Little Richard performs "Scuba Party" from the 1967 film, "Catalina Caper".
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Richard Wayne Penniman (born December 5, 1932), known by his stage name
Little Richard, is an American recording artist, songwriter and musician.
An influential figure in popular music and culture for more than six
decades, Little Richard's most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s,
when his dynamic music and charismatic showmanship laid the foundation
for
rock and roll.
His music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including
soul and
funk. Little Richard influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from
rock to
hip-hop; his music impacted the
rhythm and blues
era for future generations to come, and his performances and
headline-making thrust his career right into the mix of American popular
music.
Little Richard has been honored by many institutions, including inductions into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the
Songwriters Hall of Fame.
He is the recipient of Lifetime Achievement Awards from
The Recording Academy and the
Rhythm and Blues Foundation. Little Richard's "
Tutti Frutti" (1955) was included in the Library of Congress'
National Recording Registry in 2010, claiming the "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music."
In 2015, the
National Museum of African American History and Culture
honored Little Richard for his pivotal role in the formation of popular
music genres and in helping to shatter the color line on the music
charts changing American culture forever.
| Little Richard |
|---|
Richard in 2007
|
| Background information |
| Birth name |
Richard Wayne Penniman |
| Born |
December 5, 1932 (age 82)
Macon, Georgia, United States |
| Genres |
Rhythm and blues, rock and roll, gospel, soul |
| Occupation(s) |
Musician, songwriter |
| Instruments |
Vocals, piano |
| Years active |
1947–present |
| Labels |
RCA Victor, Peacock, Specialty, End, Goldisc Records, Little Star Records, Mercury, Atlantic, Vee-Jay, Modern, Okeh, Brunswick, Reprise, K-Tel, Warner Bros., Disney |
| Associated acts |
Billy Wright, Larry Williams, Otis Redding, Don Covay, Billy Preston, Jimi Hendrix |
Early life
Little Richard was born Richard Wayne Penniman in
Macon, Georgia,
on December 5, 1932, the third-eldest of 12. His parents were Leva Mae
(née Stewart) and Charles "Bud" Penniman. His father was a church
deacon who sold
bootlegged moonshine on the side and owned a nightclub, the Tip In Inn.
His mother was a member of Macon's New Hope Baptist Church. Initially, Little Richard's first name was supposed to have been "Ricardo" but an error resulted in "Richard" instead.
The Penniman children were raised in a neighborhood of Macon called Pleasant Hill.
He was nicknamed "Lil' Richard" by family due to his small and skinny
frame as a child. A mischievous child who played pranks on neighbors,
Little Richard began singing in church at a young age.
Possibly due to complications at birth, Little Richard had a slight
deformity that left one of his legs shorter than the other. This produced an unusual gait, for which he was mocked over its allegedly
effeminate appearance.
Little Richard's family was highly religious, joining various
A.M.E.,
Baptist and
Pentecostal
churches, with some family members becoming ministers. Little Richard
enjoyed the Pentecostal churches the most due to its charismatic worship
and live music.
He later recalled that people in his neighborhood during
segregation
sang gospel songs throughout the day to keep a positive outlook because
"there was so much poverty, so much prejudice in those days".
Little Richard had observed that people sang "to feel their connection with God" and to wash their trials and burdens away.
Gifted with a loud singing voice, Little Richard recalled that he was
"always changing the key upwards" and that they once stopped him from
singing in church for "screaming and hollering" so loud, earning him the
nickname "War Hawk".
Little Richard's initial musical influences were gospel performers such as
Brother Joe May,
Sister Rosetta Tharpe,
Mahalia Jackson and
Marion Williams.
May, who as a singing evangelist was known as the "Thunderbolt of the
Middle West" due to his phenomenal range and vocal power, inspired the
boy to become a preacher.
Little Richard attended Macon's
Hudson High School, where he was a below-average student. His musical talent, however, was recognized there when he learned to play the
alto saxophone.
His mother recalled how Richard was "always musical" and that when he
was young, he would always "beat on the steps of the house, and on tin
cans and pots and pans, or whatever", while singing.
She also recalled that Richard was so quick at learning to play the saxophone that he was allowed to play with the school's
marching band immediately. While in high school, Little Richard obtained a part-time job at
Macon City Auditorium for local secular and gospel concert promoter Clint Brantley.
Little Richard sold
Coca-Cola to crowds during concerts of star performers of the day, such as
Cab Calloway,
Lucky Millinder and his favorite singer, Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Music career
Beginnings
On October 27, 1947, Sister Rosetta Tharpe heard 14-year-old Little
Richard singing two of her gospel recordings before her concert at Macon
City Auditorium. Tharpe was so impressed that she invited him to sing
onstage during the concert.
Clint Brantley recalled that Little Richard approached him before the
show, announcing that Tharpe was allowing him to open the show.
Brantley, as the promoter, told him he could not. However, when the
curtain lifted, Little Richard began to sing and surprised Brantley with
his vocal ability. The crowd cheered and Tharpe paid him for his
performance. Little Richard was hooked on performing for a living after
that.
He began singing with traveling shows that came through town and was
losing interest in school. He would sing to draw people to the local
town prophet and spiritualist, Doctor Nubilio, who wore a turban, a
colorful cape and carried a black stick and something that people came
to see which Nubilio called "the devil's child" – a dried-up body of a
baby with claw feet like a bird and horns on its head.
Nubilio told
Little Richard that he was "gonna be famous" but that he would have to
"go where the grass is greener."
Due to problems at home and school and associations in the community,
Little Richard left and joined Dr. Hudson's Medicine Show in 1948,
performing "
Caldonia".
Little Richard recalled the song was the first secular R&B song he
learned due to his family's strict rules against playing R&B music,
which they considered "devil music."
Little Richard soon joined his first musical band, Buster Brown's
Orchestra.
While performing with the band, he began using the name
Little Richard.
After his tenure with the band ended in 1950, Little Richard began
performing for various vaudeville groups including Sugarfoot Sam from
Alabam, the Tidy Jolly Steppers, the King Brothers Circus and Broadway
Follies, earning a reputation as a
drag performer.
