Avila Blues Fest: Little Richard has rocked the world

This talented singer-songwriter influenced generations in his 20s — from Elvis to the Beatles and Stones

By Patrick S. Pemberton

Like a lot of acts from the 1950s, Little Richard didn’t quite make the transition into the ’60s.

But while Little Richard couldn’t keep up with the genre he helped create, his influence would carry on with the biggest names in music. Acts such as The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and James Brown were all strongly influenced by Little Richard.

Born Richard Penniman 75 years ago, he still performs, having outlasted many of those he influenced. You can see him live when he headlines the Avila Beach Blues Festival later this month.

“He’s one of the great fathers of rock ’n’ roll,” said Cal Poly music professor Craig Russell. “He helped forge that when it hadn’t been there before him.”

Promoter Bruce Howard said he didn’t hesitate to snatch up Little Richard when he learned the performer of “Tutti Frutti” and “Long Tall Sally” was available.

“The people that I’ve talked to that have seen him within the past year said he still does a kick-ass show,” Howard said.

Little Richard got his first recording contract in the early ’50s and went on to score several hits, including “Keep A-Knocking,” “Good Golly Miss Molly” and “Lucille.” But America wasn’t quite ready for this flamboyant African-American, so many white performers who covered his songs, including the saccharine Pat Boone, actually outsold him.

“When I grew up Pat Boone was the dude,” Howard said. “And Pat Boone was the dude because they didn’t want black guys on TV.”

While many covered him, Little Richard’s biggest contribution is the impression he left on others. His attitude and energy, Russell said, rubbed off on future greats.

“In some respects, every time the Beatles took out their guitars and plugged them in, his influence was there,” Russell said.

And then there was his flamboyant fashion sense.

“How could there have been a glam rock and

David Bowie without Little Richard?” Russell asked.

Here’s a more detailed look at how Little Richard influenced some of rock’s legends:

Jimi Hendrix

After a stint in the Army, Hendrix played in various bands before he hooked up with Little Richard’s group in Atlanta. First he was Little Richard’s valet. But after sitting in with the band one night, he was invited back, eventually becoming a member in 1964.

“When I got him, he was a star,” Little Richard said in the 1973 documentary “Jimi Hendrix.”

Little Richard got upset with Hendrix’s flashy wardrobe, though, and insisted the band wear uniforms. Ironically, Little Richard —never one to hesitate in claiming credit for something —would later say Hendrix got his flamboyant fashion sense from him.

“He didn’t mind looking freaky,” Little Richard said in the documentary. “Because I was doing it before he was, and I know when he saw me, it gave him confidence.”

Hendrix was eventually fired for chronic tardiness. And after gigs with Ike and Tina Turner and the Isley Brothers, he eventually went solo.

In 1972, two years after Hendrix died, a collector’s album—“ Friends From the Beginning,” featured both Hendrix and Little Richard’s images on the cover. Songs included original tunes, like “Belle Stars” and “Funky Dish Rag” and covers of past songs, like “Lucille” and “Tutti Frutti.”

David Bowie

When he was a child, Bowie asked his dad to buy him a plastic saxophone because one day he wanted to play in Little Richard’s band.

Later, in 1963, Bowie saw Little Richard perform live in a show that featured the Rolling Stones as an opening act. While the Stones had a handful of fans rush the stage, he said, the crowd went nuts for the headliner.

“Everyone was there for Little Richard,” he told British talk show host Richard Parkinson.

More recently, Bowie’s wife bought him a piece of Little Richard’s past.

“My idol as a kid was Little Richard, and she knew that,” he told Parkinson. “So she found one of his original stage jackets from 1956 and she got it for me for an anniversary present.”

Elvis Presley

In a USA Today interview from 1991, Little Richard said if he’d been born white, there never would have been an Elvis Presley.

That may sound negative, but Little Richard said he and Elvis were actually friends who would often chat about rock music. And Little Richard has cited Elvis’ covers of his songs — including “Rip It Up” and “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” — as some of his favorites.

Though Elvis had much more success than Little Richard in an era when segregation was still in place, he helped bring what he called “race records” to white America, thereby giving artists like Little Richard and Chuck Berry a boost. In turn, Little Richard’s records helped propel Elvis as a new kind of artist.

While Elvis is called the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, Little Richard has always insisted he was the founder.

“I respect him as a great entertainer,” he told the Orange County Register in 1996. “But I also acknowledge that I’m the originator, the emancipator and the architect of rock ’n’ roll.”

James Brown

After the future Godfather of Soul heard Little Richard, he convinced his band, the Flames, to move to Macon, Ga., just so he could be closer to Little Richard. And when Little Richard abruptly quit rock to attend theological college in 1957, Brown took his place on tour. He also invited several members of Little Richard’s band, the Upsetters, to join his own.

Later, Brown would credit Little Richard with being the first to put funk into rock ’n’ roll. Meanwhile, Brown’s transition from soul to funk would extend his career another decade.

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones did their first tour with Little Richard, opening for him in Europe in 1963.

“I probably learned more in that six weeks, in one period, than I ever have before or since,” Keith Richards said at the American Music Awards in 1997.

In an earlier interview with the Vancouver Star, Mick Jagger said, “The first person I really admired was Little Richard.”

Little Richard has always been careful not to sound jealous of the Beatles and the Stones, but a little resentment came out in a piece he wrote for “Rolling Stone Magazine” in 2004: “The Rolling Stones started with me, but they’re going to always be in front of me. The Beatles started with me—at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany, before they ever made a record— but they’re going to always be in front of me. James Brown, Jimi Hendrix—these people started with me. I fed them, I talked to them, and they’re going to always be in front of me.”

The Beatles

Paul McCartney has said the first song he ever performed in public—at a talent show—was Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally,” one of several Little Richard tunes the Beatles later covered. When the Beatles were Little Richard’s opening act in Hamburg in 1962, Little Richard taught McCartney the falsetto “wooooo” that would become a trademark of McCartney’s vocal stylings.

During that 1962 tour, the Beatles also met Billy Preston, an organist with Little Richard, who would eventually perform key parts on later Beatles records.

While the Beatles grew musically, they still kept hold of the Little Richard influence, Russell said, performing Little Richard songs during the “Let it Be” sessions toward the end of their run. At a special show at the Cavern Club in 1999, McCartney paid tribute to Little Richard again by performing his songs live.