Tag: Music History

Why do Artists record Cover Songs?

randydafoe27 Comments

(an updated post first published by Dave at A Sound Day)

It’s a discussion that comes up periodically so I thought I would update a post with my thoughts on the topic. And it’s a nice set-up for my next series dealing with Grammy-winning covers. If artists didn’t cover songs, then very often you would never have heard of it. I could give you hundreds of examples but here are just a couple easy ones, “Time is on My Side” by the Rolling Stones.

The original recording was in 1963 by the Kai Winding with Vocal Group, the vocals provided by Cissy Houston, Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick. Jerry Ragovoy wrote the song but there wasn’t much to the lyrics so Jimmy Norman fleshed them out and Irma Thomas was the first to record that one. Then covered by the Rolling Stones five months later in September of 1964. The Moody Blues, The O’Jays and Wilson Pickett covered it as well. The first instrumental recording was by George Martin in 1965. There 62 versions of the song.

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are the most successful and most covered Rock writing duo, yet The Rolling Stones as a band have covered 127 songs to date. Their first cover was Chuck Berry’s “Come On” in 1963.

Though it is more well known now, for the longest time most of us thought “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” by The Hollies was an original song. It was written by Bob Russell and Bobby Scott and first recorded by Kelly Gordon and released in April of 1969. Gordon was already successful for his arranging work with Bobby Gentry and shared in her Grammy Wins for “Ode to Billy Joe” in 1968. The Hollies version came out in September of 1969 and went to #3 in the UK and #7 and reemerged in 1988 to reach #1 in the UK.

We also have songs that are covered in earnest right out of the gate, ever heard of a tune called “Yesterday”? Released in the US on September 13, 1965, it was recorded over 70 times in 1966 alone, no other song had done that and very few have since. It has maintained its status as the most covered Pop song of all time with thousands of versions. So, who were these bandwagon-jumping wannabes who couldn’t come up with their own iconic ballad?

If we put aside the 13 covers from 1965 and focus on 1966, we have names such as Sarah Vaughn, The Supremes, Brenda Lee, Johnny Mathis, Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, John Denver, Andy Williams, Patti LaBelle, Perry Como, Count Basie and an up and comer named Freda Payne. These are instantly recognizable names from just one year alone. Here are more icons of the music world; Tom Jones, Joan Baez, Tammy Wynette, Smokey Robinson, and Gladys Knight take us to 1968. And, the first of 14 covers in 1969 was by Frank Sinatra. These are not your typical follow-the-leader kind of people.

Just what is the motivation behind the recording of a cover song? First, we need to understand a bit of the evolution of the term itself. I think we can all agree on the basic definition: the rerecording of an original song. In the early days of recording, a popular song was reproduced by a Record Label primarily to literally smother the original and any competing versions. After all, it was all about sales. The Label hoped that their performer would outsell the other guy. For the buying public if you had a favorite Orchestra/Big Band/singer then the chances are you could get their version of the popular songs of the day.

Despite it being profitable for most Labels, in the early days, few people could actually afford a phonograph and buy records, so it was the still Radio or the Jukebox at the local Jazz Club. Regionality played a big part as well, not only for the popularity of the song be it the original or cover. The availability of the actual records was part of the dynamic as well. They were not manufactured just anywhere due to the lack of today’s sophisticated distribution methods so sometimes a hit song from Chicago was a hit song by a different artist on the West Coast. It was also not usual for both or several versions to make the charts at the same time.

As the business flourished a cover song often meant another single. Making records also included the ‘making’ of the physical thing. These records were “pressed” in manufacturing plants in places you may not expect. For example, I just picked up a Ray Charles Album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music from 1962. It’s an album of cover songs. It was manufactured in my hometown of London Ontario by a company called Sparton Records founded in 1930. One of about six or seven record-pressing plants for ABC Records in North America. Unfortunately for Sparton, ABC switched to Polydor Records which were made by Musimart, Ltd. in Montreal and effectively put them out of the record pressing business in 1968 but they carried on in some form finishing as a digital company which closed in 2009.

No matter where they were made, into the 1960’s these cover versions would most often be almost identical to the original, whether instrumental or with vocals, the music, arrangement the whole thing was a copy. Ok maybe your vocalist was female, and the others were male, but the premise was to mimic. This was the way of the cover song for many years.