About this time, Little Richard began listening more to R&B and frequented Atlanta clubs, where he witnessed
Roy Brown and
Billy Wright.
Heavily influenced by Wright's flamboyant persona and showmanship,
Little Richard began performing as a solo artist as part of the
chitlin' circuit.
Little Richard gained notoriety for high-energy onstage antics during live performances.
[22] He eventually befriended Wright during an Atlanta performance in 1950.
In 1951, Wright put Little Richard in contact with his manager, Zenas Sears, a local
deejay. Sears recorded Little Richard at his station backed by Wright's band. The recordings led to a contract that year with
RCA Victor.
Little Richard recorded a total of eight sides for RCA, including the
blues ballad, "Every Hour," which became his first single and a hit in
Georgia.
The release of "Every Hour" improved his relationship with his father,
who began regularly performing the song at his nightclub.
After its release, Little Richard fronted Perry Welch and His Orchestra, playing at clubs and army bases for $100 a week. Little Richard learned how to play boogie-woogie piano from teenage musician
Esquerita around this time.
Little Richard left RCA Victor in February 1952 after his records
failed to catch on. That same month, his father was killed after a
confrontation outside his club. Little Richard, struggling with poverty,
settled for work as a dishwasher for
Greyhound Lines and hired Clint Brantley as his manager.
He formed a band called the Tempo Toppers that year and began to perform as part of blues
package tours in clubs across the south, such as New Orleans' Club Tijuana and Houston's Club Matinee.
With the Tempo Toppers, Little Richard signed with
Don Robey's
Peacock Records in February 1953, recording eight sides, including four with
Johnny Otis and his band that were unreleased at the time.
Little Richard had a contentious relationship with Robey and soon found
himself disenchanted with the record business and with his group,
leaving Peacock and disbanding the Tempo Toppers. That same year, Little
Richard formed a hard-driving
R&B band, the Upsetters, which included drummer
Charles Connor and saxophonist Wilbert "Lee Diamond" Smith, which toured under Brantley's management.
[34]
The Upsetters began to tour successfully, even without a bass player on
songs, forcing drummer Connor to thump "real hard" on his bass drum in
order to get a "
bass fiddle effect."
Under the suggestion of
Lloyd Price, Little Richard sent a two-song
demo for Price's label,
Specialty Records, in February 1955.
Time passed before Little Richard got a call to record for the label.
Art Rupe, owner of
Specialty Records, loaned Little Richard money to buy out his Peacock contract and Rupe set him up to work with producer
Robert "Bumps" Blackwell.
Upon hearing the demo, Blackwell felt Little Richard was Specialty's answer to
Ray Charles. Little Richard told Blackwell he preferred the sound of
Fats Domino. As a result, Little Richard began recording at
Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studios in New Orleans that September, recording there with several of Domino's session musicians including drummer
Earl Palmer and saxophonist
Lee Allen.
Initial cuts failed to produce anything to inspire huge sales and
Little Richard and his producer took a break at a club called the Dew
Drop Inn. While there, Little Richard performed a risqué song he had
improvised from his days on the club circuit called "
Tutti Frutti".
The song's
a cappella
introduction was based on a drum rhythm Little Richard had devised.
Blackwell felt the song had hit potential and hired songwriter
Dorothy LaBostrie to replace some of Little Richard's sexual lyrics with less controversial words.
Recorded in three takes in September 1955, "Tutti Frutti" was released as a single in November.
In 2015, Penniman was honored by the National Museum of African
American History and Culture for his key role in the formation of
popular music genres and
Initial success and conversion
A lot of songs I sang to crowds first to watch their reaction. That's how I knew they'd hit.
Little Richard
"Tutti Frutti" became an instant hit, reaching No. 2 on
Billboard magazine's
Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers
chart and crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and
overseas in the United Kingdom. It reached No. 17 on the
Billboard Top 100 in America and No. 29 on the British singles chart, eventually selling a million copies.
[22][43]
Little Richard's next hit single, "
Long Tall Sally"
(1956), became his first to reach No. 1 on the R&B chart and the
first to reach the top ten of the pop charts in both America and
Britain. Like "Tutti Frutti", it sold over a million copies. Following
his success, Little Richard built up his backup band, The Upsetters,
with the addition of saxophonists Clifford "Gene" Burks and
leader Grady Gaines,
bassist Olsie "Baysee" Robinson and guitarist Nathaniel "Buster" Douglas.
Little Richard began performing on package tours across the United
States, often appearing last, where he would steal the show. Art Rupe
described the differences between Little Richard and a similar hitmaker
of the early rock and roll period by stating that, while "the
similarities between Little Richard and Fats Domino for recording
purposes were close", Little Richard would sometimes stand up at the
piano while he was recording and that onstage, where Domino was
"plodding, very slow", Little Richard was "very dynamic, completely
uninhibited, unpredictable, wild.
So the band took on the ambience of
the vocalist."
During a period of racial tension in the United States, Little Richard
attracted mixed-race audiences at a time when public places were divided
into "white" and "colored" domains.
H.B. Barnum later explained that Little Richard "opened the door. He brought the races together".
Prior to Little Richard, audiences in musical shows were either "all black or all white and no one else could come in."
Little Richard's success enabled audiences of both races to enter the
building, albeit still segregated (e.g. blacks on the balcony and whites
on the main floor). By the end of Little Richard's performances,
however, the audiences would come together to dance.
[47]
Despite broadcasts on TV from local
supremacist groups such as the North Alabama
White Citizens Council
warning how rock and roll "brings the races together", Little Richard's
popularity was helping to shatter shibboleths that held that black
performers could not successfully perform at "white-only venues",
especially in the South where racism was most overt.
Little Richard's show, according to Barnum, was the first rock and
roll show to use spotlights and flicker lights, which had been a show
business tradition, accentuating Little Richard's innovative use of
colorful capes, blouse shirts, makeup and suits studded with
multi-colored precious stones and sequins.
Little Richard's onstage antics often included running on and off the
stage, lifting his leg while playing his piano, and jumping up and down
onstage and atop the piano, bringing audiences into a frenzy.
