Music Appreciation: The History of Rock Richard Wayne Penniman “Little Richard”

Richard Wayne Penniman was born December 5, 1932 one of twelve children. His father Charles "Bud" Penniman was a Seventh Day Adventist preacher who sold moonshine on the side. Richard grew up on a dirt street in an impoverished section of Macon, Georgia.

https://youtu.be/PgjCSY41L7Y Donnie & Marie Show 2000

Music was everywhere. Street vendors and evangelists who paraded down his block would sing as loud as they could, whether selling vegetables or religion, to get attention of folks inside. All the neighborhood sang freely as well, improvising on spiritual songs to keep them company as they worked. Some gospel singers, particularly Marion Williams of the Clara Ward singers, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Mahalia Jackson had a profound influence on Richard.

As a youngster he sang gospel with the Penniman Singers and Tiny Tots Quartet. Richard had an infectious, hyperactive personality that was contagious and made him popular, but also got him into trouble. He left home to dance to draw customers into a traveling medicine show. By age fifteen he was a regular with Sugarfoot Sam's Minstrel Show.

In 1951 at the age of 18 he won a talent contest in Atlanta that led to a recording contract with RCA Victor. Four records were recorded that went nowhere.

A local musician, Esquerita, took an interest in Richard and taught him some piano techniques.  Esquerita often wore heavy makeup, sunglasses, and two wigs, piling his pompadour high on his head.  Richard states that he first saw Esquerita getting off a bus at the Macon, GA Greyhound bus station, but doesn't say which year, presumably in the early 50's.

The self-proclaimed "Architect of Rock 'n' Roll", Richard traveled in his early days with the legendary vaudeville star Spencer "Snake" Anthony. One of Richard's early bands had the young, then unknown singer James Brown (the Godfather of Soul), a fourteen-year-old keyboardist named Billy Preston, and the famous and legendary rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix.

In the winter of 1952 Richard’s father was murdered and he returned to Macon to perform the blues at the Tick Tock Club in the evening while washing dishes at the cafeteria of a Greyhound bus station during the day.

Bill Wright, a local blues singer from New Orleans, might have been the person who had the greatest influence on Richard. When Richard  met Wright in 1952 he was immediately taken with Wright's  appearance. Wright wore pomade in hair that was piled high on his head and flashy clothes.  It was Wright's stage makeup of eyeliner and face powder (pancake 31) that really caught Richard's attention.

His first recording session took place at WGST in Atlanta, Georgia, USA; he was backed by a local band led by Billy Wright. This session produced a local hit called "Every Hour" which enjoyed heavy airplay on Atlanta's WERD radio station which was the first completely Black-owned radio station in the United States.

https://youtu.be/aF9fM5MXtns David Frost Show 1985

Back in Macon in early 1955 Richard was again working as a dishwasher when he cut a demo tape. Lloyd Price, whom he knew, suggested that the demo be sent to Specialty Records  with whom Price recorded.  Art Rupe, the owner of Speciality, was hardly impressed and it would be six months before Richard got a call.  A recording  session was arranged in New Orleans' J&M Studios, owned by Cosimo Matassa and the home studio of Fats Domino. Bumps Blackwell  was given the responsibility of meeting Richard and recording the session.

Initially, Blackwell was no more successful than his predecessors at recording Richard. They chose to record  generally slow blues and he felt that none of the songs were particularly good. During a break he and Richard went to the Dew Drop Inn. With few people there and an old upright piano, Richard started playing piano like crazy, singing loud, lewd and hamming it up. Blackwell was stunned… why couldn't he record this? Local lyricist was Dorothy LaBostrie was called to clean up the lyric. They went back to J&M and with only fifteen minutes left in the session. "Tutti Frutti, good booty" became "Tutti Frutti, aw-rutti" and the rest is history. https://youtu.be/F13JNjpNW6c

From the time he began with Specialty on September 13, 1955 until he left in October, 1957 Richard would record fifty songs, including alternate takes. From this wealth of material Specialty would release 9 singles and two albums. https://youtu.be/eFFgbc5Vcbw

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 the legendary boxer Joe Louis. In May 1957, Specialty Records released Little Richard's first album, which contained six single recordings that had already been hits on the charts. Here's Little Richard, which reached No. 13 on the Billboard Top LPs chart, then a rare feat for a rock and roll artist.

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.

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. 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.

For eighteen months between early 1956 to the middle of 1957 everything he recorded was a hit and club dates were sellouts. He appeared in several movies including "The Girl Can't Help It” for which he recorded the title track.

On October 12, 1957 he began a tour of Australia with Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent. In 1957, in the midst of a sold-out tour,  Richard quit rock 'n' roll, after  a plane scare, to become a preacher in the Seventh Day Adventist Church.  Specialty wouldn't let him out of his contract without one last session.

https://youtu.be/WPAnpvISiu4 Dick Cavett Show 1970

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. , Little Richard later learned that his original return flight had crashed into the Pacific Ocean solidifying his belief he was doing as God wanted.

In January 1959 he signed with an Los Angeles agency to set up a gospel tour and in June signed a recording contract with Gone Records. After three years of little success as a gospel performer Richard went back to Rock and Roll..  In October 1962 he began a tour of England and in 1963 he toured Europe with the Rolling Stones as his opening act. During this period, he also had the Beatles as an opening act. https://youtu.be/u0Ujb6lJ_mM Lucille (60s version)

A number of record companies took notice and invited him back to the studio, but they were only interested in repackaging his old hits. Specialty, in five sessions attempted to rekindle the 1957 magic.

Little Richard enjoyed a renewed popularity with the rock and roll revivals in the late '60s. In 1970 he signed with Reprise Records and had a minor hit with "Freedom Blues." For The Second Coming he was reunited with Bumps Blackwell, Lee Allen, and Earl Palmer.

Little Richard at Muhammed Ali’s 50th birthday https://youtu.be/AK_jm3Hz1Wk Performing at President Clinton’s Inauguration https://youtu.be/7WPymrU-l_w

In 1986 he appeared in the hit movie Down and Out in Beverly Hills, which included his first hit in sixteen years, "Great Gosh a 'Mighty," and recorded “Lifetime Friend” for Warner Brothers. He dueted with Phillip Bailey on the title song to the 1988 film Twins and sang background vocals on the minor U2/B.B. King hit “When Love Comes to Town" in 1989. In 1993 Little Richard performed at Bill Clinton's presidential inaugural.

https://youtu.be/_SUK8chqHac Unbeknownst to many fans, Richard overcame a debilitating drug habit and eventually became an ordained minister. Beginning in the 1980s, he saw a resurgence in his popularity as he acquired small acting roles where he impressed fans, old and new, with his unique comedic timing. As versatile and ageless as ever, Little Richard continues to delight fans the world over with his extraordinary stage presence and flamboyant antics. https://youtu.be/_SUK8chqHac (2013 performance)

Little Richard brought flamboyance to the stage Little Richard brought flamboyance to the stage. In an era that frowned upon homosexuality, Richard was an androgynous sort with makeup and fancy costumes, but also a wild, sexually explicit persona that likely confused some audience members. He dated females and was married, adding to the confusion about his personal life. Later, a similar stage persona would help David Bowie become an icon.

Little Richard was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. He also has a star on the Hollywood walk of fame.

https://youtu.be/4mB3u2jGGXY Tom Snyder Show 1997

Rock and Roll The Early Years https://youtu.be/SGweckD5cmY