Little Richard 1932–

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Little Richard 1932–

Rock and roll pioneer

Sang Gospel as a Tot

Tasted Success with “Tutti Frutti”

Quit Music to Preach

Jarred by Brother’s Death

Selected discography

Sources

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Before there was Prince, before there was Michael Jackson, before androgyny was hip, and most certainly before Paul McCartney induced his first teeny-bopper swoon with a falsetto whoop, there was Little Richard. A true rock and roll trailblazer, Little Richard was one of the first performers to unleash the full savage beauty of rock in its most uninhibited form. His manic piano style and his fevered—sometimes nonsensical—vocals taught two generations (and counting) of rock fans what it meant to really cut loose. The joyous abandon of Little Richard’s approach has delighted audiences worldwide for decades, and served as inspiration for countless rockers over the years, including such notables as the Beatles and Rolling Stones.

Little Richard was born Richard Wayne Penniman on December 5, 1932, in Macon, Georgia. The third of twelve children, Richard was a somewhat weak and slightly malformed child, with one leg shorter than the other, an oversized head, and one eye larger than the other. From a very early age, he preferred the company of girls to boys, and the other boys often taunted him for his effeminate manner. In spite of the teasing, Richard was a confident child. His mother remembered him as a prankster with a quick mind and strong will.

Sang Gospel as a Tot

In hopes of harnessing his excess energy, Richard’s mother sent him to the local charismatic Baptist church. By the time he was ten, Richard’s main aspiration was to become a preacher. He was intrigued by Pentecostal practices such as speaking in tongues and healing by the laying of hands on sick people. The church also gave Richard an outlet for his natural singing skills. He began performing gospel songs first as a member of a children’s group called the Tiny Tots, and later he performed with some of his siblings as the Penniman Singers at churches and revivals throughout the area.

By his early teens, Richard’s passion for the church had waned. Meanwhile, he was not working very hard to conceal his homosexuality, much to the dismay of his father and the delight of local gossipmongers. Completely uninterested in school, Richard dropped out during ninth grade. He left home and began traveling across Georgia with a series of vaudeville shows and other itinerant troupes, including Sugarfoot Sam from Alabama; the

At a Glance…

Bom Richard Wayne Penniman, December 5, 1932, in Macon, G A; son of Charles (a brickmason and bar owner) and LevaMae Penniman; married ErnestineCampbell, 1959 (div. 1961).Education: Attended OakwoodCollege, Huntsville Religion: Christian, with a brief detour into Judaism.

Performing artist, 1948-57,1960-76, and 1986-; appeared with “SugarfootSam” minstrel show, c. 1949; recorded with RCA Records, 1951, Peacock Records, 1952, and Specialty Records, 1955-59; appeared in several motion pictures, including The Girl Can’t Help it, 1956;Rock Around the Clock, 1956; Mr.Rock’n’Roll, 1974;and Down and Out in Beverly Hills, 1986; Black Heritage Bible, salesman, 1977; minister, Universal RemnantChurch of God; numerous television appearances.

Awards: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, charter member; received star on Hollywood Walk of Fame, 1990; Little Richard Day recognized, Los Angeles, 1990; National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, lifetime achievement award, 1993.

Addresses: Agent— William Morris Agency, 151 E. El Camino Dr., Beverly Hills, CA 90212.

King Brothers Circus; and the Broadway Follies, which was based in Bailey’s 81 Theatre in Atlanta. Along the way he acquired the name Little Richard, as well as the trademark high-rise hairstyle and flamboyant stage persona that would remain with him for much of his career.

While performing at Bailey’s 81 Theatre, Richard had the opportunity to meet a number of R&B stars who passed through town. One of them was Billy Wright, a major recording star of the late 1940s and early 1950s. Wright helped Richard get a recording contract with RCA, and in 1951 Richard recorded four songs backed by Wright’s band. One of them, “Every Hour,” was modestly successful on local radio, but overall the songs went nowhere. After several months of performing one-night stands around Macon, Richard returned to the studio in 1952 to record four more tracks for RCA. Again, they failed to sell.