[50]
Fans reacted in similar and sometimes extreme ways. During Little Richard's show at Baltimore's
Royal Theatre
in June 1956, several fans had to be restrained from jumping off the
balcony. Cops stopped the show twice to prevent fans who had rushed the
stage from ripping souvenirs off of Little Richard.
During the same show, a woman threw a pair of her
undergarments onstage at Little Richard, leading other female fans to repeat the action.
Little Richard had nine hits in the US in 1956 and five in Britain, with recordings such as "
Slippin' and Slidin'", "
Rip It Up" "
Ready Teddy", "
The Girl Can't Help It" and "
Lucille".
Most of Little Richard's earlier hits inspired
covers by the likes of
Pat Boone,
Elvis Presley and
Bill Haley. Described as having "electrifying movie-star looks", Little Richard accepted brief roles in movies such as
Don't Knock the Rock,
Mister Rock and Roll and
The Girl Can't Help It.
[52]
His success continued in 1957 with international hits such as "
Jenny, Jenny" and "
Keep A-Knockin'". Little Richard scored further hit singles such as "
Good Golly Miss Molly", eventually scoring 18 hit singles in less than three years.
"Good Golly, Miss Molly", 45 rpm recording on Specialty Records
In May 1957, Little Richard released his first album,
Here's Little Richard, which reached No. 13 on the
Billboard Top LPs
chart, then a rare feat for a rock and roll artist. Little Richard's
success made him a millionaire and in late 1956, he settled in Los
Angeles, purchasing a
mansion in a wealthy section of the city, where he lived next door to boxer
Joe Louis.
He had engaged in a serious romance with Audrey Robinson, then a
teenage college student and later a stripper under the stage name Lee
Angel.
In October 1957, Little Richard embarked on a package tour in Australia with
Gene Vincent and
Eddie Cochran. During the middle of the tour, he shocked the public by announcing his decision to follow a life in the
ministry.
Little Richard later explained that during a flight from Melbourne to
Sydney that he had seen the plane's red hot engines and felt angels were
holding it up. During the Sydney performance, Little Richard saw a bright red fireball flying across the sky above him and was deeply shaken.
He took the event, later revealed as the launching of the first
artificial Earth satellite Sputnik 1, as a sign from God to repent from performing secular music and his wild lifestyle and enter the ministry.
Returning to the states ten days early, Little Richard later learned
that his original return flight had crashed into the Pacific Ocean
solidifying his belief he was doing as God wanted.
After a performance at the
Apollo Theater and a recording session with Specialty later that month, Little Richard enrolled at
Oakwood College in
Huntsville, Alabama, to study theology.
Fueling his decision to leave the music business was Little Richard's
feeling that he hadn't received proper remuneration from Specialty.
Upon ending his contract with Specialty in 1959, Little Richard reluctantly agreed to relinquish any
royalties for his material.
In 1958, he formed the Little Richard Evangelistic Team, traveling across the country to preach.
A month after his conversion, while speaking at an evangelical
convention in November 1957, Little Richard met Ernestine Campbell, a
secretary from Washington, D.C. He married her on July 11, 1959.
Around this time, Little Richard began recording
gospel
and had some chart success with songs such as "He's Not Just a Soldier"
and "Crying in the Chapel". Another gospel single, "He Got What He
Wanted", reached the top 40 in the UK.
Childhood heroine
Mahalia Jackson acknowledged his gospel efforts after hearing him sing at Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Los Angeles.
[67] After working with Little Richard on the Mercury album
King of the Gospel Singers,
Quincy Jones remarked in 1984 that his performance in the studio impressed him more than any other artist with whom he had worked.
[68]
Return to secular music
I heard so much about the audience reaction, I thought there must be
some exaggeration. But it was all true. He drove the whole house into a
complete frenzy ... I couldn't believe the power of Little Richard
onstage. He was amazing.
Mick Jagger
In 1962, concert promoter
Don Arden
persuaded Little Richard to tour Europe after telling him his records
were still selling well there. Arden booked him as the headline artist
with
Sam Cooke second on the bill.
Little Richard performed gospel material at the first show without
Cooke opening, owing to the delay of the latter's arrival, and received a
tepid reaction.
After Cooke opened the second show with vigorous
applause from the crowd, Little Richard and his organist
Billy Preston
warmed up in darkness before launching into "Long Tall Sally",
resulting in hysterical responses.
Little Richard's shows received
similar responses wherever he would perform, including a show at
Mansfield's Granada Theatre, which closed early due to fans rushing the stage.
Wanting to capitalize on Little Richard's headline-grabbing performances,
Beatles manager
Brian Epstein
asked Little Richard and Arden to allow his newly recorded band to open
for Little Richard on some tour dates to which they agreed, first
opening at
New Brighton's Tower Ballroom that October.
The following month, the Beatles opened for Little Richard at the
Star Club in
Hamburg. During this time, Little Richard advised the group on how to perform his songs and taught
Paul McCartney his trademark
vocalizations.
Back in the U.S., Little Richard recorded six rock and roll songs with the Upsetters for
Little Star Records, under the name "World Famous Upsetters", allowing him to keep his options open in the ministry.
Little Richard returned to the UK the following fall, with the
Rolling Stones as openers. At the end of that tour, he starred in his own special,
The Little Richard Spectacular, for
Granada Television.
The special became a ratings success and led to two rebroadcasts
following over 60,000 fan letters.
Footage of the special was shown
around the world, highlighting the frenzy associated with rock and roll.
In 1964, Little Richard returned briefly to Specialty and recorded five
songs, including the charted single, "Bama Lama Bama Loo", which
reached the top 20 in the UK but only made 82 in the US.
Later that year, he signed with
Vee-Jay Records and issued the album
Little Richard Is Back. The album failed to catch on domestically, despite a televised performance of the single "
Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" on
Shindig! that drew wild responses from audience members.
By September 1964,
Jimi Hendrix had joined the Upsetters band, as a full member.
In December, Jimi and some '50s band members joined Richard in New York
for a session of remakes. The most successful collaboration between
Little Richard and Hendrix came in the following year, also in New York,
when Hendrix, Billy Preston, and Little Richard recorded the soul
ballad "I Don't Know What You've Got (But It's Got Me)", which became a
number 12 R&B hit.
