If you only know Little Richard from his preening, queening, prancing appearances on late-night talk shows over the past few years, these three CDs are going to surprise you. If, on the other hand, you know him from his mind-blowing, genre creating ’50s recordings that so inspired people like Paul McCartney and John Fogerty, then … these three CDs are going to surprise you. If you remember when these records came out in 1970, ’71 and ’72 then you’ll know what these three records are like. And you should all, no matter which category you fit into, be extremely happy that Collectors’ Choice has seen fit to reissue them.
The three albums were released in a limited edition from Rhino Handmade a couple of years ago. They included unreleased tracks as well as some songs Richard did for the Quincy Jones soundtrack $ (which is incredible! I have the vinyl LP!) but here Collectors’ Choice presents the original three Warner Bros. records just as they were.
Richard hit it big in 1955 with “Tutti Frutti.” Three years later he devoted himself to the gospel, but by the end of the ’60s, with the success of The Beatles (tell me “I’m Down” isn’t a Richard tribute!) the King of Rock and Roll made his comeback. Mo Ostin signed him to Reprise, and sent him to Muscle Shoals to record The Rill Thing. With Richardized versions of Hank Williams (“Lovesick Blues”) and the Beatles (“I Saw Her Standing There”), alongside some strong originals, this album (produced and arranged by Little Richard himself) was a powerful re-introduction to a major talent. Unfortunately, it didn’t sell. The next year he came back strong with King of Rock and Roll.
King of Rock and Roll found him paired with H.B. Barnum, who had produced Frank Sinatra and O.C. Smith. Again Little Richard takes on Hank Williams (“I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”), but this time he adds covers of ’60s and ’70s classics like “Brown Sugar,” “Joy to the World,” “The Way You Do the Things You Do” and “Born On the Bayou.” You might expect a bit of over-production with Barnum, but he finds a real balance between a full sound and the rockin’ R&B for which Little Richard was known. This one flat-out rocks, but didn’t sell.
That didn’t stop him and a year later he released The Second Coming. This time he was reunited with producer Bumps Blackwell, who had produced his early hits like “Good Golly Miss Molly” and “Rip It Up.” This time he takes Richard down to New Orleans with Earl Palmer on drums, and sax man Lee Allen from Fats Domino’s hits, on four tracks. Lots of horns, some wah-wah guitar (think Shaft) and outright funk. Sneaky Pete Kleinow makes a guest appearance playing pedal steel on a song he co-wrote with Mr. Penniman (that’s Richard Penniman!) “It Ain’t What You Do, It’s the Way That You Do It.” That’s pretty much the whole story of Little Richard, it ain’t so much what he does as the way he does it.
There are lots of rock’n’rollers, plenty of piano players, even a few shouters and screamers, but there’s only one Little Richard, and these re-releases find him if not at his peak, then very close to the mountaintop.
(Collectors’ Choice, 2009)
