Little Richard 1932-2020

Rock and roll pioneer Little Richard, known for his flamboyant style of performing, has died of cancer at his home in Nashville, Tennessee at age 87.  He had reportedly been sick for about two months.

Richard Wayne Penniman was born in Macon, Georgia, the third of 12 children of Charles "Bud" Penniman and the former Leva Mae Stewart.  Due to his short and thin frame, he was nicknamed "Lil' Richard" during his childhood.  He started singing in church, inspired by gospel performers, and played the alto sax for his school's marching band during fifth grade, but would later perform mostly with the piano.

During Penniman's teenage years, he joined several minstrel shows and eventually a band called Buster Brown's Orchestra, whose leader gave him the name "Little Richard".  He was hired as a frontman for Perry Welch and his Orchestra, before moving to Houston and forming bands the Tempo Toppers and later the Upsetters.  After bouncing around between several record companies with little success, Penniman recorded his first hit Tutti Frutti at J&M Studios with some of Fat Domino's session musicians.  He followed that song with other hits such as Long Tall Sally, Slippin' and Slidin', Lucille and Jenny Jenny.

Penniman's early shows were often attended by white and black fans, both of whom enjoyed his music although placed in segregated areas in the venues where he and his band performed.  Along with other early rock and roll singers, he showed that white audiences were willing to listen to black musicians.  Even so, many white-owned radio stations would not play music by black artists back then, so many whites got hear Tutti Frutti when Pat Boone covered it.  He would influence numerous rockers and R&B artists who came after him, including the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Tina Turner, Bob Seger and John Fogerty, to name just a few.

Richard Penniman was married only once, to Earnestine Harvin, in 1959.  They divorced in 1964.  He is survived by their adopted son Danny Jones.

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Naturally, I would remiss to not include some of Little Richard's music.  From the movie Don't Knock The Rock, this clip includes Long Tall Sally and Tutti Frutti.  The Beatles would cover Long Tall Sally, with lead vocals by Paul McCartney, who regarded Richard as an influence on his singing.

Richard's 1957 debut album Here's Little Richard featured Jenny Jenny.


Another one of Little Richard's early hits was Good Golly Miss Molly, performed live in this video from 1958.


I don't how often Little Richard was a guest musician, but in 1975, he played piano on Bachman-Turner Overdrive's Take It Like A Man.  Toward the end of the song, bassist/singer Fred Turner salutes Richard by name.