[78][nb 1]
Little Richard and Hendrix clashed over tardiness, wardrobe and
Hendrix's stage antics and as a result, in July 1965, Little Richard's
brother Robert fired him.
That same year, Little Richard attempted to set up his own record label
but only cut two unreleased tracks. Instead he signed with
Modern Records,
which resulted in a very agreeable string of rock and soul singles but
yielded just one chart-maker, "Do You Feel It?". He left that label in
early 1966 for
Okeh Records.
Okeh paired Little Richard musically with his friend from the mid-1950s,
Larry Williams, who produced two albums for him in 1966 and 1967; the first being a studio album,
The Explosive Little Richard, which generated the modest hit singles, "Poor Dog" and "Commandments of Love", and the second,
Little Richard's Greatest Hits: Recorded Live!, which returned him to the pop album charts for the first time in ten years, as well hitting number 28 on the
Hot R&B LPs chart.
[81]
Williams also acted as the music director for Little Richard's live
performances at the Okeh Club in Los Angeles amid the Okeh period,
during which time the demand for Little Richard's appearances increased
greatly.
Leaving Okeh in late 1967, Little Richard briefly recorded with
Brunswick but left shortly after his final session.
Little Richard struggled when he returned to secular music in the
1960s. He often complained to producers in the 1960s that he felt
unappreciated as producers pushed him towards a horn-oriented
Motown sound and felt he wasn't treated with appropriate respect.
[85]
Little Richard often performed in dingy clubs and lounges with little
support from his label. Little Richard adapted a wilder flamboyant and
androgynous image that, while a hit with club audiences, was a problem for labels attempting to promote him to conservative R&B buyers.
Angered by his decision to "
backslide" from his ministry, clergymen in the South forced radio disk jockeys to ignore Little Richard's work.
His insistence on performing in front of mixed audiences prevented him
from receiving radio time in the areas of Los Angeles affected by the
Watts riots.
Despite recording and public relations struggles, according to his
Songwriters Hall of Fame biography, he had sold over 32 million records worldwide by 1968.
[89]
Focusing on live performances rather than recordings at the end of the
1960s, Little Richard found success with performances in casinos and
resorts in Las Vegas, New York City and Los Angeles.
Little Richard
returned to the national spotlight in 1969 as a performer at the
Atlantic City Pop Festival, where he stole the show from top performers such as
Janis Joplin; he did the same to headliner
John Lennon at the Toronto Pop Festival. These successes brought Little Richard to talk shows such as the
Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and the
Dick Cavett Show, making him a major celebrity again.
Following this, Little Richard signed with
Reprise Records in 1970, releasing the album,
The Rill Thing,
which included the charted singles "Freedom Blues" and "Greenwood,
Mississippi".
Little Richard's follow-ups for Reprise failed to produce
similar success and Little Richard spent much of the decade performing
as a guest instrumentalist on sessions with rockers such as
Delaney and Bonnie,
Joey Covington and
Joe Walsh. The sessions for
Canned Heat's "Rockin' with the King" (1972) and
Bachman-Turner Overdrive's
"Take It Like a Man" (1976) resulted in chart successes.
Little Richard
and three of his brothers formed a management company, Bud Hole
Incorporated, around this time.
In 1973, Richard made a spectacular contribution to the critically
acclaimed documentary, "Let The Good Times Roll", and occupied a full
album side in a two-disc soundtrack album from the film, which charted.
Leaving Reprise, that same year, he charted for independent labels
including a Green Mountain Records single, "In the Middle of the Night",
which proceeds went to charity following a string of
tornadoes that damaged 12 states.
Three years later, the Mainstream Records single "Call My Name" was
distributed by Motown but barely charted in 1976. That same year, Little
Richard re-recorded 18 of his classic hits in Nashville for
K-Tel Records, with a single featuring new versions of "Good Golly Miss Molly" and "Rip It Up" reaching the
UK singles chart.
[93]
Following over ten years of drug and alcohol abuse and a string of
recent personal tragedies, Little Richard quit rock and roll music again
in 1977 and returned to evangelism, releasing one gospel album,
God's Beautiful City, in 1979.
Comeback
In 1984, Little Richard filed a $112 million lawsuit against
Specialty Records,
Art Rupe and his publishing company Venice Music and
ATV Music for not paying him royalties after he left the label in 1959.
The suit would be settled out of court in 1986. According to some reports,
Michael Jackson gave Little Richard monetary compensation from his work when he co-owned the Beatles and Little Richard's songs with Sony-ATV.
[97]
In 1985,
Charles White released Little Richard's authorized biography,
Quasar of Rock: The Life and Times of Little Richard, which returned Little Richard to the spotlight due to the book's subject matter.
Little Richard returned to show business in what
Rolling Stone would refer to as a "formidable comeback" following the book's release.
Little Richard, interviewed during the 60th Annual Academy Awards, 1988
Reconciling his roles as evangelist and rock and roll musician for
the first time, Little Richard stated that the genre could be used for
good or evil. After accepting a role in the film
Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Little Richard and Billy Preston penned the faith-based rock and roll song, "Great Gosh A'Mighty" for its soundtrack.
Little Richard won critical acclaim for his film role and the song found success on the
American and
British charts. The hit led to the release of the album
Lifetime Friend (1986) on
Warner Bros. Records, with songs deemed "messages in rhythm" that included a
gospel rap track.
In addition to a version of "Great Gosh A'Mighty", cut in England, the
album featured two UK charted singles, "Somebody's Comin'" and
"Operator". Little Richard spent much of the rest of the decade guesting
on TV shows and appearing in films, winning new fans with what was
referred to as his "unique comedic timing".
[101]
In 1989, Little Richard provided rhythmic preaching and background vocals on the extended live version of the
U2/
B.B. King hit "
When Love Comes To Town". That same year, Little Richard returned to singing his classic hits following a performance of "Lucille" at a
Cher-hosted AIDS benefit concert.
