Here's Little Richard

About

Vividly described as “rock ’n’ roll’s stem cells” in <i>1,001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die</i>, Little Richard’s untempered, exuberant debut contains the musical DNA for far more than just the shape of rock to come. The 1957 album contained a number of songs that were already hit, like “Tutti Frutti” and “Long Tall Sally,” and others that would soon climb the chart, like “Jenny, Jenny” and “True, Fine Mama”—the deluxe edition, released in 2017, includes 22 alternate takes from the original session. What you won’t find is much pathos or balladry: Even the bluesiest and saddest entries are still electric, with juke-joint-ready tempi and a vocal dynamism that never lets up. <i>Here’s Little Richard</i> arrived just under two years after “Tutti Frutti” got popular music all shook up. Little Richard’s often imitated, never duplicated performance of a song—apocryphally much more profane prior to its recording, though it was plenty suggestive in its final version—became a jukebox sensation, one of the biggest of rock music’s Big Bangs captured in about 15 minutes of studio time. Specifically, Little Richard’s piano style—even, rather than swung, eighth notes—and percussive singing created a template for thousands of songs to come. .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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