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No one did it quite like Little Richard!\u00a0 With his flashy outfits, freshly beat face, shiny hair piled high, zealous shrieks and gender-bending persona, Little Richard\u2019s showmanship was unmatched.<\/p>\nNo one did it quite like Little Richard!\u00a0 With his flashy outfits, freshly beat face, shiny hair piled high, zealous shrieks and gender-bending persona, Little Richard\u2019s showmanship was unmatched.<\/p>\n
Born Richard Wayne Penniman in Macon, Georgia, Little Richard was one of 12 children. He grew up around uncles who were preachers and a father who wasn\u2019t supportive of his music and accused him of being gay.\u00a0 After performing at the Tick Tock Club in Macon and winning a local talent show, Penniman landed his first record deal with RCA in 1951. (He became \u201cLittle Richard\u201d at 15 when the R&B and blues worlds were filled with acts like Little Esther and Little Milton).<\/p>\n
Penniman was one of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll\u2019s founding fathers who, along with Chuck Berry and Fats Domino, helped shatter the color line on the music charts and brought what was once called \u201crace music\u201d into the mainstream.\u00a0 Penniman was the ultimate performer whose style was to pound the keys mercilessly as he belted out hit after hit\u00a0starting with \u201cTutti Frutti,\u201d followed by showstoppers that included \u201cLong Tall Sally,\u201d \u201cRip It Up,\u201d \u201cLucille,\u201d \u201cGood Golly Miss Molly,\u201d \u201cLawdy Miss Clawdy,\u201d and \u201cKeep A-Knockin,\u201d all driven by his pumping piano, gospel-influenced vocals and sometimes sexually charged lyrics.\u00a0\u00a0Throughout his career, Little Richard would sell 30 million records.<\/p>\n
His musical influence was immeasurable\u00a0and was felt throughout the music industry by artists like Prince, James Brown, The Beatles, the Everly Brothers, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Kinks, David Bowie, Pat Boone, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, and the Scorpions, some of whom recorded or covered his classic songs.<\/p>\n
On several occasions, Penniman left secular music to return to God and the church, but he always came back to the music that fueled him and his throngs of fans.\u00a0 There has never been and will never be anyone like Little Richard! A\u00a0wop bob alu bob a wop bam boom!\u00a0 Little Richard died on May 9, 2020, at the age of 87.\u00a0\u00a0Legends are defined by their work and how it impacts the culture.\u00a0 We remember\u00a0Little Richard so others don\u2019t forget.<\/p>\n
#livinglegendsfoundation30 #blackmusicmonth #culturecreator #rootedinblackmusic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
No one did it quite like Little Richard!\u00a0 With his flashy outfits, freshly beat face, shiny hair piled high, zealous shrieks and gender-bending persona, Little Richard\u2019s showmanship was unmatched. Born […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"yoast_head":"\n