I shan’t bore you with the whole life cycle of the cover song and indeed every song has its story. Some are like the Cicada and only come out every 17 years or so, some are of the more perennial variety. Let’s get back to “Yesterday” as we can surmise many motivations. First, if I am a Record Label, I want a piece of the sales action on a massively popular song. If I am a recording artist, I want to keep both my Label and my fans happy and loyal to me. Sometimes my contract made me do it.

Oh, sure many covers were done as a tribute, some were heartfelt and full of emotion. Some had a different take on the song but most I have to say, stick close to the original. The year 1965 was a pivotal point in cover song history as there was no other song that captured the attention and the vast number of covers like “Yesterday” and there has not been another song to rival it since.

This is of course excluding Christmas Songs and a few select ‘Standards’ such as the show tune “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess or the ditty known as “Greensleeves” circa 1580, adding in the various adaptations it has 1950 versions. So some have more total versions yet none of these match the same number of covers in one year. And no other ‘Pop’ song has come close, and as I showed on the 2024 Update of the Most Covered Pop Songs of all Time, “Yesterday” is followed by “Eleanor Rigby” on that list.

Just a little point of interest, Secondhandsongs.com lists the most covered songs by year and the database starts at the year 1711 with “Lascia ch’io pianga” having 16 covers.

Seasonal songs are a bit easier to explain, and no we don’t need another rendition of “Silent Night”, but new ones will appear on your favorite artists Christmas Album and Orchestras and Choirs issue recordings annually. As to the non-traditional or ‘Pop’ song, why do we have anywhere from a dozen to hundreds and even thousands of versions? I am all for an artist putting their own ‘spin’ on a song, often we see this when the song switches genre such as Johnny Cash and “Hurt” or Disturbed with “The Sound of Silence”.

One of the greatest songs ever, and not just my opinion is the cover of Otis Redding’s “Respect” by Aretha Franklin who, as we all know turned the song on its head to create a new work of art. But a different voice to a song is sometimes all it takes. An amazing and beautiful song is sometimes just that, and we enjoy hearing it again and again by the same or different performers.

Most often, it’s a cover of a legendary artist like Bob Dylan who has been out charted on his original songs more than any other performer. Case in point “All Along the Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix, “Mr. Tambourine Man” by The Byrds, “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” by Guns and Roses or “Quinn the Eskimo” by Manfred Mann (“Mighty Quinn”) to name just a few. For over 50 years Billboards most successful single was Chubby Checkers “The Twist” which was a deliberate note for note cover of Hank Ballard’s original.

The motivation to ‘smother’ the original had less and less to do with it as time went on. A cover may come from something more obscure such as Tony Bennett’s signature song “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”. First performed by Claramae Turner in 1954 and for several years live on stage but never put to vinyl, the first record release was by Ceil Clayton in 1960 and she did not chart. By happenstance, it made its way to Bennett and needing a song, he recorded it and it was casually released as a “B” side in 1962.

DJs however (as they often do) had minds of their own and ignored the “A” side and went straight to San Francisco. Bennett had a Gold Record, it won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year, and he won for Best Male Solo Performance. Now that’s some motivation to cover a song!

In fact, many a Grammy has been won with a cover song. How many you ask? Since the first Grammy Awards in 1959 for Song of the Year, 19 of the winners were cover songs. And for Record of the Year 17 winners. Perhaps a thing of the past as the last cover to win was in 2003. Find out which songs were the winners in my upcoming series.

Sources; Secondhandsongs.com, Grammy Winners

Boogie Woogie

randydafoe35 Comments
Meade Lux Lewis with his original composition first recorded in 1927 “Honky Tonk Train Blues”

Anderson Meade Lewis was known as Meade Lux Lewis (1905-1964). While he did not invent Boogie Woogie, he is a good place to start the conversation. Meade was from Chicago which in the 1920s was becoming a leading center for Boogie Woogie music.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Just what is Boogie Woogie anyway?

As I often say when trying to explain anything to anyone (who is not my wife), “I am no expert”. Surprisingly she is still not convinced, where was I? Yes, a definition.

Boogie Woogie Beginnings

It’s a bit hard to define precisely from what I have read over the years. Carnegie Hall played a very important part in the genre so I looked to their website for a definition. I can’t find a better one, and my reading and notes just won’t gel for me so here it is from Carnegie.

