Artist: Little Richard
Album: Here's Little Richard
Year: 1957
To sum Little Richard up in a few words: he's the loud version of Fats Domino. Both are purveyors of boogie-woogie piano and embryonic rock-and-roll, but Little Richard is by far the more exuberant performer, practically shout-singing and shrieking his way through upbeat, two-minute pop songs.
The most popular song on Here's Little Richard is "Tutti Frutti," which is well known as one of the quintessential tracks of early rock. I've always thought it was kind of a dumb song, and still do. It's got nonsense lyrics, rhymes for the sake of rhyming, but it's delivered with abundant enthusiasm and has a great hook. Damn, I guess I just described about 99% of today's pop music. Thanks, Little Richard. Thanks for starting that trend. Without you there almost certainly would be no Black Eyed Peas, and I'd be a much happier person for it.
I was surprised to find that once I got past "Tutti Frutti" there were some other really catchy tunes here. "Jenny Jenny" and "Long Tall Sally" are firecrackers; I can totally see where Michael Jackson got that whole shrieking thing from.
In the end, I guess I'm at best indifferent from when comes to Little Richard. This album kind of marked the beginning of "Loud + Dumb = $$$" and I just can't get behind that. I'd listen to the tuneful harmonies of Buddy Holly & the Crickets ten times again before I'd give the obnoxious Little Richard another spin.
Rating: Not worth a listen
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