Little Richard (album)

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Little Richard
Little Richard's studio album

Publication
(s)

1958

admission

June 1956 to October 1957

Label (s) Specialty Records

Format (s)

LP

Genre (s)

Rock and roll

Title (number)

12

running time

xx min xx s

occupation New Orleans:
( The Studio Band )

Los Angeles / Washington DC:
( The Upsetters )

production

Robert "Bumps" Blackwell
Richard Penniman

Studio (s)

J&M Studio , New Orleans
Master Recorders , Los Angeles
Radio Studio , Washington, DC

chronology
Here's Little Richard
(1957) 		Little Richard The Fabulous Little Richard
(1959)

Little Richard , also called Little Richard - Vol. 2 , is the second music album by rock 'n' roll musician Little Richard . It was released on Specialty Records in December 1958 , a year after the singer terminated his contract in favor of priestly training. The LP combines recordings from 1956 and 1957, all of which had previously been released as singles.

Music genre

Little Richard presents the new musical genre rock 'n' roll in its purest form. While the tension on his debut album Here's Little Richard from 1957 fell a little, the second song compilation is more homogeneous and without weak points. Even adapted pop standards such as Baby Face and By the Light of the Silvery Moon became energetic through Little Richards Performance and the powerful play of his backing bands to rockers, so that the strategy of Richard's Management suspected by Mark Deming of addressing the parents' generation of young rock 'n' roll fans with a few pieces could not work. Even with the ballad Send Me Some Lovin ' , which is held in 12/8 time, the pace drops, but the groove does not . Otherwise, the album includes Keep A Knockin ' , Good Golly Miss Molly , Lucille and The Girl Can't Help It fast rock' n 'roll numbers in 4/4 time and with an accented backbeat based on the 12 bar Blues schemes. In the latter piece - unusual for Little Richard - the musicians of the band and the recording staff formed a choir that responded to the interpreter's calls in the principle of call and response . With the drum intro from Keep A Knockin ' , Charles Connor introduced the "Choo-Choo style" with just one striking beat on the first quarter, which is supposed to resemble the pounding of a steam train. Little Richard's follow-up album The Fabulous Little Richard used primarily blues pieces that were felt to be too weak for the first two albums, making the album the climax of rock 'n' roller creation.

History of origin

The recordings for Little Richard were made in several sessions between June 1956 and October 1957 in New Orleans, Los Angeles and Washington. The exact assignment of the songs to the recording sessions varies with different authors. Up until 1985, John Garodkin developed the Little Richard Special, a comprehensive session graphics and discography, some of which are considered obsolete. In the officially authorized biography The Life and Times of Little Richard Charles White in 1984, the author would like to thank for access to the archives of Specialty Records as well as the help of Little Richard, the producer Bumps Blackwell and songwriter John Marascalco shows Still not satisfied with the end result. Ray Topping was allowed to research the archives of Specialty Records again for the song overview of the 6-CD box The Complete Specialty Sessions , which was released in 1992 by Ace Records .

Apart from the fact that Garodkin had the productive session from 15./16. Moved to Los Angeles in October 1956, the authors agree that the renowned band of sound engineer Cosimo Matassa supported Little Richard on Send Me Some Lovin ' , Good Golly Miss Molly , Baby Face and I'll Never Let You Go . On 30./31. In July 1956 Heeby-Jeebies and All Around the World were created with the Studio Band in New Orleans. During a tour of the Eastern States on January 16, 1957, Richard recorded Keep A Knockin ' , which the sound engineer Abe Robyn in the master recorder studio in Los Angeles for, under his own direction with his live band The Upsetters on a radio station in Washington DC post-process the publication. Possible further sessions took place in June 1956 and on May 9, 1956.

The following table compares the three authors. The date, place (NO = New Orleans, LA = Los Angeles, WDC = Washington DC) and accompanying volume are given.

title John Garodkin Charles White Ray topping
Keep a knockin ' January 16, 1957, WDC, The Upsetters
By the Light of the Silvery Moon June 1956, LA, The Studio Band 15./16. October 1956, NO, The Studio Band
Send me some lovin ' 15./16. October 1956, LA, The Studio Band 15./16. October 1956, NO, The Studio Band
I'll never let you go 15./16. October 1956, LA, The Studio Band October 18, 1957, LA, The Upsetters
Heeby Jeebies 30./31. July 1956, NO, The Studio Band
All Around The World 30./31. July 1956, NO, The Studio Band
Good Golly Miss Molly 15./16. October 1956, LA, The Studio Band 15./16. October 1956, NO, The Studio Band
Baby face 15./16. October 1956, LA, The Studio Band 15./16. October 1956, NO, The Studio Band
Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey 15./16. October 1956, LA, The Studio Band February 10th, NO, The Studio Band May 9, 1956, NO, The Studio Band
Ooh! My soul January 16, 1957, WDC, The Upsetters October 18, 1957, LA, The Upsetters January 16, 1957, WDC, The Upsetters
The Girl Can't Help It 30./31. July 1956, NO, The Studio Band 15./16. October 1956, NO, The Studio Band
Lucille 15./16. October 1956, LA, The Studio Band January 16, 1957, WDC, The Upsetters 30./31. July 1956, NO, The Studio Band

Little Richard was not designed as an album. As for the previous album, the A&R management of Specialty Records selected suitable pieces from the artist's single releases and put them together as an album. Thus, after the singles 'chart successes, the record company again benefited from the then innovative format of the long-play edition, just as Little Richards' absence from recording made itself financially noticeable after he decided to study theology a year earlier.

