This is a great album by one of the all-time greats.
My Rating:
One could try to exaggerate the importance of Little Richard to the foundational development of rock music. One would fail miserably. This is one of the artists without whom it is fair to say none of the music we love would have been created; or at the very least popular music today would sound a lot different.
The Beatles openly acknowledged their debt to Little Richard.1 Additionally, the Rolling Stones, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, David Bowie, and Bob Dylan all cited Richard as a key inspiration.2
“The Beatles learned their ecstatic falsetto shouts from him; James Brown said he was “the first to put the funk in rhythm.” In his yearbook, Bob Dylan noted that his ambition was “to join Little Richard,” and nine-year-old David Bowie bought a saxophone hoping to do that as well. Bowie’s glam period, the prancing and strutting of Mick Jagger, the psychosexual convolutions of Prince are all hard to imagine without Richard’s androgynous flamboyance leading the way.”3
A snippet of a lyric from “Long Tall Sally” even made it into the script of “Predator” as Mac, played by the great Bill Duke, tracks the Predator and repeats the line, “Gonna have me some fun.”4, which is a play on Richard’s lyric, “Havin' me some fun tonight woo”.5
Jimi Hendrix put it, “I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice.”6
At the time of release, Billboard wrote this about Here’s Little Richard: “One of the better r. &b. artists, Richard's frantic up -tempo mailings will definitely be greeted enthusiastically by the jive set.”7
Cashbox in its review: “With hardly a spare breath, the young entertainer belts out some of his biggest hits. Many a teener will delight in this refresher course of previous R&B smashes.”8
A retroactive review for AllMusic: With this record “…everything else he'd done -- and much of what others had recorded -- faded into insignificance when Richard wailed "A wop bop a loo mop a lomp bomp bomp" and kicked off one of the first great wailers in rock history.”9
In 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Michael Lydon wrote:
“Here’s Little Richard is rock ‘n’ roll’s stem cells - from this album (and half a dozen others in this book) the whole genre grew.”10
Charts
• Peak on Billboard 200 album chart: n/a
• Singles on Billboard Hot 100 charts:
>Tutti Frutti #21
>Long Tall Sally #13
>Slippin and Slidin #33
>Ready Teddy #44
>Rip It Up #27
>Miss Ann #56
>Jenny Jenny #1411
• RIAA certification: n/a
Released on March 4, 1957. Here’s what else was happening:
Pop Culture
• Number one song: Young Love by Tab Hunter12
• Number one album: Calypso by Harry Belafonte13
• Number one movie: The Ten Commandments by Cecille B. DeMille14
• Most watched TV program: I Love Lucy15
• NYT bestseller, fiction: Peyton Place by Grace Metalious16
• NYT bestseller, non-fiction: The FBI Story by Don Whitehead17
Some other notable albums released in 1957
• The “Chirping Crickets by The Crickets
• Gene Vincent & the Blue Caps by Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps
• The Everly Brothers by The Everly Brothers
• After School Session by Chuck Berry
• The Coasters by The Coasters
• Loving You by Elvis Presley18
Sport
• Mar 23 19th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: North Carolina beats Kansas, 54-53 (3 OT); Wilt Chamberlain of Kansas 4th player to be named tournament MOP despite not playing for the championship team.
• Mar 28 1st National Curling Championship held.19
Notable Births
• Mar 1 Jon Carroll, American pop vocalist (Starland Vocal Band - "Afternoon Delight"), born in Washington, D.C.
• Mar 4 Mykelti Williamson, American actor (Justified; Forrest Gump; Heat), born in St. Louis, Missouri.
• Mar 8 Clive Burr, English drummer (Iron Maiden, 1979-82), born in London, England (d. 2013).
• Mar 8 Cynthia Rothrock, actress (Lady Dragon, Honor & Glory), born in Wilmington, Delaware.
• Mar 10 Osama bin Laden, Islamic terrorist, murderer, founder of al-Qaeda, and all-around evil c--t, born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
• Mar 10 Shannon Lee Tweed, Canadian actress and Playboy playmate (Nov 1981, Playmate of the Year 1982), born in St Johns, Newfoundland.
