Customer Reviews

The Fabulous Little Richard [Vinyl]

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Appears that when Little Richard broke his contract with Specialty Records, the company saw that it had perhaps an album and one half worth of material in the vaults, and much of it was left-overs, mostly from the first session, about three years earlier.

These were strong blues and blues-ballads, mainly, and may have served as B-sides if LR had stayed around. What to do? To use a trade expression of the time, add a "fem chorus". On some, it worked "Chicken Little Baby", "The Most I Can Offer", "Maybe I'm Right"); on others, it didn't, especially on the classic later recovered by Californian Frank Zappa ("Directly From My Heart To You" and...if can believe it...the B-side of "Tutti Frutti"! - the gospel-soul-blues masterpiece, "I'm Just A Lonely Guy").

Yes, by 1959, a softer, more "bubble-gum" sound was in vogue and Richard was not the only hard-rockin' artist to go that route. The story goes that Specilaty staffman Sonny Bono produced the overdubs.

But the album did contain some new material from that last session in October, 1958, including some of the rawest Richard on record: "She Knows How To Rock" and "Whole Lotta Shakin'". The most commercial, "Boo Hoo Hoo Hoo", a bouyant shuffle, somehow wound up on the B-side of the big seller, "Baby Face".

For the historian-fan, we have interesting remakes of Peacock material ("Directly" and "Maybe") and the model for the Beatles' "Kansas City". Folks, this one has nothing to do with the Wilbert Harrison hit!