When you sit down and think about what rock ‘n’ roll music really is, then you have to change that question. Played up-tempo, you call it rock ‘n’ roll; at a regular tempo, you call it rhythm and blues.
~Little RichardLittle Richard Interview with Bill Boggs:
He claims to be “the architect of rock and roll”, and history would seem to bear out Little Richard’s boast. More than any other performer – save, perhaps, Elvis Presley, Little Richard blew the lid off the Fifties, laying the foundation for rock and roll with his explosive music and charismatic persona.
~Rock & Roll Hall of Fame website
Little Richard tribute video:
From Wikipedia:
| Birth name | Richard Wayne Penniman |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Little Richard, The King of Rockin ‘n’ Rollin’ Rhythm & Blues Soulin’. The Architect of Rock-and-Roll |
| Born | December 5, 1932 (age 86) |
| Origin | Macon, Georgia, U.S. |
| Genres | Rock and roll, rhythm and blues,soul, funk, gospel |
| Occupations | Musician, songwriter, recording artist, actor |
| Instruments | Vocals, piano, keyboards.saxophone |
| Years active | 1945 –present |
Richard Wayne Penniman (born December 5, 1932), known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the mid-1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and contributed significantly to the early development of soul music.
Lucille:
- Penniman was among the first group of inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986
- and one of only four of those artists (along with Ray Charles, James Brown, and Fats Domino) to also receive the Rhythm and Blues Foundation’s Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award.
- In 2003, Penniman was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
- In 2007, his 1955 original hit “Tutti Frutti” was voted Number 1 by an eclectic panel of renowned recording artists on Mojo’s The Top 100 Records That Changed The World, hailing the recording as “the sound of the birth of rock and roll.”
- In 2010, The United States of America’s Library of CongressNational Recording Registry added the groundbreaking recording to its registry, claiming that the hit, with its original “A-wop-bop-a-loo-mop-a-lop-bam-boom!” a cappella introduction, heralded a new era in music.
Tutti Frutti:
One of the original rock & roll greats, Little Richard merged the fire of gospel with New Orleans R&B, pounding the piano and wailing with gleeful abandon. While numerous other R&B greats of the early ’50s had been moving in a similar direction, none of them matched the sheer electricity of Richard’s vocals. With his bullet-speed deliveries, ecstatic trills, and the overjoyed force of personality in his singing, he was crucial in upping the voltage from high-powered R&B into the similar, yet different, guise of rock & roll.
~Richie Unterberger (allmusic.com)
Album of the day:
The Georgia Peach (1991)
-Egil & Hallgeir