1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 8 Little Richard – Here's Little Richard (1957)

Interesting that what I tend to think of as the definitive version of Tutti Frutti was released (on album at least) after Elvis. And it turns out it was Little Richards’ song first, albeit he may have borrowed from traditional music. But then that’s pretty much expected for these early rock ‘n’ roll tracks, they tend to be adapted from earlier blues and gospel style music but given the characteristic rock ‘n’ roll tempo and stylings. 

Which is what we get in spades here. If you think of early 50s rock, pretty much all of the tracks here will be of that ilk. Little Richards’ unique selling point has to be that he was a pianist as frontman, rather than guitarist like, say Chuck Berry (who doesn’t appear in this list), with his energetic “foot on the keyboard” playing. Not that the piano is much in evidence on these recordings, but there is some classic rock and roll sax, and a few tracks (notably True, Fine Mama) still carry some of the earlier do-wop stylings. 

Richards’ distinctive raspy voice carries a lot of songs about fine women (Long Tall Sally, Miss Ann, Jenny Jenny, She’s Got It) with plenty of not-too hidden sexual overtones (check out the original lyrics of Tutti Frutti which ran “Tutti Frutti, Fine Booty”). Tame today, yes, but you can kind of see why the moralists of the time thought it was devil’s music. Ironic that Little Richard himself went all religious. 

Did I like this one? Yeah, it’s alright. I think that because it stands as a place in music history but has been around for 70 years now, there’s nothing to the modern listener looking back that seems fresh, and it’s easy to overlook how much of an impact Little Richard and others like him had on bringing music from the African American community to a wider audience. There’s no denying the sheer energy on display here.