The Very Best of Little Richard [Specialty]

by Little Richard

Overview

The Very Best of Little Richard is the first high-profile, high-quality Little Richard compilation to be released in the U.S. since 1991's The Georgia Peach, a disc that held the title of best available Little Richard hits collection for roughly 17 years. The Very Best is designed as a replacement to that collection, partially because The Georgia Peach was a little old but also because Concord Music Group -- the label that formed in 2004 when Concord and Fantasy Records merged -- now owned the Specialty Records vault and could use their own new Little Richard collection. So, Concord Music Group revived the Specialty imprint and released this excellent hits collection, which at 25 tracks is just as long as The Georgia Peach. Fully 20 of those 25 tracks are shared between the two compilations, which should come as no surprise as these 20 tracks are the big hits and standards, ranging from "Tutti Frutti," "Long Tall Sally," and "Good Golly Miss Molly" to "Ooh! My Soul," "Bama Lama Bama Loo," and the medley of "Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey" that the Beatles later covered. As The Very Best of Little Richard ends a little anticlimactically with a perfunctory rehearsal take of "Hound Dog" from Richard's last session, a pedestrian demo of the blues "Baby" from his pre-Specialty days, and a surprisingly tame live medley from 1964, this pales slightly in comparison to The Georgia Peach, but that's nitpicking: apart from these three OK cuts, this is as good a Little Richard compilation as you can get, which means this is as good as rock & roll gets. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	07/29/2008
Label:	Fantasy / Specialty Records / Universal
UPC:	0888072307483
Rank:	17078

Tracks

1. Tutti Frutti
2. Long Tall Sally
3. Good Golly Miss Molly
4. Slippin' and Slidin' (Peepin' and Hidin')
5. Rip It Up
6. Ready Teddy
7. Heeby-Jeebies
8. She's Got It
9. The Girl Can't Help It
10. All Around the World
11. Lucille
12. Send Me Some Lovin'
13. Jenny Jenny
14. Miss Ann
15. Keep A-Knockin'
16. Ooh! My Soul
17. True Fine Mama
18. Baby Face
19. Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey
20. By the Light of the Silvery Moon
21. Bama Lama Bama Loo
22. Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On [Rehearsal Take]
23. Hound Dog [Rehearsal Take]
24. Baby [Demo]
25. Ain't That a Shame/I Got a Woman/Tutti Frutti

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Little Richard   Primary Artist,Piano,Vocals
Lee Allen   Sax (Tenor)
Frank Fields   Double Bass
Alvin "Red" Tyler   Sax (Baritone)
Earl Palmer   Drums

Technical Credits

Robert "Bumps" Blackwell   Producer,Composer
Bill Belmont   Project Assistant
Billy Vera   Liner Notes
Chris Clough   Compilation Producer
Jimmy Hole   Design
Fats Domino   Composer
Benny Davis   Composer
Eddie Bo   Composer
James Smith   Composer
Jennifer Peters   Project Assistant
Marcel Millet   Composer
Robert William Troup Jr.   Composer
David Sunny   Composer
Robert Wesley Troup Jr.   Composer
Gaunay Alain   Translation
Albert Collins   Composer
Dorothy La Bostrie   Composer
Claude Pitkowski   Translation
Enotris Johnson   Composer
John Marascalco   Composer
Jerry Leiber   Composer
Renald Richard   Composer
Mike Stoller   Composer
David "Curly" Williams   Composer
Gus Edwards   Composer
Harry Akst   Composer
Dave Bartholomew   Composer
Bob Fisher   Remastering
Joe Lubin   Composer
Eddie Bocage   Composer
Dorothy LaBostrie   Composer
Leo Price   Composer
Little Richard   Composer
Michael James Jackson   Composer
Richard Penniman   Composer
Richard J. Renald   Composer
James H. Smith   Composer
Larissa Collins   Art Direction
Rikka Arnold   Project Assistant
Sunny David   Composer
Ray Charles   Composer