Monday February 14, 2022 “Tutti Frutti” Little Richard
It is Black History Month and we would be remiss not to spend some musical time with a few of the Black artists that have done so much to create, inspire and influence the music that we listen to today. It is of course impossible over the short span of a week to take note of all of the singers and musicians that have originated styles that have been imitated, duplicated and copied by those that followed them but let’s touch on a few.
I was reading Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters founder Dave Grohl’s book The Storyteller and in it he writes about meeting Little Richard. Grohl and his Foo Fighters regularly play to stadium sized crowds, he hangs out with the likes of Paul McCartney and Barack Obama, he has played drums and guitar with pretty much every major talent in the music world and he said when he had the privilege of meeting Little Richard he was so starstruck he could not even speak intelligently to him.
I can relate.
Little Richard’s 1955 hit “Tutti Fruitti” was one of the very first tracks by a Black artist to break through racial barriers and succeed with white American audiences, as well as being successful in the UK. In a career that lasted over six decades, Little Richard (Richard Penniman) was cited by Paul McCartney as an influence on his own singing, and he inspired other pioneering rock’n’roll artists, among them Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Elton John, Bob Dylan and so many others.
Without Little Richard’s brash and energetic rock & roll that excited audiences and listeners there would be no Elvis, no Beatles, no Jerry Lee Lewis, no Piano Men. Little Richard has been nicknamed, variously, The Originator and The Innovator and in his own words ‘the Queen of Rock.”
Oh yeah, those "Tutti Frutti" lyrics. Little Richard explained that his original version had strikingly overt sexual lyrics which his record label Specialty had him change, otherwise it wouldn’t have gotten radio airplay and we would have been deprived of his amazing talent.
Today’s video is Little Richard's performance, aged 63, from the 1995 R&R Hall of Fame end of show jam. He was inducted in 1986.
Stay safe and well…and “wop bop a loo bop a lop bom bom.” Don’t you wish you knew what that lyric was originally. BTW that tall gentleman on guitar smiling and applauding at the end of the video is Steve Cropper from Booker T & the MGs and the Stax Records house band.