Dec 052012
 

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  10 Responses to “Happy Birthday, Little Richard!”

  1. machinery

    I always thought of him as a more marketable version of Ray Charles — who in my book straddled the world of R&B and gospel in a more believable way.

    True, Little Richard may have rocked more … but better than Jerry Lee Lewis? I always lumped those two together in my young, white-boy way.

  2. machinery

    Oh, and every time I think of Little Richard the image of him saying “It’s Adam and Eve … not Adam and Steve!” pops into my mind. It was from some talk show he was on when he spoke about his re-conversion back to heterosexuality or something.

  3. bostonhistorian

    I’ve always been a Little Richard fan and think of Little Richard as a 1950s parent’s worst nightmare. Ray Charles was the earl of suavedom compared to Little Richard, and don’t even get me started on Esquerita….

    Little Richard sells pomade: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geD4MJCcLl8

  4. Suburban kid

    My first experience of Little Richard was when he appeared on the early ’70s version of “What’s My Line”. I thought, why does that man dress/ wear makeup like a woman? My 10 year old mind didn’t really delve into the cultural/sexual meanings beyond that. I just though he was kind of weird.

    I still see Little Richard as part of the pantheon of early rock and roll greats. Moreso lately because I’ve been listening to a lot of post-war R&B and jump blues that I never really bothered with before. Little Richard really distilled the essence of that sound into an even faster, tighter model and with an even smaller band unit (small jump blues bands had replaced the big band before that) and brought the vocals up several notches to what became the the rock and roll level.

  5. Little Richard played piano on BTO’s final appearance in the Top 40 (#33 in 1976).

    “Play it, Richard!”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVNeoDnkpgc

  6. Happy birthday Richard Pennimann. My father co starred with you in Fred Sears directed “Don’t knock the Rock”

  7. He’s one character that needs a really in depth documentary. He gets name checked all the time but even the people who “LOVE Little Richard” can’t really explain him. When his name comes up it’s usually followed by something like “when he was maybe a gay preacher wearing a peacock feathered corset on the Joan Rivers show……i think”

  8. HE IS THE GREATEST!!! ANYONE WHO DOESN’T “GET IT” W/ HIM, DOESN’T GET ROCK & ROLL (RAY CHARLES!?! PFFFT!!! MARKETABLE? IN 1950s AMERICA!?!)!!! THE EVIDENCE AND THE INFORMATION ARE ALL VERY EASILY OBTAINABLE (I’M PRESUMING YOU ALL HAVE INTERNET ACCESS, CORRECT?…SHEESH), SO, CHECK HIM OUT, OR, IN RICHARD’S WORDS, “SHUT UP!”

  9. diskojoe

    I recently watched the trainwreck called 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee for the 1st time & Little Richard appeared w/Jerry Lee Lewis & Fats Domino. They were playing pianos on top of each other & Little Richard was on top. It’s amazing that all three are still alive.

  10. I remember seeing Little Richard for the first time on an episode of American Bandstand in 1973 when I was seven years old. Even though he was long past his prime, he scared the hell out of my mom who was watching TV with me.

    No about it. He’s one of the all-time greats.

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