Here's Little Richard (1957)

Here's Little Richard is the debut studio album by the American musician Little Richard, released on March 4, 1957. Promoted as "six of Little Richard's hits and six brand new

songs of hit calibre", the album compiles many of the A-sides and B-sides from Richard's hit singles including the Billboard top 40 entries "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally", "Slippin' and Slidin'", "Rip It Up" and "Jenny, Jenny" and the top 10 Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers hits "Ready Teddy", "She's Got It" and "Miss Ann".

The album's twelve tracks were produced by Robert "Bumps" Blackwell and recorded in New Orleans and Los Angeles in a highly collaborative process. Several of the songs included have been characterised as innovative and important in the development of rock and roll. Here's Little Richard was Richard's highest charting album, peaking at 13 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. In the years since its release, the album has been included in several lists of the greatest albums of all time including those by Rolling Stone and Time. In 2025, Uncut ranked it as the greatest album of the 1950s.

Background

Little Richard first achieved success after signing to Art Rupe's label Specialty Records and releasing the single "Tutti Frutti". A self-composed number which Richard had been performing live for some time, "Tutti Frutti" was recorded at J & M Studio, New Orleans in September 1955 after producer Robert "Bumps" Blackwell had Richard's ribald lyrics revised by songwriter Dorothy LaBostrie. The song's hollered refrain (often transcribed as "a-wop-bop-a-loo-mop-a-lop-bam-boom!"), hard-driving sound and unconventional lyrics became a model for many future Little Richard songs. Richard accompanies himself on piano on the song, playing eight-note patterns that have been cited as an innovation in rhythm and blues. In 2012, musicologist Lee Hildebrand stated "swing and shuffle beats had been the primary pulse of rhythm & blues until Richard introduced the even eights that would come to drive most R&B and rock music". Issued as a single in November 1955, "Tutti Frutti" was an instant hit, reaching No. 2 on Billboard magazine's Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers chart and crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and overseas in the United Kingdom.

In the wake of his single’s success, Richard travelled to Los Angeles and recorded demos at Specialty's offices, Radio Recorders and Ted Brinson's studio before returning to J & M. His style of working was marked by grinding rehearsals and close collaboration with Art Rupe, Bumps Blackwell, and recording engineer and studio owner Cosimo Matassa. The follow-up to "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally", was initially titled "The Thing" and was cut three times on different dates before Rupe was satisfied. In addition to the hallmarks carried over from "Tutti Frutti" such as Richard's falsetto "woo"s and his hammering boogie-woogie-styled piano, "Long Tall Sally" features a rapid fire vocal delivery. The song topped the Rhythm and Blues chart and its B-side, "Slippin' and Slidin'", reached No. 2. Richard's next single "Rip It Up / Ready Teddy" was his third million-seller, while "She's Got It" was another Rhythm & Blues top ten. By the end of 1956, Richard's success had led to appearances in the rock and roll films Don't Knock the Rock and The Girl Can't Help It. His frantic performance style saw him described as a "whirling dervish of modern entertainment" by Melody Maker.

Contents

Here's Little Richard was Specialty's first 12-inch LP. Assembled by Art Rupe, the album compiles Richard's six hit songs from 1955–56 alongside six previously unreleased cuts with each recording featuring his distinctive "totally untameable, anarchic vocal style" pushed forward. Among the new songs on the album, "Can't Believe You Wanna Leave" has been described as a "chugging blues lament" that, along with "Oh Why", resembles the "sedentary style of Fats Domino". The tender "Baby" has been likened to the work of Clyde McPhatter and the Drifters. "Miss Ann" alludes to Ann Howard, a Macon woman who ran the club Ann's Tic Toc Room. All of the songs on Here's Little Richard were recorded in New Orleans with the exception of "True, Fine Mama" and "She's Got It", both made in Los Angeles. The single "Jenny, Jenny/Miss Ann" was released from the album in June 1957. "Jenny, Jenny", described by Record Collector as a "joyous celebration of womanhood", peaked at number ten on the US Billboard Hot 100 and reached number two on the Hot Rhythm and Blues Singles chart.