“Boogie-woogie, primarily a piano-based style, is one of the most rhythmically intense forms of blues music. Its evolution began in the late 1800s among pianists in the rough-and-tumble city taverns and rural juke joints, and it spread to the traveling vaudeville shows. It was a feature in the barrelhouses in the logging, sawmill, turpentine, levee, and railroad camps throughout the South. In Texas the piano style was known as “fast western.” The basic boogie-woogie rhythm, an outgrowth of ragtime and rural blues, is said to have been inspired by the rhythmic clacking of steam locomotives throughout the Deep South”.

We know a few things more specifically, the suggestion is the origins may be from Piney Woods, Texas. It was there in the 1870s that Black piano players seemed to have developed the style while playing at the nearby camps mentioned in the definition. It’s typified by the left hand holding a bass pattern (a walking bass line), and the right hand playing a counter pattern with more variety. You may have heard the term “Left Hand of/like God”1.

Some reading I did suggests it and the sort of low-level Barrelhouse (cheap saloons) music is one and the same. It’s true in the early days there were similarities and many played in a hybrid of Barrelhouse/Ragtime/Boogie Woogie with the latter evolving far beyond, having a distinctive style.

This sound gave a great dance beat and small buildings were erected at these camps and a piano was put in place for the workers to let off some steam. The piano players began to travel from camp to camp and more and more people, both blacks and whites were learning the style. Oh, and that Meade Lux Lewis song “Honky Tonk Train Blues” was a real thing, trains with pianos and no seats, just a dance floor. By the early 1900’s the music was now ubiquitous throughout the South and players shared stages with the other Blues players of the day.

Well, it turns out you just can’t keep a good thing to yourself and that right hand was adding more melodies, riffs, licks, and any number of fancy things (technical term). Like other forms of The Blues, it was transported North during the Great Migration. St. Louis, Detroit, and Chicago in particular were really boogie-woogie-ing. We had stuff going “Down in New Orleans”2 as well.

Now, a hundred things were going on with Boogie Woogie, but I am writing a blog post here so I am compressing things a lot. For example, apart from as mentioned above, there is an intersection here with Stride Jazz. And don’t get me started on the guitar players like Blind Lemon Jefferson and Big Bill Broonzy who were exposed to it and incorporated this style.

“Pine Top’s Boogie Woogie” by (Clarence) Pinetop Smith. You could not have a better instructional audio. Among other things, he tells people to “mess around” which is a dance move. That’s what Boogie Woogie was all about.

Early Names

I could toss you dozens of names from Romeo Nelson to Cripple Clarence and Roosevelt Sykes but let’s follow one particular path. Practitioners such as the Composer George Washington Thomas (“The New Orleans Hop Scop Blues“) and his brother Hersal, brought it to Chicago. This is where pioneer Jimmy Yancy would come into the picture and influence Meade Lux Lewis and his childhood friend Albert Ammons. A third player, Pinetop Smith who had played in Ma Rainey’s band came to Chicago on the advice of another very important early boogie-woogie-style piano player known as Cow Cow Davenport. Smith’s “Pinetop’s Blues” and “Pinetops Boogie Woogie” from 1928 are genre standards. As it happens Meade and Albert would also learn from Pinetop and at one point they were rooming together in Chicago.

The Depression arrived and the dollars for buying records were few and Boogie Woogie piano was rarely recorded and mostly relegated to shows in the South. The whole live entertainment industry was suffering along with almost everyone else. So for Meade and other musicians, there were no venues in Chicago where he could get a gig. That would change in 1938 when John Hammond found him washing cars for a living and gave him an invitation.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

Sometime back I did a guest piece for Turntable Talk 11 where I wrote about the important event called the From Spirituals to Swing concerts, the first (one at least) was a tribute to the late Bessie Smith and held at Carnegie Hall on December 23, 1938, and a second show a year later on December 24, 1939. As part of many legendary leaders in music, that first event featured Count Basie, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and the first concert was the setting for a debut performance of some of the recently deceased Robert Johnson’s songs. The second show it was the Benny Goodman Sextet and returning was Count Basie and this time with vocalist Helen Humes.

