Saturday, December 5, 2009

Happy birthday, Little Richard



Prince might possibly have seen a few Little Richard clips in his time. What do you think?

Richard Wayne Penniman was born on 5 December 1932 in Macon, Georgia. This is him in 1956 singing “Lucille” on the Ed Sullivan Show. His first big hit was “Tutti Frutti” in 1955. That’s the one that starts “A wop bop a lu bop, a wop bam boom!”, still unbeaten as an intro to a song.

On 30 May this year, while performing in “The Domino Effect”, a tribute concert for his old friend Fats Domino, Little Richard was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame. Photos, a ton more information and some great sound clips from throughout his career here.

Monitor: Home Paddock

4 comments:

Chad Taylor said...

LR talks about it in this interview with Joan Rivers. The clip has been filmed from a TV monitor which heightens the colour but even given that, I can't begin to describe how weird it is.

The fun starts around 2:50.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S54LDJnCJvA

Stephen Stratford said...

What a great clip. He is every bit as funny as she is. And camper than Whangamata at New Year.

Don't those southerners talk like they're singing. That's a great line about Michael Jackson and the eyebrow pencil. And didn't Prince borrow that "Shut up!" routine for at least one song? I can remember "Shut up already. Damn" but not the rest. Maybe it's a black thang.

Chad Taylor said...

Murray Cammick had a live recording of Little Richard ranting "I AM the most BEAUTIFUL MAN in show business!" and "I AM the most BEAUTIFUL MAN in rock and roll!" I don't remember much music being played - just Richard's endless, twisted coke rave to raptured applause. Murray used the sound bites in his own on-air promo for BFM's Land of the Good Groove...

Stephen Stratford said...

And you know, I think he had a point. He really is a Georgia peach.