• Mar 11 Cheryl Lynn, American disco and R&B singer-songwriter ("Got To Be Real"; "Every Time I Try to Say Goodbye"), born in Los Angeles, California.
• Mar 12 Marlon D Jackson, singer (Jackson 5), born in Gary, Indiana.
• Mar 18 Melvin Gentry, American R&B singer and guitarist (Midnight Star - "No Parking On The Dance Floor"; "Operator"), born in the USA.
• Mar 20 American film director (Do The Right Thing, Mo Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X), born in Atlanta, Georgia.
• Mar 20 Theresa Russell [Paup], actress (Black Widow, Razor's Edge), born in San Diego, California.
• Mar 26 Leeza Gibbons, American TV host (Entertainment Tonight, Leeza), born in Hartsville, South Carolina.
• Mar 28 Harvey Glance, American athlete (Olympic gold 4x100m relay 1976; World C'ship gold 4x100m relay 1987), born in Phenix City, Alabama (d. 2023).
• Mar 29 Christopher Lambert, French-American actor (Highlander, Subway, Greystoke, Why Me), born in Great Neck, New York
• Mar 30 Paul Reiser, American actor (My 2 Dads, Diner, Aliens, Mad About You), born in New York City
• Mar 30 Yelena Kondakova, Russian cosmonaut (Soyuz TM 20, STS 84, 1st woman to make a space flight of long duration), born in Mytishchi, Russia
• Mar 31 Marc McClure, San Mateo California, actor (Superman The Movie).20
Historical Events
• Mar 3 2nd Eurovision Song Contest: Corry Brokken for Netherlands wins singing "Net als toen" in Frankfurt.
• Mar 4 Gold Coast officially changes its name to Ghana ahead of its independence.
• Mar 4 The S&P 500 stock market index is introduced, replacing the S&P 90.
• Mar 6 Ghana (formerly Gold Coast) declares independence from the Un’d Kingdom.
• Mar 8 Egypt reopens the Suez Canal after Israel withdraws from occupied Egyptian territory.
• Mar 8 Israeli troops leave Egypt in compliance with UN resolution.
• Mar 8 USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test.
• Mar 11 Charles Van Doren finally loses on US TV game show "Twenty-One" after winning $129,000 - later revealed to be fixed.
• Mar 12 East Germany (DDR) accepts 22 Russian divisions.
• Mar 12 Random House and Houghton-Mifflin co-publish "The Cat in the Hat" by Dr. Seuss.
• Mar 13 Bloody battles in Cuba after the student led "Revolutionary Directorate" attacks the presidential palace in Havana in an unsuccessful attempt to depose dictator Fulgencio Batista.
• Mar 16 9th Emmy Awards: Phil Silvers Show, Robert Young & Loretta Young win.
• Mar 17 Presidential plane crashes on Mt. Manunggal in Cebu, Philippines killing 25 including Filipino President Ramon Magsaysay.
• Mar 22 Earthquake shakes San Francisco.
• Mar 23 US army sells last homing pigeons.
• Mar 25 Treaty of Rome establishes European Economic Community (Common Market).
• Mar 27 29th Academy Awards: "Around World in 80 Days", Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner win.21
Notable Deaths
• Mar 2 Harry E Soref, inventor (padlock), dies at 70.
• Mar 11 Richard E. Byrd, American aviator and polar explorer (1st to reach both the North Pole and South Pole by air - disputed), dies at 68.
• Mar 12 Josephine Hull (née Sherwood), American stage and screen Academy Award-winning actress (Harvey; Arsenic and Old Lace), and stage director, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at 80.
• Mar 31 Gene Lockhart, American actor (Going My Way), dies at 6522
Enjoy and listen without prejudice. Cheers!
On Prime: 118. Here's Little Richard by Little Richard
There are so many wonderful songs from this era that I had to pull together another playlist. Put this on and enjoy a look at the formative years of rock ‘n’ roll. 118. v2.0 Bonus
Full video playlist with lots of vintage performances: You're Welcome 118; Here's Little Richard by Little Richard
Erlewine, Harris.
Michael Lydon; 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die; p. 36
Ibid.