Little Richard

Pounding the piano and howling lyrics in a wild falsetto, Little Richard &Number 8212; the so-called Quasar of Rock &Number 8212; became a seminal figure in the birth of rock & roll. Little Richard's no-holds-barred style, mascara-coated eyelashes, and high &Number 8212; almost effeminate &Number 8212; pompadour were exotic and in many ways personified the new music's gleeful sexuality and spirit of rebellion. In his own way &Number 8212; and as he is wont to exclaim to anyone in earshot &Number 8212; he is the king of rock & roll.

One of 12 children, Penniman grew up in a devout Seventh-Day Adventist family; his two uncles and a grandfather were preachers, though his father sold bootleg whiskey. The young Penniman sang gospel and learned piano at a local church. But his parents never encouraged his musical interests, and at age 13 Penniman was ejected from their house. (In a 1982 televised interview, he claimed it was because of his homosexuality.) He moved in with a white family, Ann and Johnny Johnson, who ran Macon’s Tick Tock Club. There Richard first performed.

In 1951 Penniman won a contract with RCA after playing at an Atlanta radio audition. His recordings during the next two years were fairly conventional jump blues, like “Every Hour” and “Get Rich Quick,” neither of which made any commercial impression. In 1952 he moved to Houston, where he recorded for Don Robey’s Peacock label. Initially he recorded with the backup groups the Deuces of Rhythm and the Tempo Toppers, though in 1955 he switched to fronting the Johnny Otis Orchestra for four sides. He toured small black nightclubs, performing mostly blues; his rock numbers were not well received.

Down on his luck, he sent a demo tape to Art Rupe of Specialty Records in L.A., who, as luck would have it, had been looking for a hard-edged voice like Penniman’s to front some New Orleans musicians. Rupe signed on “Bumps” Blackwell as the producer and, with a Crescent City rhythm section, Little Richard entered the studio on September 14, 1955. One of the songs he cut was an old between-song filler piece called “Tutti Frutti” (with lyrics cleaned up by New Orleans writer Dorothy La Bostrie; one original line was “Tutti Frutti, good booty/If it don’t fit, don’t force it, you can grease it, make it easy”). Richard’s whooping, shouting vocals, sexy-dumb lyrics, and wild piano banging on “Tutti Frutti” set the style for his future hits. The single sold to both black and white fans &Number 8212; over 3 million copies by 1968 &Number 8212; and its influence was incalculable. Out of Richard’s approximately 36 sides for Specialty, seven were gold: “Tutti Frutti” (Number 17), “Long Tall Sally” (Number Six, “Rip It Up” (Number 17) in 1956; “Lucille” (Number 21), “Jenny, Jenny” (Number 10), and “Keep a Knockin’” (Number Eight in 1957; and “Good Golly, Miss Molly” (Number 10, 1958). Penniman also appeared in three early rock & roll movies: Don’t Knock the Rock (1956), The Girl Can’t Help It &Number 8212; in which his salacious reading of the title song is a revelation &Number 8212; (1956), and Mister Rock ’n’ Roll (1957).

But in 1957, at the height of his success, Little Richard suddenly quit his rock career after a tour of Australia. He claimed that a vision of the apocalypse came to him in a dream, and that he saw his own damnation. In his authorized biography he tells a story of a plane flight during which the overheated engines appeared in the darkness of night to be on fire. He prayed to God and promised that if the plane landed safely he would change his ways. A few days later, while performing outdoors, he caught a glimpse of the Russian satellite Sputnik, and days after that, a plane he was scheduled to have flown in crashed. Interpreting these incidents as divine signs that he should change his ways, Richard entered Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, where he received a B.A. and was purportedly ordained a minister in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. (Richard has since claimed that he was never a minister.) Specialty tried to keep his conversion a secret, issuing the hit “Keep a Knockin’,” pieced together from half-finished sessions. In 1959 he recorded his first religious album,God Is Real, which was reissued.

