With his “A-wop bop-a-loo-bop, a-lop bam boom” battle cry, the late singer-pianist embodied an irrepressible rebel spirit that inspired everyone from John Lennon to Jimi Hendrix
’ — I got that from Ruth Brown. I used to like the way she’d sing, ‘Mama-, he treats your daughter mean.’ I put it all together.” The first time he ever sang in front of people for spare change, it was a Sister Rosetta Tharpe song, “Strange Things Happening Every Day.” He devoted his life to being one of those strange things.
“Tutti Frutti” came together in New Orleans’ famous J&M Studio with producer Bumps Blackwell, along with a Crescent City all-star team: Earl Palmer on drums, Frank Fields on bass, Lee Allen on sax. It made Little Richard a star overnight. The same year he turned up in Don’t Knock the Rock . Getting famous overnight did not calm his built-for-speed personality. As he famously said in the Eighties, “If there was anything I loved better than a big penis it was a bigger penis.” He also did plenty of drugs over the years, tellingAt his peak of fame, he suddenly quit to enter the church, going to Bible college in Alabama and becoming a preacher, like his grandfather. He became a symbol of the eternal war between the gospel and the flesh. After 1958 he never reached the Top 10 again.
Little Richard embodied that uncrushably crazy rock & roll spirit, the sound of a kid who’s been told all his life that he’s nothing, erupting with the news that he is. That’s why “Rip It Up” and “Tutti Frutti,” and “The Girl Can’t Help It” still destroy. That’s why “a-wop bop-a-loo-bop” remains the ultimate scream of freedom.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Smash Mouth Singer Steve Harwell's Ex-Fiancee Gets Restraining OrderSmash Mouth's Steve Harwell's ex-fiancee has gotten a restraining order against him.
Read more »
Little Richard Dead at 87Little Richard, a giant in the early stages of Rock 'n' Roll and beyond, has died.
Read more »
Little Richard, flamboyant rock ‘n’ roll pioneer, dead at 87BREAKING: Little Richard, the self-proclaimed “architect of rock ‘n’ roll” has died. He was 87.
Read more »
10 videos that prove Little Richard rocked harder than anyone, everLittle Richard, who died on Saturday at 87, whipped audiences into frenzies from the earliest days of rock ’n' roll.
Read more »