Track list

Page 1:

  1. Keep A Knockin ' ( Richard Penniman ) - 2:11
  2. By the Light of the Silvery Moon ( Edward Madden ) - 2:03
  3. Send Me Some Lovin ' ( John Marascalco , Leo Price ) - 2:16
  4. I'll Never Let You Go (Richard Penniman) - 2:17
  5. Heeby-Jeebies ( Maybelle Jackson , John Marascalco) - 2:12
  6. All Around the World ( Bumps Blackwell , McKinley Millet ) - 2:18

Page 2:

  1. Good Golly, Miss Molly (Bumps Blackwell, John Marascalco) - 2:07
  2. Baby Face ( Harry Akst , Benny Davis ) - 2:11
  3. Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey (Richard Penniman) - 2:03
  4. Ooh! My Soul (Richard Penniman) - 1:50
  5. The Girl Can't Help It ( Bobby Troup ) - 2:29
  6. Lucille ( Albert Collins , Richard Penniman) - 2:21

Little Richard registered as an author for Keep A Knockin ' . However, the song is a blues standard that was recorded by James Wiggins back in 1928 and many times since then. All Around the World was penned by Li'l Millet , and producer Blackwell also claimed songwriting credits after recording with Little Richard. Albert Collins is registered as a composer and lyricist for Lucille , Richard obtained the co-authorship through his piano arrangement.

Publications and chart successes

The songs on Little Richard appeared on singles between October 1956 and November 1958 and all of them hit the American or British charts except for Heeby-Jeebies and I'll Never Let You Go . However, Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey only managed to do this in the medley with Kansas City , which appeared on the next album. Heeby-Jeebies started the releases together with She's Got It on Specialty 584, Richard's fourth single for the Californian label. The fifth single, number 591, includes The Girl Can't Help It (US R&B # 7 / US Pop # 49 / UK # 9) and All Around The World (# 13 / - / -), Lucille (# 1 / # 1 / # 10) and Send Me Some Lovin ' (# 3 / # 54 / -) share Specialty 598. Keep A Knockin' (# 2 / # 8 / # 21) was the successful A-side of Specialty 611 from September 1957. With Specialty 624, two tracks on the album came out together again: Good Golly Miss Molly (# 4 / # 10 / # 8) and Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey . Ooh! My Soul (# 15 / # 31 / # 22) is the b-side of True Fine Mama on Specialty 633, the label's tenth Little Richard single. The eleventh single, number 645, included I'll Never Let You Go and Baby Face (# 12 / # 41 / # 2). By the Light of the Silvery Moon (- / - / # 17) eventually graduated as the B-side of Wonderin ' on Specialty 660 in November 1958 and only charted in the UK.

The record itself appeared on Specialty LP-2103 under the title Little Richard in December 1958 in the United States. In the important European markets of Great Britain, France, the Netherlands and Italy, the license partner London Records took over the publication. A country-specific edition on Specialty takes place in Japan only in 1974. Another Dutch edition was called The Best of Little Richard on Artone Records . The same song compilation was distributed again under the title Little Richard and His Band in Great Britain, Australia and South Africa. In contrast to the singles on which it was based, the album did not reach any chart placement.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Mark Deming: Little Richard [1958]. In: Allmusic. Retrieved October 20, 2010 .
  2. ↑ a b c d John Garodkin: Little Richard Special . 2nd Edition. Mjoelner Edition, Praestoe 1984, ISBN 87-87721-14-7 , Specialty Records, pp. 23-66 .
  3. ^ Charles White: The Life and Times of Little Richard. The Authorized Biography . Omnibus Press, London, New York, Paris, Sydney, Copenhagen, Berlin, Madrid, Tokyo 2003, ISBN 0-7119-9761-6 , Recording Sessions, pp. 235-262 (first edition: 1984).
  4. ^ Ray Topping: Little Richard. The Specialty Sessions . 6 CD set. ACE Specialty, 1992 (English, Liner Notes).
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Little Richard. Billboard singles. In: All Music Guide. Retrieved May 31, 2008 (originally published in Billboard Magazine, multi-author database).
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h i UK Top 40 Hit Database. In: everyHit.com. Retrieved on May 31, 2008 (English, database maintained by several authors, "Little Richard" as search input under "Name of Artist").