Tasted Success with “Tutti Fratti”

Richard spent the next couple of years refining his outrageous stage act in dives, while washing dishes to support himself. In 1954 Richard sent a tape of his band, the Upsetters, to Bumps Blackwell of Specialty Records. Blackwell convinced Specialty owner Art Rupe to bring Richard in for a recording session. At the session, Richard sang timidly, and Blackwell considered the idea a flop. He changed his mind, however, when during a break Richard launched into a raucous rendition of his original song “Tutti Frutti. “Blackwell realized then that Little Richard was the real thing. Within a month of its release, “Tutti Frutti” (with lyrics toned down from Richard’s original bawdy ones) sold 200,000 copies, and rose to number two on Billboard”s R&B chart.

Over the next couple of years, Little Richard recorded a string of hits that reads like a list of rock’s greatest classics: “Long Tall Sally,” “Lucille,” and “Good Golly Miss Molly, “just to name a few. What his lyrics lacked in comprehensibility, they more than made up for in raw energy. Now a star, Richard moved to Hollywood and bought a Cadillac, in spite of the fact that he had been pressured into signing a bad contract with Specialty that gave him a fraction of the income that he should have received from record sales. Even more frustrating was the fact that as good as his sales were, they paled in comparison to the numbers put up by white performers, like Pat Boone, for their versions of Richard’s songs.

Quit Music to Preach

In 1957, at the very peak of his fame, Richard shocked the music world by announcing that he was quitting rock and roll in order to devote his life to religion. He enrolled in Oakwood College, a Christian institution in Huntsville, Alabama, and traveled across the U.S. as an evangelist. He also recorded several albums of gospel music. By early 1960, however, the urge to rock had returned, and Richard embarked on a British tour. While in England, he made the acquaintance of an unknown band called the Beatles, with whom he forged a lasting friendship.

Back in the United States, Richard spent most of the 1960s toiling in semi-obscurity, and it took most of the decade for his comeback to really kick in. Gradually, he worked his way from dingy clubs into better venues. He played to enthusiastic crowds during several tours of Europe in the second half of the decade. Richard’s comeback was finally complete by 1969, capped by a rollicking performance at that year’s Atlantic City Pop Festival. As a new generation was introduced to Little Richard through their own rock heroes like the Rolling Stones, Richard was able to return to the charts with hits such as “Freedom Blues” in 1970, “Midnight Man” in 1971, and “Rockin’ With The King” in 1972.

Jarred by Brother’s Death

Along with this renewed success however, came a renewed passion for the high life. Richard delved headlong into a lifestyle that included heavy drinking, drug abuse, and all sorts of sexual follies. In 1975, startled by the death of his brother Tony, Richard again decided to leave show business and return to religion. He kicked his drug habit and resumed the evangelical work he had begun twenty years earlier. Over the next several years he concentrated on preaching and selling Bibles. By the mid-1980s, Richard was ready to return, at least in part, to the secular business of entertaining people. In 1986 he released an album of religious-flavored pop songs called Lifetime Friend. He also appeared in the film Down and Out in Beverly Hills that year, and began showing up frequently in guest spots on television.

As Little Richard continued to ping-pong between his alternating careers as preacher and screecher, the early 1990s found him in show-biz mode. His 1992 children’s album, Shake It All About, sold a quarter of a million copies. The following year he received a lifetime achievement award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, an honor he attained by actively campaigning for it. When the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum opened in 1995, Little Richard was among its charter members. At the Cleveland facility’s grand opening, Richard emphasized that it was he and a handful of other black musicians who paved the way for the next forty years’ worth of rock stars. “I am the architect of rock and roll, “he told the crowd. Few would disagree that he was, if not the architect, at least a key member of that sonic architectural firm.

Selected discography

Singles

“Tutti-Frutti,” Specialty, 1955. “Long Tall Sally,” Specialty, 1956. “Slippin’ and Slidin’,” Specialty, 1956. “Rip It Up,” Specialty, 1956.

“The Girl Can’t Help It,” Specialty, 1957. “Lucille,” Specialty, 1957. “Jenny, Jenny,” Specialty, 1957. “Keep a Knockin’,” Specialty, 1957. “Good Golly, Miss Molly,” Specialty, 1958.