Home » News » American singer Little Richard, “the architect of rock’n’roll”, is dead

American singer Little Richard, “the architect of rock’n’roll”, is dead


“I am the architect of rock’n’roll, the initiator, the one who personifies it. ” This sentence from an interview with Andy Gill in the British musical monthly Mojo of December 1999, Little Richard often pronounced it. With variations, but still to assert its importance in the early days of rock’n’roll in the 1950s. As did Chuck Berry (1926-2017), Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino (1928-2017), Bo Diddley (1928-2008), Carl Perkins (1932-1998) and Elvis Presley (1935-1977).

Man of spectacle, while extravagance and overflowing of energy, the singer and pianist Little Richard died, Saturday May 9, at the age of 87 years, announced his son, Danny Jones Penniman, to the magazine Rolling Stone. The cause of his death is still unknown. He had had a first success with the song Tutti Frutti, published late 1955.

Born on December 5, 1932 in Macon, Georgia, Richard Penniman is one of the twelve children (seven boys and five girls) of a family where daily life is governed by strict moral precepts. This does not prevent his father, a mason, from selling contraband alcohol and running a club in the city. Small, of fragile constitution, with a rather sharp voice which he keeps after puberty, the young Richard Penniman quickly receives the nickname of Little Richard when he begins to sing within a family formation of gospel in the churches.

Acute stamp

At the age of 13, he was chased from his home and taken in by neighbors. He will explain later that it was because of his effeminate manners and an emerging attraction for boys. Little Richard will say, according to the times, homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual. He worked for a time with an alleged itinerant doctor, in charge of attracting gogos by singing, participated in several rhythm’n’blues formations. In 1950, he met singer Billy Wright, known as the “Prince of the Blues” whose bouffant haircut, thin mustache, long shiny jackets and wide pants would inspire his own appearance.

Wright’s sponsorship allows him to sign a contract with the company RCA Records. Only the song Every Hour, in 1951, will have a small echo. A basic blues to which Little Richard gives a little originality by its vocal deployment, timbre a nothing feminine, a nothing garish. He learns the basics of piano, an instrument he approaches with a very marked rhythmic attack coming from the boogie-woogie. His signature as well as his voice.

With The Upsetters, Little Richard plays standing in front of his piano, struggles, turns song into howl

In February 1952, his father was assassinated in front of his club. Little Richard finds a job as a diver and, at weekends, sings in various groups. It was with The Upsetters that his reputation as a scenic sensation gained momentum. He plays standing in front of his piano, struggles, transforms the song into a howl. Become famous, it will not be rare that he climbs on his piano, finishes his concerts shirtless.

The phonographic company Specialty Records, in Los Angeles, is interested in him. A recording session was organized in mid-September 1955 in New Orleans, with the musicians of pianist and singer Fats Domino. It was during a break that Little Richard would have proposed Tutti Frutti, that he used to interpret for years. The song begins with a series of onomatopoeias, « A wop/Bop a loo bop/A lop/Bam boom ». Nothing to do, in the original version, with the frozen dessert. This tutti frutti is a slang term which designates a homosexual, the song is explicit: « Tutti Frutti, good booty/If it don’t fit, don’t force it », in French : “Tutti Frutti, nice little booty / If it doesn’t come in, don’t force it”.

For registration, the « good booty » bECOMES « aw rooty », slang deformation of « all right », the narrator now evokes two girls, Sue and Daisy, who certainly know how to do it, but in a text while implying. We owe it to the lyricist Dorothy LaBostrie (19282007), who would have written it on the spot and in a few minutes. The latter will indicate that this salacious text story was invented after the fact, to allow Little Richard to co-sign the text, and that the song was as it was from the beginning.

Three years of success

Anyway, the 45-turns was published in November 1955 and Tutti Frutti climbs to second place in the “rhythm & blues” rankings in the United States. Will follow, in almost three years, for Little Richard, his main successes and most of his repertoire. In March 1956, it was Long Tall Sally, number 1 “rhythm & blues” like Rip It Up (June 1956) and Lucille (February 1957), also number 6 of the “Top 100”, his best entry in this general classification.

