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  2. He really was the greatest. The voice, the look, the hair, the songs. He also showed piano players how to rock. RIP to the man who invented rock n roll.

  3. Incredible talent , his rock ‘n’ roll tracks were magnificent. He probably doesn’t get the recognition he deserves as a great soul singer, but he was that too.

  4. There was no one worth influencing he didn’t influence.

    If Little Richard isn’t mentioned in the first few paragraphs of any act’s reason for being, save yourself time and money and give them the elbow.

    • Complete nonsense of course, but he was certainly one of the key figures of early rock n roll.

      Saw him live once in a triple bill with Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis in a big venue, he was pretty awful relying way too much on backing singers and posing, but I am glad I got to see him live.

  7. Sad news. That generation – Elvis, Buddy, Little Richard, Jerry Lee, Chuck Berry – set the template and inspired many of the musicians I love the most. His energy – the energy of rock and roll – is as incandescent as ever on those great hits.

      • I mentioned this to a mate earlier. Jerry Lee and Don Everly, but over here Cliff, Tommy Steele, Joe Brown, Marty Wilde, most of them really. Must be the cleaner living.

        • That Jerry Lee is still alive and Little Richard lasted as long as he did is remarkable, given that neither were the clean living kind. Don Everly was no saint either. Mind you, until fairly recently, he was probably only keeping going to spite his brother.

          Not one of the above list of surviving Brit rockers were exactly wild men in their day, were they? Born to be mild, every last one.

  8. I have a jamming pal who is 73. He saw Little Richard at an early UK appearance in a package show in Manchester. He told me that Richard was the most electrifying act he has ever seen and that he had the whole audience at his command. My mate’s exact words were “if he’d told us all to take out a match, strike it and set fire to ourselves, we’d have done it”

  11. I stumbled on this yesterday. Fascinating edition of ITV’s The South Bank Show from 1985. He comes across as quite ruthlessly driven and ambitious, but also sharp, witty, and tremendous company. Reminded me a little of the young Muhammed Ali.
    Strongly recommend it, lots of interesting and revealing interviews, especially with former girlfriend Lee Angel.

  12. I never got to see him but I planted my feet where he stood a good few times. During Jazzfest in New Orleans in 1997, they opened up The Dew Drop Inn for one night to recreate a typical night when the club was thriving. I got to go. One main reason for going was to see where Richard, on a break from a dead end recording session, bashed out a spontaneous version of his original Tutti Frutti. You all know how that story goes.

    You might not know about this. Back then “Female Impersonators” were the MCs in the club and pretty much set the tone of the place. Richard talks about this in his book. On the night I was there all the table staff were dressed unisex, sort of a Kabuki look. Same hight, same look, same hair. The spirit of Little Richard was in the room and I’m saying no more.

    I did two hours of radio on the great man tonight.
    Hour 1 – http://podcast.canstream.co.uk/celticmusic/index.php?id=34098
    Hour 2 – http://podcast.canstream.co.uk/celticmusic/index.php?id=34099

  14. I was scrolling through the online albums of LR and there were a million rehashes of his golden rock’n’roll greats but, for mine, his best singing was in the Church, as it was for so many soul and blues singers.

    Here is some later period gospel

  16. I love all the classics of course, but one of my favourites is this soulful 1956 obscurity, backed by Johnny Otis’s band.

    Later picked up by the Zapmeister.

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