The Essential Little Richard

by Little Richard

Product Description:

THE ESSENTIAL LITTLE RICHARD features 20 songs digitally remastered from the original session tapes.

Includes liner notes by Art Rupe.

If you want to get right to the core of the Little Richard discography, this is the disc you need. It contains the original recordings of all of his most popular singles, as released between 1955 and '58 on Specialty Records. As initially realized on these recordings, Richard's wild-man shouting vocal style and fiery piano pounding helped create the original rock & roll template. Coming out of the early-'50s R&B scene, Richard was a key figure in the transition between that music and the burgeoning rock & roll sound.

There's not much stylistic variation from song to song here, but who would want to mess with perfection? "Tutti Frutti," "Long Tall Sally," "Lucille," and others find Richard at the top of his game, with his frantic piano and Baptist preacher-on-a-bender singing providing an unprecedented energy level. The sheer kinetic excitement generated on these tunes is virtually without equal in any rock-related music before or since. It's easy to see why these songs were so inspirational to the Beatles, Kinks, and virtually every other '60s rock outfit.