Album Review of ‘Here’s Little Richard’
One of the most revolutionary albums that was released during the 1950s and was the most liked rock n roll albums, ‘ Here’s Little Richard’ is the debut album that was released in the year 1957. Having been directed and sung in a raspy voice by Little Richard (Richard Wayne Penniman) himself, the album holds the place in the top 50 of the greatest albums ever, even today. Despite having made five decades ago, this album is possibly the greatest rock n roll hits, which people love to listen and remember even today. This particular album of Richard was on the top of the music charts during the time of its release, and precisely at #13 on the Billboard Pop Album list.
The kind of influence that Little Richard had in shaping the rock n roll (R&B) is undisputable. Apart from his uncertain sexuality and his wild acts while performing on stage, he brought a kind of liveliness and boastfulness to the genre of rock n roll, which even legends like Fats Domino and Ray Charles among others, could not accomplish during those days. A few interesting and audibly appealing tracks in this album include “Tutti Frutti,” “Ready Teddy,” “Long Tall Sally,” “Rip It Up,” and “Jenny Jenny,” remain exciting tracks even today, almost five decades after their initial release. There are also two other bonus tracks that are contained in this album, which are “Baby,” “All Night Long.” Most of the songs in this album have a hard-driven sound, wild lyrics, and are solo songs and also include the trademark wail of Richard ‘ooooohhh.’ The composition is in itself, a model of rock n roll music. Loud volume as well as unique vocalization, which are the typical characteristics of rock n roll music, are included by Richard in all the songs of this album.
Apart from just reviving the image of rock n roll that was prevalent those days, Little Richard also speeded up the blues and even went on to include the solo technique by the use of any one instrument, which can be a piano, a saxophone, or a guitar. This debut album of Little Richard had the above inclusions made to it as there were solo songs that were sung by Richard himself. This album had essentially created a ground for Richard in the music industry that paved the path for his future success and also the most popular releases of those days.
The album is a solid stab of the genres of rock n roll as well as R&B as the focus in these music albums were more on the energetic voice of Richard that also had his trademark humming of the “oooohh’ in a few songs. In addition to this, the instrumentation is simply remarkable as we can find lively and bouncy melodies coming from pianos, conspicuous wind sections as well as perceptible drum beats.
The drum beats were apparently stated as being highly perceptible because, until the release of this album of Little Richard, there were hardly any songs that were released during those days wherein the drum were audible as well as meaningful in the same breath. For instance, the start of the song "Keep a Knockin” is almost similar to that of Led Zeppelin’s "Rock and Roll" to an extent where one can even get Jimmy Page’s guitar during the course.
Musicologist Lee Hildebrand states that Little Richard had apparently attacked the piano with nonstop even patterns of eight note that was unquestionably different from Earl Palmer’s drum beat that has a shuffle rhythm.
Primarily, the most important pulse of rhythm and the blues in those days were swing and shuffle and this was revolutionized completely with the introduction of the even eight pattern that Little Richard introduced and this even went on to becoming the predominant driver of a majority of R&B and rock music not only during those days, but also continues even today. Simply said, Here’s Little Richard is a remarkable rock n roll masterpiece.
Works Cited
Bowling, David. Music Review: Little Richard - Here's Little Richard. 06 April 2012. Web. 31 March 2016. <http://blogcritics.org/music-review-little-richard-heres-little/>.
Foster, Stephen. Here's Little Richard. 19 April 2012. Web. 31 March 2016. <http://www.popmatters.com/review/156977-little-richard-heres-little-richard/>.
Manosg. Little Richard. 14 December 2014. Web. 31 March 2016. <http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/65270/Little-Richard-Little-Richard/>.
