos and turn the outrage meter up to ten; "Tutti Frutti," "Rip It Up," and "Jenny Jenny" still sound outrageous a half-century after they were waxed, and it's difficult but intriguing to imagine how people must have reacted to Little Richard at a time when African-American performers were expected to be polite, and the notion of a gay man venturing out of the closet simply didn't exist (Richard's songs were thoroughly heterosexual on the surface, but the nudge and wink of "Tutti Frutti" and "Baby" is faint but visible, and his bop threads, mile-high process, and eye makeup clearly categorized him as someone "different"). These 12 tunes may not represent the alpha and omega of Little Richard's best music, but every song is a classic and unlike many of his peers, time has refused to render this first album quaint -- Richard's grainy scream remains one of the great sounds in rock & roll history, and the thunder of his piano and the frantic wail of the band is still the glorious call of a Friday night with pay in the pocket and trouble in mind. Brilliant stuff. ~ Mark Deming

Product Details

Release Date:	11/08/2024
Label:	Universal Import
UPC:	0888072585461

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Little Richard   Primary Artist,Piano,Vocals
Art Rupe   Primary Artist
Frank Fields   Bass
Roy Montrell   Guitar
Renald Richard   Trumpet
Oscar Moore   Drums
Ernest McLean   Guitar
Alvin "Red" Tyler   Sax (Baritone)
Earl Palmer   Drums
Charles Connor   Drums
Justin Adams   Guitar,Guitar
Lucas Fats Gonder   Piano
The Upsetters   Featured Artist
Huey Smith   Piano
Jewell Grant   Sax (Baritone)
William H. "Frosty" Pyles   Guitar
Jimmy Rice   Bass
Thomas Harwell   Guitar
Richard "Olsie" Robinson   Bass
Clarence Ford   Sax (Tenor),Sax (Baritone)
Don F. Harris   Guitar
Clifford Burks   Sax (Tenor)
Joe Tillman   Sax (Tenor)
Wilbert Smith   Sax (Tenor)
Olsie Robinson   Bass
Danny Carmichael   Sax (Tenor)
Nathaniel Douglas   Guitar
Lee Allen   Sax (Tenor)
Edward Frank   Piano
Edgar Blanchard   Guitar
Grady Gaines   Sax (Tenor)
Dewey Terry   Guitar
Lloyd Lambert   Bass
Ralph Hamilton   Bass
Jesse Sailes   Drums

Technical Credits

Albert Collins   Composer,Composer
Nick Phillips   Reissue Producer
Renald Richard   Leader
Art Rupe   Producer
Winfield Scott   Composer
William Scott   Composer
Joe Lubin   Composer
Eddie Bocage   Composer
Dorothy LaBostrie   Composer
Walter Samuels   Composer
Leonard Whitcup   Composer
Leo Price   Composer
Little Richard   Composer
Lloyd Price   Composer
Otis Blackwell   Composer
Al Collins   Composer,Composer
Mike Gillespie   Project Assistant
Michelle Tremblay   Project Assistant
Paul Jones   Narrator
Bill Belmont   Project Assistant
Chris Clough   Reissue Producer
Jimmy Hole   Package Design
Lee Allen   Leader
Richard Penniman   Composer
James H. Smith   Composer
Kevin Howlett   Writer,Producer
James Smith   Composer,Composer,Composer
Jeffrey Spector   Project Assistant
Lee Hildebrand   Liner Notes
Abbey Anna   Project Assistant
Rikka Arnold   Editorial
Robert "Bumps" Blackwell   Composer,Producer
Pete Frame   Writer,Interviewer
Shawn R. Britton   Digital Transfers
Enotris Johnson   Composer
John Marascalco   Composer
Joe Tarantino   Remastering