In 1990, Little Richard contributed a spoken-word rap on
Living Colour's hit song, "
Elvis Is Dead", from their album
Time's Up. The following year, he was one of the featured performers on the hit single and video "
Voices That Care" that was produced to help boost the morale of U.S. troops involved in
Operation Desert Storm.
He also recorded a rock and roll version of "
The Itsy Bitsy Spider" that year that led to a deal with
Disney Records, resulting in the release of a hit 1992
children's album,
Shake It All About.
Throughout the 1990s, Little Richard performed around the world and
appeared on TV, film, and tracks with other artists, including
Jon Bon Jovi,
Elton John and
Solomon Burke.
In 1992, yet another album of remakes was released, this time with
Richard and Japanese guitar hero, Takanaka. Included in the band were
swamp guitarist Travis Wammack and his drummer son Monkee, members of
Richard's then current touring band.
Later years
In 2000, Little Richard's life was dramatized for the biographical film
Little Richard,
which focused on his early years including his heyday, religious
conversion and return to secular music in the early 1960s.
Little
Richard was played by actor
Leon, who earned a
NAACP Image Award nomination for his role as the musician. In 2002, Little Richard contributed to the
Johnny Cash tribute album,
Kindred Spirits: A Tribute to the Songs of Johnny Cash.
In 2006, Little Richard was featured in a popular advertisement for the
GEICO brand.
[105] Then, a 2005 recording of his duet vocals with
Jerry Lee Lewis appeared on a cover of the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" for Lewis's 2006 album,
Last Man Standing.
The same year, Little Richard signed on as a guest judge for the TV series
Celebrity Duets. In 2008, Little Richard and Lewis performed alongside
John Fogerty at the
Grammy Awards of that year in a tribute to the two artists considered to be cornerstones of rock and roll by
NARAS. That same year,
Little Richard appeared on radio host
Don Imus' benefit album for sick children,
The Imus Ranch Record.
[106]
In June 2010, Little Richard recorded a gospel track for an upcoming tribute album to songwriting legend
Dottie Rambo.
Towards the end of the first decade of the new millennium,
Rolling Stone
reported that Little Richard remained "one of the most recognized and
quotable celebrities in the world." Throughout the decade, he kept up a
stringent touring schedule, performing primarily in the States and
Europe. However, sciatic nerve pain in his left leg and then replacement
of the involved hip began affecting the frequency of his performances
by 2010.
Despite his health issues, Little Richard continued to receive
critical acclaim for his performances, with
Rolling Stone reporting after a performance at the
Howard Theater
in Washington, D.C. in June 2012 that Little Richard was "still full of
fire, still a master showman, his voice still loaded with deep gospel
and raunchy power."
[107]
Following the D.C. concert, Little Richard performed a full 90-minute show at the Pensacola Interstate Fair in
Pensacola in October 2012 and headlined at the Orleans Hotel in
Las Vegas during Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend in March 2013.
[108][109]
In 2014, actor
Brandon Mychal Smith won critical acclaim for his portrayal of Little Richard in the James Brown bio-pic "
Get on Up."
[110][111][112] Mick Jagger co-produced the motion picture.
[113][114]
Personal life
Relationships and family
In 1956, Little Richard began a romantic relationship with Audrey Robinson, a 16-year-old college student, originally from
Savannah, Georgia. According to Little Richard, he would invite other men to have sex with her in groups and once invited
Buddy Holly to have sex with her; Robinson denied those claims.
The relationship ended after Little Richard's religious conversion in
1957. Robinson later became a stripper using the name Lee Angel.
According to Robinson, Little Richard wanted to continue to see her but
she felt uncomfortable seeing a preacher as a stripper.
Described in
GQ's UK edition as a "lifelong soulmate"
[which?], Robinson and Little Richard are occasionally in each other's company.
Little Richard met his only wife, Ernestine Campbell, at an
evangelical rally in October 1957. They began dating that year and wed
in July 1959. According to Campbell, she and Little Richard initially
enjoyed a happy marriage with "normal" sexual relations.
Campbell
claimed when the marriage ended in divorce in 1963, it was due to Little
Richard's celebrity status, noting that it had made life difficult for
her. Little Richard claimed the marriage fell apart due to him being a
neglectful husband.
While married, in 1962, Little Richard adopted a one-year-old boy, Danny Jones, from a late church associate. Little Richard and his son remain close, with Jones often acting as one of his bodyguards.
[120]
Sexual orientation
Little Richard's
sexual orientation
has long been a topic of debate. Little Richard claimed that as a child
he felt feminine and played with girls, which was the source of jokes
at his expense. Caught wearing his mother's makeup and wardrobe at times, he was
brutally punished by his father.
Little Richard began having sexual encounters with both sexes by his early teens. Allegedly because of his effeminate mannerisms, Little Richard's father kicked him out of their family home at 15.
Little Richard first became involved in
voyeurism
in his early twenties, when a female friend of his would drive him
around and picked up men who would allow him to watch them have sex in
the backseat of cars.
Little Richard was once arrested after a gas
station attendant in Macon reported sexual activity in a car featuring
Little Richard and a couple. Cited on a
lewd conduct charge, Little Richard spent three days in jail and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon.
During the early 1950s, Little Richard had appeared as a
drag performer in various vaudeville groups. By the time he entered the
chitlin' circuit, he began using makeup regularly, influenced by
Billy Wright, who recommended him his brand of makeup, Pancake 31.
Later, as he began experiencing success in the mid-1950s, Little
Richard made members of his band use makeup as a means to gain entry
into white clubs during performances.
Little Richard later told a
columnist, "I wore the make-up so that white men wouldn't think I was
after the white girls. It made things easier for me, plus it was
colorful too".
Little Richard received female attention during his mid-1950s heyday
stating that female fans would give him naked photos of themselves and
their phone numbers.
In 2000, Little Richard stated: "I had girlfriends and a stack of women
who followed me and traveled with me. I figure if being called a sissy
would make me famous, let them say what they want to".
While attending Oakwood College, Little Richard recalled a male student
showed himself to him. After the incident was reported to the student's father, Little Richard withdrew from the college.