Other classics, Ready Teddy, She’s Got It and The Girl Can’t Help It, that he performs in the musical of the same name produced in 1956 by Frank Tashlin (1913-1972) – in which also appear Eddie Cochran (1938-1960), Fats Domino and Gene Vincent (1935-1971) -, Send Me Some Lovin’, Jenny Jenny, Keep A Knockin’… Almost always on the same model, with the piano taking away the melody, a short saxophone solo preceded by a cry from Richard.

In October 1957, during a tour in Australia with Vincent and Cochran, Little Richard announced, after visions of disasters, that he abandoned the turpitudes of rock’n’roll to devote himself to God. Specialty Records will publish until 1959 several recordings made before this withdrawal. Among which She Knows How To Rock, Whole Lotta Shakin’Goin’On (Little Richard agreed to record them when he returned from Australia), Good Golly Miss Molly, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey !, Directly From My Heart To You (in his repertoire since 1952) and Kansas City.

Preaching and gospels

At the end of 1957, he took courses in theology and accounting and met Ernestine Harvin, who was his wife from 1959 to 1963. He began to preach from the beginning of 1958 and only wanted to record traditional gospel songs or compositions testifying of his faith. Several albums will be released, including The King of The Gospel Singers, for Mercury, reissued in 1965 under the title It’s Real.

In the fall of 1962, Little Richard agreed, however, to come and shoot in Europe at the same time as the soul singer Sam Cooke (1931-1964). With gospel airs, he mixes still a little wise versions of his successes.

In the fall of 1963, during another European tour, he was more energetic. In mid-November he recorded a program for the British regional television channel Granada. Short hair, tie, sober suit, accompanied by the group Sounds Incorporated, it ends in sweat and shirt. The show “It’s Little Richard” was broadcast on January 8, 1964, then sold in several countries including the United States.

Her haircut takes on “pompadourian” proportions, her costumes are more and more spangled

Little Richard Is Back, will be the title of the album of his return to rock. Preceded by the 45-turns Bama Lama Bama Loo (copy of Tutti Frutti), which came out at Specialty in April 1964, it was published in August 1964 by the Vee-Jay company, with a new version of Whole Lotta Shakin’Goin’On. Little Richard Greatest Hits for Vee-Jay, in 1965, contains twelve re-recorded successes of yesteryear, including Tutti Frutti, Long Tall Sally, Lucille… In October 1965, the soul ballad I Don’t Know What You’ve Got (But It’s Got Me), by Don Covay (1936-2015), will be his last title to enter a correct place, the twelfth, in the rankings “rhythm & blues” in the United States.

The fifteen albums which will follow for various phonographic companies are either recordings of concerts or discs in studio with often umpteenth new versions, hardly different, of his tubes. Stand out in this discography The Explosive Little Richard, at Okeh’s, in January 1967, in a soul orientation, like The Rill Thing, for Reprise Records in August 1970, and Right Now, for United Superior Records in 1973.

Back to rock

In the absence of striking records, he remains a spectacular man on stage, dynamic and raging. His haircut will take from the early 1970s “pompadourian” proportions, his costumes are more and more in glitter and shiny silks. He usually plays with good quality orchestras.

In 1977, when his alcoholism, his consumption of cocaine and then heroin took on worrying proportions, Little Richard treated himself and resumed his activities as a preacher. He recorded a disc of gospel songs in 1979. In the mid-1980s, he reconciled his faith and the practice of rock’n’roll. He even records a rock’n’roll-style children’s song, Shake It All About, released in 1992 for the Walt Disney label.

Less valiant from the mid-1990s, but still in voice, he continues to play especially in the United States – his last arrival in Europe dates back to 2005. An operation on the left hip, in November 2009, forced him to stay on a chair in front of his piano. Said chair being of a bright gold, because Little Richard still had to keep his rank. And if his last concerts date back to 2014, he still appeared on stage occasionally, to testify to his faith in churches and television shows.

Little Richard in a few dates

December 5, 1932 Birth in Macon (State of Georgia)

1951 First recordings

1955 Revelation with the song “Tutti Frutti”

1957 Decide to stop rock to dedicate themselves to God

1958-1959 “Whole Lotta Shakin’Goin’On” and “Good Golly Miss Molly” are published by her record company

1964 Back to rock with the album “Little Richard Is Back”

1977 Resumes preaching activities

1980s New return to rock’n’roll

2014 Last concerts in the United States

2020 Death at the age of 87

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