Little Richard did not return to rock until 1964. After a failed attempt to gain a major audience on the evangelical circuit with his gospel recordings, he tried to resurrect his rock following with the anachronistic and unsuccessful “Bama Lama Bama Loo” on Specialty in 1964. The world was already switching its attention to the newer sounds of the Beatles. (Ironically, Little Richard was one of Paul McCartney’s idols.) Through the years, Little Richard mounted many unsuccessful comeback attempts on Vee-Jay, Modern, Okeh, and Brunswick.

His best shot came in the early ’70s, when he got a contract with Reprise and recorded three R&B/rock LPs &Number 8212; The Rill Thing, King of Rock ’n’ Roll, and Second Coming &Number 8212; which garnered some fair critical notices and led to some recording sessions with Delaney and Bonnie and Canned Heat. Richard did some late-night talk shows and club dates during the early ’70s, but by the decade’s close, he was again stressing his attachment to the church, preaching and singing gospel, and renouncing rock & roll, drugs, and his own homosexuality. Over the years, he has alluded to having embraced heterosexuality, but in 2000 he probably described his past most accurately when he told the Los Angeles Times, “I was what you called back in that day a freak. I was flamboyant in every direction. I’m glad I’m able to look back on it and say, ‘Thank you, Lord,’ and go on.

The year 1984 saw the publication of The Life and Times of Little Richard, an authorized biography by Charles White. Incredibly frank, the book got plenty of attention for its juicy anecdotes (including a threesome with a stripper and Buddy Holly, and a mid-’70s bout with drug addiction) and guilt-ridden accounts of his battle to tame his sexuality. “Homosexuality is contagious,” he is quoted as having saying. “It’s not something you’re born with.” The book ends with a chapter-long sermon from Richard. Later he claimed that in some portions of the book he had been misquoted. He shares the copyright with Charles White and his longtime manager Robert “Bumps” Blackwell.

But one can never count Little Richard out of the spotlight for long, and in 1985 &Number 8212; at nearly age 60 &Number 8212; he launched a formidable comeback with a featured role in the hit film, Down and Out in Beverly Hills; he also appeared in Why Do Fools Fall in Love and Last Action Hero. He made guest appearances on such popular television series as Miami Vice, Martin, and Full House and has been a pitchman in commercials for a number of companies, including Taco Bell, McDonald’s, and Charlie perfume. He contributed backing vocals to the U2–B.B. King hit “When Love Comes to Town,” and duetted with Elton John on the latter’s Duets and Tanya Tucker on Rhythm, Country & Blues (“Somethin’ Else”).

In a development that surely would surprise his first-generation fans, Little Richard has had his greatest latter-day recording success with a new generation: their grandchildren. After recording a rock-rap version of “Itsy Bitsy Spider” for the all-star Pediatric Aids Foundation benefit album For Our Children, Richard recorded Shake It All About. It included children’s standards, such as “On Top of Old Smokey,” and his own “Keep a Knockin’” (complete with him yelling “Shut up!” to his background chorus of kids). He also appears on Kermit Unpigged (1994) and in Shelley Duvall’s award-winning children’s video, Mother Goose Rock ’n’ Rhyme. He also sang the theme song to the PBS children’s program, The Magic School Bus.

On into the 21st century, Little Richard remains one of the most recognized and quotable celebrities in the world. His life story was the subject of a made-for-TV movie in 2000, starring the actor Leon. The apparently ageless (and vegetarian) Richard continues to tour, his spirit and passion for the music &Number 8212; and himself &Number 8212; undiminished. As he announced from a stage shortly after his 66th birthday, “I’m still beautiful. I’m not conceited &Number 8212; I’m convinced!”

Little Richard was among the first 10 inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. In 1993 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He performed at Bill Clinton’s presidential inaugural in 1992. In his hometown of Macon he has been honored with a street bearing his name, Little Richard Penniman Boulevard. He has also received the Rhythm & Blues Foundation’s Pioneer Award.

from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)