In 1962, Little Richard was again arrested after he was caught spying on men urinating at a men's toilets at a
Trailways bus station in
Long Beach, California.
Little Richard returned to participating in sexual orgies after his
return to secular music in the 1960s. He differed in depictions of his
sexuality.
In 1984, while he noted that he felt homosexuality was
"unnatural" and "contagious", he would tell Charles White that he was "
omnisexual" after he was asked about his sex life.
In 1995, Little Richard told
Penthouse that he always knew he was gay.
In 2007,
Mojo magazine described Little Richard as a "
bisexual alien".
Drug and alcohol use
Little Richard allegedly was a heavy drinker and cigarette smoker during the mid-1960s. By 1972, he was using
cocaine,
developing an addiction to the drug. He later lamented during that
period, "they should have called me Little Cocaine, I was sniffing so
much of that stuff!"
He got addicted to heroin and
PCP around that same period. Of his drug experiences, he said "I lost my reasoning".
[134] He said of his cocaine addiction that he did whatever he could to use cocaine.
[135]
Little Richard admitted that his addiction to cocaine and heroin was costing him as much as $1,000 a day.
In 1977, longtime friend
Larry Williams
once showed up with a gun and threatened to kill Little Richard for
failing to pay his drug debt.
Little Richard later mentioned that this
was the most fearful moment of his life because Williams's own drug
addiction made him wildly unpredictable. Little Richard did, however,
also acknowledge that he and Williams were "very close friends" and when
reminiscing of the drug-fueled clash, he recalled thinking "I knew he
loved me – I hoped he did".
Within that same year, Little Richard had several devastating personal
experiences, including his brother Tony's death of a heart attack, the
accidental shooting of his nephew that he loved like a son, and the
murder of two close personal friends – one a valet at "the heroin man's
house".
The combination of these experiences convinced Little Richard to give
up drugs and alcohol, along with rock and roll, and return to the
ministry.
Religion
Little Richard's family had deep evangelical (
Baptist and
African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME)) Christian roots, including two uncles and a grandfather who were preachers. Little Richard also took part in Macon's
Pentecostal churches, which were his favorites mainly due to their music, charismatic praise, dancing in the
Holy Spirit and
speaking in tongues.
At age 10, influenced by Pentecostalism, Little Richard would go around saying he was a
faith healer,
singing gospel music to people who were feeling sick and touching them.
He later recalled that they would often indicate that they felt better
after he prayed for them and would sometimes give him money.
Little Richard had aspirations of being a preacher due to the influence of singing evangelist Brother Joe May.
After he was
born again in 1957, Little Richard enrolled at
Oakwood College
in Huntsville, Alabama, a mostly black Seventh-day Adventist college,
to study theology. Little Richard returned to secular music in the early
1960s.
[139]
He was eventually ordained a minister in 1970, and again resumed
evangelical activities in 1977. Little Richard represented Memorial
Bibles International and sold their Black Heritage Bible, which
highlighted the Book's many black characters.
As a preacher, Little
Richard evangelized in small churches and packed auditoriums of 20,000
or more. His preaching focused on uniting the races and bringing lost
souls to repentance through God's love.
In 1984, Little Richard's mother, Leva Mae, died following a period of
illness. Only a few months prior to her death, Little Richard promised
her that he would remain a Christian.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Little Richard officiated at celebrity
weddings. In 2006, Little Richard wedded twenty couples who won a
contest in one ceremony.
[141]
The musician used his experience and knowledge as a minister and elder
statesman of rock and roll to preach at funerals of musical friends such
as
Wilson Pickett and
Ike Turner.
At a benefit concert in 2009 to raise funds to help rebuild children's playgrounds destroyed by
Hurricane Katrina, Little Richard asked guest of honor
Fats Domino
to pray with him and others. His assistants handed out inspirational
booklets at the concert—a common practice at Little Richard's shows.
[143]
He somberly told a Howard Theatre, Washington, D.C. audience in June
2012, "I know this is not Church, but get close to the Lord. The world
is getting close to the end. Get close to the Lord."
[107]
In 2013, Little Richard elaborated on his spiritual philosophies,
stating "God talked to me the other night. He said He's getting ready to
come. The world's getting ready to end and He's coming, wrapped in
flames of fire with a rainbow around his throne."
Rolling Stone
reported his apocalyptic prophesies generated snickers from some
audience members as well as cheers of support. Little Richard responded
by stating: "When I talk to you about [Jesus], I'm not playing. I'm
almost 81 years old. Without God, I wouldn't be here."
[144]
Health problems
In October 1985, Little Richard returned to the United States from England, where he had finished recording his album
Lifetime Friend, to film a guest spot on the show,
Miami Vice. Following the taping, he accidentally crashed his sports car into a telephone pole in
West Hollywood, California.
He suffered a broken right leg, broken ribs and head and facial injuries. His recovery from the accident took several months. His accident prevented him from being able to attend the inaugural
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in January 1986 where he was one of several inductees. He instead supplied a recorded message.
[81]
In 2007, Little Richard was having problems walking due to
sciatica in his left leg, requiring him to use crutches.
[147]
In November 2009, he entered a hospital to have replacement surgery on
his left hip. Despite returning to perform the following year, Little
Richard's problems with his hip continued and has since been helped
onstage by a
wheelchair.
He has told fans that his surgery has his hip "breaking inside" and
refuses to have further work on it.
On September 30, 2013, he revealed
to
Cee Lo Green at a
Recording Academy fundraiser that he had suffered a heart attack at his home the week prior and stated he used
aspirin and had his son turn the
air conditioner on, which his doctor confirmed had saved his life. Little Richard stated, "Jesus had something for me. He brought me through".
[144]
Legacy
Music
"He claims to be 'the architect of rock and roll', and history would
seem to bear out Little Richard's boast. More than any other performer –
save, perhaps, Elvis Presley, Little Richard blew the lid off the
Fifties, laying the foundation for rock and roll with his explosive
music and charismatic persona. On record, he made spine-tingling rock
and roll. His frantically charged piano playing and raspy, shouted
vocals on such classics as '
Tutti Frutti', '
Long Tall Sally' and '
Good Golly, Miss Molly' defined the dynamic sound of rock and roll."
—Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
[81]
Little Richard's music and performance style had a pivotal impact on
the shape of the sound and style of popular music genres of the 20th
century.
[22]
As a rock and roll pioneer, Little Richard embodied its spirit more flamboyantly than any other performer.
Little Richard's raspy shouting style gave the genre one of its most
identifiable and influential vocal sounds and his fusion of
boogie-woogie, New Orleans R&B and gospel music blazed its rhythmic
trail.
Combining elements of boogie,
gospel, and
blues, Little Richard introduced several of
rock music's most characteristic musical features, including its loud volume and vocal style emphasizing power, and its distinctive
beat and
rhythm.
He departed from
boogie-woogie's
shuffle rhythm and introduced a new distinctive rock beat, where the beat division is even at all
tempos.
He reinforced the new rock rhythm with a two-handed approach, playing
patterns with his right hand, with the rhythm typically popping out in
the piano's high
register.
His new rhythm, which he introduced with "
Tutti Frutti" (1955), became the basis for the standard rock beat, which was later consolidated by
Chuck Berry.
[151]
"
Lucille" (1957) foreshadowed the rhythmic feel of 1960s
classic rock in several ways, including its heavy
bassline, slower tempo, strong rock beat played by the entire band, and
verse–chorus form similar to blues.
[152]
Little Richard was blessed with a phenomenal voice able to generate croons, wails, and screams unprecedented in popular music.
[22]
He was cited by two of soul music's pioneers,
Otis Redding and
Sam Cooke,
as contributing to that genre's early development. Redding stated that
most of his music was patterned after Little Richard's and that he had
"done a lot for [him] and [his] soul brothers in the music business."
Cooke said in 1962 that Little Richard had done "so much for our music". Cooke had a top 40 hit with his cover of "Send Me Some Loving" in 1963.
James Brown said that Little Richard and the Upsetters, including drummer
Charles "Chuck" Connor,
were "the first to put the funk in rhythm", with a biographer stating
that their music "spark[ed] the musical transition from fifties rock and
roll to sixties funk".
[81]
Little Richard's hits of the mid-1950s, such as "Tutti Frutti", "Long
Tall Sally", "Keep A-Knockin'" and "Good Golly Miss Molly", were
generally characterized by playful lyrics with sexually suggestive
connotations.
[22]
AllMusic
writer Richie Unterberger stated that Little Richard "merged the fire
of gospel with New Orleans R&B, pounding the piano and wailing with
gleeful abandon", and that while "other R&B greats of the early '50s
had been moving in a similar direction, none of them matched the sheer
electricity of Richard's vocals.
With his high speed deliveries,
ecstatic trills, and the overjoyed force of personality in his singing,
he was crucial in upping the voltage from high-powered R&B into the
similar, yet different, guise of rock and roll."
Due to his innovative music and style, he's often widely acknowledged as the "architect of rock and roll".
[81]
Ray Charles
introduced him at a concert in 1988 as "a man that started a kind of
music that set the pace for a lot of what's happening today." Rock and roll pioneer
Bo Diddley called Little Richard "one of a kind" and "a show business genius" that "influenced so many in the music business".
Little Richard's contemporaries, including
Elvis Presley,
Bill Haley,
Jerry Lee Lewis,
The Everly Brothers,
Gene Vincent and
Eddie Cochran, all recorded covers of Little Richard's works.
Taken by Little Richard's music and style, and personally covering four
of Little Richard's tunes on his own two breakthrough albums in 1956,
Presley told Little Richard in 1969 that his music was an inspiration to
him and that he was "the greatest".
Pat Boone noted in 1984, "no one person has been more imitated than Little Richard".
As they wrote about Little Richard for their Man of the Year – Legend
category in 2010, GQ magazine stated that Little Richard "is, without
question, the boldest and most influential of the founding fathers of
rock'n'roll".
R&B pioneer
Johnny Otis
stated that "Little Richard is twice as valid artistically and
important historically as Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and the Rolling
Stones put together."
Society
In addition to his musical style, Little Richard was cited as one of the first
crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His music and concerts broke the color line,
[160] drawing blacks and whites together despite attempts to sustain segregation.
As H.B. Barnum explained in
Quasar of Rock, Little Richard "opened the door. He brought the races together." Barnum described Little Richard's music as not being "boy-meets-girl-girl-meets-boy things, they were
fun records, all fun. And they had a lot to say sociologically in our country and the world."
Barnum also stated that Little Richard's "charisma was a whole new
thing to the music business", explaining that "he would burst onto the
stage from anywhere, and you wouldn't be able to hear anything but the
roar of the audience.
He might come out and walk on the piano. He might
go out into the audience." Barnum also stated that Little Richard was
innovative in that he would wear colorful capes, blouse shirts, makeup
and suits studded with multi-colored precious stones and sequins, and
that he also brought flickering stage lighting from his show business
experience into performance venues where rock and roll artists
performed.
In 2015, the National Museum of African American Music honored Penniman
for helping to shatter the color line on the music charts changing
American culture forever.
[162][163]
Influence
Little Richard influenced generations of performers across musical genres.
[52] James Brown and
Otis Redding both idolized Little Richard.
[164]
Brown allegedly came up with the
Famous Flames debut hit, "
Please, Please, Please", after Little Richard had written the words on a napkin.
[166] Redding started his professional career with Little Richard's band, The Upsetters.
He first entered a talent show performing Little Richard's "Heeby Jeebies", winning for 15 consecutive weeks.
Ike Turner claimed most of
Tina Turner's
early vocal delivery was based on Little Richard, something Little
Richard himself reiterated in the foreword of Turner's biography,
King of Rhythm.
Bob Dylan
first performed covers of Little Richard's songs on piano in high
school with his rock and roll group, the Golden Chords; in 1959 when
leaving school, he wrote in his yearbook under "Ambition": "to join
Little Richard".
Jimi Hendrix was influenced in appearance (clothing and
hairstyle/mustache) and sound by Little Richard. He was quoted in 1966
saying, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his
voice."
