Little Richard
To be inducted into my Music Artist Hall of Fame (DRAHoF) today is.... Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman, who is now age 85, has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. His dynamic music and charismatic showmanship laid the foundation for rock and roll.
Here's some interesting tidbits gathered from Wikipedia:
In childhood, he was nicknamed "Lil' Richard" by his family, because of his small and skinny frame.
He began singing with traveling shows that came through town and was losing interest in school. He would sing to draw people to the local town prophet and spiritualist, Doctor Nubilio, who wore a turban and a colorful cape, carried a black stick and exhibited something he called "the devil's child" - the dried-up body of a baby with claw feet like a bird and horns on its head. Nubilio told Little Richard that he was "gonna be famous" but that he would have to "go where the grass is greener."
"Tutti Frutti" and "Long Tall Sally" became his first hits in the mid 50's, both selling over a million copies. Others followed, including "Slippin' and Slidin'", "Rip It Up", "Ready Teddy", "The Girl Can't Help It", "Lucille" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly".
During a period of racial tension in the United States, Little Richard attracted mixed-race audiences at a time when public places were divided into "white" and "colored" domains. H.B. Barnum later explained that Little Richard "opened the door. He brought the races together". Prior to Little Richard, audiences in musical shows were either "all black or all white and no one else could come in." Little Richard's success enabled audiences of both races to enter the building, albeit still segregated (e.g. blacks on the balcony and whites on the main floor). By the end of Little Richard's performances, however, the audiences would come together to dance. Despite broadcasts on TV from local supremacist groups such as the North Alabama White Citizens Council warning that rock and roll "brings the races together," Little Richard's popularity was helping to shatter the myth that black performers could not successfully perform at "white-only venues," especially in the South where racism was most overt.
In October 1957, Little Richard embarked on a package tour in Australia with Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. During the middle of the tour, he shocked the public by announcing his decision to follow a life in the ministry. Little Richard later explained that during a flight from Melbourne to Sydney that he had seen the plane's red hot engines and felt angels were holding it up. During the Sydney performance, Little Richard saw a bright red fireball flying across the sky above him and was deeply shaken. He took the event, later revealed as the launching of the first artificial Earth satellite Sputnik 1, as a sign from God to repent from performing secular music and his wild lifestyle and enter the ministry. Returning to the states ten days early, Little Richard later learned that his original return flight had crashed into the Pacific Ocean solidifying his belief he was doing as God wanted.
He would later return to secular music. In 1962, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded Little Richard to tour Europe after telling him his records were still selling well there. Brian Epstein, the manager of the Beatles, asked Little Richard and Arden to allow his newly recorded band to open for Little Richard on some tour dates, to which they agreed. During this time, Little Richard advised the group on how to perform his songs and taught Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations.
Following years of drug and alcohol abuse and a string of recent personal tragedies in the '70's, Little Richard quit rock and roll music again in 1977 and returned to evangelism.
Reconciling his roles as evangelist and rock and roll musician for the first time, Little Richard stated that the genre could be used for good or evil.
Towards the end of the first decade of the new millennium, Rolling Stone reported that Little Richard remained "one of the most recognized and quotable celebrities in the world."
I've read lots of other interesting things about Little Richard, which I will probably excerpt and post later on...
Richard Wayne Penniman, who is now age 85, has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. His dynamic music and charismatic showmanship laid the foundation for rock and roll.
Here's some interesting tidbits gathered from Wikipedia:
In childhood, he was nicknamed "Lil' Richard" by his family, because of his small and skinny frame.
He began singing with traveling shows that came through town and was losing interest in school. He would sing to draw people to the local town prophet and spiritualist, Doctor Nubilio, who wore a turban and a colorful cape, carried a black stick and exhibited something he called "the devil's child" - the dried-up body of a baby with claw feet like a bird and horns on its head. Nubilio told Little Richard that he was "gonna be famous" but that he would have to "go where the grass is greener."
"Tutti Frutti" and "Long Tall Sally" became his first hits in the mid 50's, both selling over a million copies. Others followed, including "Slippin' and Slidin'", "Rip It Up", "Ready Teddy", "The Girl Can't Help It", "Lucille" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly".
During a period of racial tension in the United States, Little Richard attracted mixed-race audiences at a time when public places were divided into "white" and "colored" domains. H.B. Barnum later explained that Little Richard "opened the door. He brought the races together". Prior to Little Richard, audiences in musical shows were either "all black or all white and no one else could come in." Little Richard's success enabled audiences of both races to enter the building, albeit still segregated (e.g. blacks on the balcony and whites on the main floor). By the end of Little Richard's performances, however, the audiences would come together to dance. Despite broadcasts on TV from local supremacist groups such as the North Alabama White Citizens Council warning that rock and roll "brings the races together," Little Richard's popularity was helping to shatter the myth that black performers could not successfully perform at "white-only venues," especially in the South where racism was most overt.
In October 1957, Little Richard embarked on a package tour in Australia with Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. During the middle of the tour, he shocked the public by announcing his decision to follow a life in the ministry. Little Richard later explained that during a flight from Melbourne to Sydney that he had seen the plane's red hot engines and felt angels were holding it up. During the Sydney performance, Little Richard saw a bright red fireball flying across the sky above him and was deeply shaken. He took the event, later revealed as the launching of the first artificial Earth satellite Sputnik 1, as a sign from God to repent from performing secular music and his wild lifestyle and enter the ministry. Returning to the states ten days early, Little Richard later learned that his original return flight had crashed into the Pacific Ocean solidifying his belief he was doing as God wanted.
He would later return to secular music. In 1962, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded Little Richard to tour Europe after telling him his records were still selling well there. Brian Epstein, the manager of the Beatles, asked Little Richard and Arden to allow his newly recorded band to open for Little Richard on some tour dates, to which they agreed. During this time, Little Richard advised the group on how to perform his songs and taught Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations.
Following years of drug and alcohol abuse and a string of recent personal tragedies in the '70's, Little Richard quit rock and roll music again in 1977 and returned to evangelism.
Reconciling his roles as evangelist and rock and roll musician for the first time, Little Richard stated that the genre could be used for good or evil.
Towards the end of the first decade of the new millennium, Rolling Stone reported that Little Richard remained "one of the most recognized and quotable celebrities in the world."
I've read lots of other interesting things about Little Richard, which I will probably excerpt and post later on...