Little Richard

views updated

Little Richard (1935– ) US singer-songwriter and pianist, b. Richard Penniman. He achieved fame in the late 1950s, with songs such as “Tutti Frutti” (1956) and “Good Golly Miss Molly” (1958). After a near-fatal plane accident, he was ordained a minister in the Church of the Seventh-Day Adventists and has oscillated between music and ministry ever since.

More From encyclopedia.com