Others influenced by Little Richard early on in their lives included
Bob Seger and
John Fogerty.
[172][173] Michael Jackson admitted that Little Richard had been a huge influence on him prior to
Off the Wall.
[174]
Rock critics noted similarities between
Prince's androgynous look, music and vocal style to Little Richard's.
[175][176]
The origins of
Cliff Richard's name change from Harry Webb was seen as a partial tribute to his musical hero Little Richard and singer Rick Richards. Several members of
The Beatles were heavily influenced by Little Richard, including
Paul McCartney and
George Harrison.
McCartney idolized Little Richard in school and later used Little Richard's vocals as inspiration for his uptempo rockers. "Long Tall Sally" was the first song McCartney performed in public.
During the Beatles' Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Harrison
commented, "thank you all very much, especially the rock 'n' rollers,
an' Little Richard there, if it wasn't for (gesturing to Little
Richard), it was all his fault, really."
[181]
Upon hearing "Long Tall Sally",
John Lennon commented that he was so impressed that he "couldn't speak".
Rolling Stones members
Mick Jagger and
Keith Richards
were also profoundly influenced by Little Richard, with Jagger citing
him as his first induction to R&B music and referring to him as "the
originator and my first idol".
Upon hearing "Tutti Frutti", Richards explained, "it was if, in a single instant, the world changed from
monochrome to
Technicolor". Little Richard was an early vocal influence on
Rod Stewart.
David Bowie called Little Richard his "inspiration" stating upon listening to "Tutti Frutti" that he "heard God".
[185]
After opening for him with his band
Bluesology, pianist
Reginald Dwight was inspired to be a "rock and roll piano player", later changing his name to Elton John.
[187] Farookh Bulsara performed covers of Little Richard's songs as a teen, before finding fame as Freddie Mercury, frontman for
Queen.
Little Richard was referred to as
Lou Reed's
rock n roll hero, deriving inspiration from "the soulful, primal force"
of the sound made by Little Richard and his saxophonist on "Long Tall
Sally." Reed later stated, "I don't know why and I don't care, but I
wanted to go to wherever that sound was and make a life."
[189]
Patti Smith
said, "To me, Little Richard was a person that was able to focus a
certain physical, anarchistic, and spiritual energy into a form which we
call rock 'n' roll ... I understood it as something that had to do with
my future.
When I was a little girl, Santa Claus didn't turn me on.
Easter Bunny didn't turn me on. God turned me on. Little Richard turned
me on."
[190] The music of
Deep Purple and
Motörhead was also influenced by Little Richard, as well as that of
AC/DC.
[192]
The latter's
Bon Scott idolized Little Richard and aspired to sing like him, and
Angus Young was first inspired to play guitar after listening to Little Richard's music.
[193][194][192] Later performers such as
Mystikal,
André "André 3000" Benjamin of
Outkast and
Bruno Mars
were cited by critics as having emulated Little Richard's style in
their own works.
Mystikal's rap vocal delivery was compared to Little
Richard's.
[196] André 3000's vocals in Outkast's hit, "
Hey Ya!", were compared to an "
indie rock Little Richard".
[197]
Bruno Mars admitted Little Richard was one of his earliest influences.
[198] Mars' song, "Runaway Baby" from his album,
Doo-Wops & Hooligans was cited by the
New York Times as "channeling Little Richard".
[199]
Awards and honors
Little Richard received the
Cashbox Triple Crown Award for "Long Tall Sally" in 1956.
[200] In 1984, he was inducted into the
Georgia Music Hall of Fame. He was
inducted to the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.
[81]
In 1990, he received a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the
Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1994.
[201] In 1993, he received the
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
[202]
In 1997, he was given the
American Music Award of Merit.
[203] In 2002, along with
Chuck Berry and
Bo Diddley, Little Richard was honored as one of the first group of
BMI icons at the 50th Annual BMI Pop Awards.
[204] That same year, he was inducted into the
NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame.
[205] A year later, he was inducted into the
Songwriters Hall of Fame.
[89]
In 2006, he was inducted into the
Apollo Theater Hall of Fame.
[206] Four years afterwards, he received a plaque on the theater's Walk of Fame.
[207] In 2008, he received a star at Nashville's
Music City Walk of Fame.
[208] In 2009, he was inducted to the
Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
[209]
The UK issue of
GQ named him its Man of the Year in its Legend category in 2010. Little Richard appeared in person to receive an honorary degree from his hometown's
Mercer University on May 11, 2013.
[211]
The day before the doctorate of humanities degree was to be bestowed
upon him, the mayor of Macon announced that one of Little Richard's
childhood homes, an historic site, will be moved to a rejuvenated
section of that city's Pleasant Hill district.
It will be restored and
named the Little Richard Penniman – Pleasant Hill Resource House, a
meeting place where local history and artifacts will be displayed as
provided by residents.
[212][213][214]
Penniman was inducted into the
Blues Hall of Fame on May 7, 2015.
[215] On June 6, 2015, Penniman was inducted into the
Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame in Clarksdale, MS.
[216]
Included in numerous
Rolling Stone lists, Little Richard's
Here's Little Richard was ranked fifty on the magazine's list of
the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. He was ranked eighth on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Rolling Stone listed three of Little Richard's recordings, "The Girl Can't Help It", "Long Tall Sally" and "Tutti Frutti", on their
500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Two of the latter songs and "Good Golly, Miss Molly" were listed on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's
500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
[220] The
Grammy Hall of Fame inducted several of Little Richard's recordings including "Tutti Frutti", "Lucille", "Long Tall Sally" and
Here's Little Richard.
[221] "Tutti Frutti" topped
music magazine Mojo's list of "The 100 Records That Changed the World".
[222]
The same recording was inducted to the
Library of Congress'
National Recording Registry in 2010, with the library claiming the "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music".
On June 19, 2015, the National Museum of African American Music honored
Penniman with the Rhapsody & Rhythm Award for his key role in the
formation of popular music genres, influencing singers and musicians
across genres from Rock to Hip-Hop, and helping to shatter the color
line on the music charts changing American culture forever.
[224][225]
Source: Wikipedia.org
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