![](\"http:\/\/i84.photobucket.com\/albums\/k32\/conqueroo\/HeresLittleRichard-COVER.jpg\")
Fifteen-song disc also features a never-before-heard interview
with Specialty Records founder Art Rupe about the discovery of the rock \u2019n\u2019 roll legend <\/p>\n
Fifteen-song disc also features a never-before-heard interview
with Specialty Records founder Art Rupe about the discovery of the rock \u2019n\u2019 roll legend <\/p>\n
Original album placed #50 in Rolling Stone\u2019s Greatest Albums of All Time.<\/p>\n
LOS ANGELES, Calif. \u2014 Rock \u2019n\u2019 roll may date back to Jackie Brenston\u2019s \u201cRocket 88\u201d in 1951 and perhaps further to blues\/swing hybrids of the 1940s. But many would contend that Little Richard\u2019s \u201cTutti Frutti,\u201d recorded at Cosimo Matassa\u2019s studio in new Orleans in September 1955, was the first great rock \u2019n\u2019 roll record. \u201cTutti Frutti\u201d kicks off Here\u2019s Little Richard, Concord Music Group’s expanded reissue of the original Specialty Records album from 1957. Street date is April 17, 2012.<\/p>\n
In addition to the original recordings of Little Richard\u2019s best known hits \u2014 \u201cLong Tall Sally,\u201d \u201cReady Teddy,\u201d \u201cJenny Jenny,\u201d \u201cRip It Up,\u201d \u201cSlippin\u2019 and Slidin\u2019\u201d and more \u2014 the Concord remastered reissue features two bonus tracks (Specialty demo recordings of \u201cBaby\u201d and \u201cAll Night Long\u201d) and two videos (screen tests of \u201cTutti Frutti\u201d and \u201cLong Tall Sally\u201d). The set contains liner notes by R&B musicologist Lee Hildebrand, as well as the notes from the original LP.<\/p>\n
Although Little Richard recorded for RCA Victor in 1951 and Peacock Records in 1953, his Specialty years \u2014 the 25-month period between September 1955 and October 1957 \u2014 proved monumental. As annotator Hildebrand writes, \u201cThey are quite possibly the most exciting and incendiary recordings in the annals of popular music and constitute a body of work upon which Richard\u2019s reputation as one of the primary architects of rock \u2019n\u2019 roll is measured.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard approached Specialty Records at the suggestion of R&B legend Lloyd Price, best known for the 1952 R&B hit \u201cLawdy Miss Clawdy.\u201d Richard and his band, the Upsetters, recorded a demo of two blues songs at Macon radio station WMBL-AM. The first, \u201cBaby,\u201d was a blues shuffle, the second a slow blues titled \u201cAll Night Long\u201d that featured B.B. King-style guitar by Thomas Hartwell. In fact Specialty owner Art Rupe happened to be looking for a singer like B.B. King, although staff producer Bumps Blackwell recalls Rupe as seeking the next Ray Charles. The demos didn\u2019t overwhelm Rupe, but he signed Little Richard anyway.<\/p>\n
Blackwell was assigned to record Richard in New Orleans, and the resulting session featuring pianist Huey Smith and saxophonist Lee Diamond begat eight standard-issue blues\/R&B songs. Then, during a break on the second day while Smith was out, the producer heard Richard sing \u201cTutti Frutti,\u201d accompanying himself on the piano. With only 15 minutes of studio time remaining, and the original lyrics cleaned up by songwriter and studio habitu\u00e9 Dorothy LaBostrie, there was no time for Smith to learn the piano part, so Richard played it himself. According to Hildebrand, \u201cRichard attacked the piano with incessant even-eight-note patters which was decidedly different from the shuffle rhythm drummer Earl Palmer was laying down behind him. Swing and shuffle beats had been the primary pulse of rhythm & blues until Richard introduced even eights that would come to drive most R&B and rock music and still do today.\u201d<\/p>\n
The song shot to #2 on Billboard\u2019s R&B charts and a creditable #17 pop. Rolling Stone rated it at #43 on its list of Greatest 500 Songs of All Time. Subsequent Little Richard Specialty hits dented Top 10 R&B and Top 20 pop. All the songs on Here\u2019s Little Richard were recorded in New Orleans with the exception of \u201cTrue, Fine Mama\u201d and \u201cShe\u2019s Got It,\u201d both made in Los Angeles, Specialty\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
Since abruptly giving up show business for God in October 1957, Richard\u2019s life has vacillated between religion and rock \u2019n\u2019 roll. Today at age 78, he lives in Nashville. Despite being wheelchair-bound, on July 3, 2011, he performed \u201cTutti Frutti\u201d and other hits on the nationally televised all-star \u201cA Capitol Fourth\u201d on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n