The event was organized by John Hammond who I have spoken about many times and his importance to American music cannot be understated. When he found Meade in Chicago he asked him to play this gig at Carnegie Hall. Among the many Blues, Big Band and Gospel artists singing/playing, were his friends Albert Ammons and Pinetop Smith. Along with Big Joe Turner and Pete Johnson, over the two shows they would perform Boogie Woogie Piano for the first time before a New York audience. This led to appearances at many New York venues including the swanky Café Society nightclub, which opened in 1939.

The Proliferation

The Andrew Sisters “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”

Soon Boogie Woogie, sometimes more in name than style was showing up everywhere. Yes, I do mean everywhere. And why not, the music was a lot of fun. From The Andrew Sisters “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” (1941) to Judy Garland and Novelty Songs and it had already found its way into Texas Swing. We even had Country and Western Music star Tennessee Ernie Ford’s “Shotgun Boogie”. It was in Big Band music, Tommy Dorsey, etc., and in a small way, other forms of Jazz Music (the purists hated it). You had Cab Calloway using it in his act to any number of songs with some kind of “Boogie” and or “Woogie” in it or in the title. And movies, of course.

Sugar Chile Robinson was born in 1938 and is still with us today at age 85.

On the downside you had Meade Lux Lewis refused membership into ASCAP, the publishing organization that would have allowed him to collect royalties from his song that I started the post with “Honky Tonk Train Blues”. It now has nearly 100 versions. After a bit of a battle he was allowed to join ASCAP in 1942. Unfortunately this was after Bob Crosby and His Orchestra had sold many records with his “Honky Tonk Train Blues” in 1939 and “Yancy Blues” in 1938.

Until it was reversed after he was exposed by John Hammond, Decca Executive Jack Kapp copyrighted the words “Boogie Woogie” in an effort to control (collect royalties) from all the so-named songs including the pioneering Smith’s “Pinetops Boogie Woogie”, which was the first time the words were used in a recorded song title.

The amazing Martha Davis. “Martha’s Boogie”. That’s her husband Calvin Ponder on Bass.

As with any good thing, the high never lasts. Remember that Swifties. There was a downturn and of course, there had been and still are the detractors as well. Jelly Roll Morton, said to be an early proponent had a clause in his contract stating he could not be asked to perform a Boogie Woogie song. Others would call it rudimentary music and lacking in any artistic merit.

Still, the style now included tunes from the guitar, ensembles, and whole orchestras. As for the piano players some more than others were adept at many styles but if Boogie Woogie was your forte you needed to find an audience.

Despite the lack of interest in most of the US, as I alluded to earlier some people in New Orleans were feeling differently. So were many Europeans. You may have heard about some of that, and this whole Rock and Roll thing, something familiar there as well.

It sounds like we need a Part 2. This has been a long one so we will give it a few days before I write/post it. In the meantime, over the next while, I will just send out a couple clips of some of the great names in Boogie Woogie. Thanks for reading as always.

  1. Further reading: The Story of Boogie-Woogie: A Left Hand Like God by Peter J. Silvester ↩︎
  2. That’s a Dr. John song reference ↩︎

Randy’s Rarities

randydafoe16 Comments

As I was perusing my digital music collection the other day I noticed several songs I had not listened to in quite some time. Not only that, they are songs which the artists are unknown to most and at best very little heard from. Most of them are from the 50’s thru 70’s, not surprisingly as that makes up most of the music anyway. So I thought I would run a series on these songs, and artists, some charted a song or two but many did not reach a national let alone international level of success. Most had very short and yet others had surprisingly long careers.

There is a reason I have these songs, some I found through cover versions and I backtracked to find the originals others have a relationship to another artist perhaps. Others I just happened to like. Some readers will no doubt recall a tune or two but there’s a reason I am calling them Randy’s Rarities. I hope you enjoy the music.

The Great American Songbook – Top 10 Most Covered Songs

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Based on statistics gathered from Secondhandsongs.com in March 2024.

  1. “Summertime” Covered 2773 times1. The music was written by George Gershwin with original lyrics written by DuBose Heyward and a credit given to Ira Gershwin. It was from the opera Porgy and Bess. The first recorded version was in 1935 by Abbie Mitchell under the direction of George Gershwin but not released until 1974. The first recorded version released was by Helen Jepson in 1935.
  2. “Over the Rainbow” Covered 1768 times. The music was written by Harold Arlen and the lyrics by E.Y. Harburg. The recording for the movie The Wizard of Oz was October 7, 1938 by Judy Garland, the movie came out in August of 1939. The first record was released by Larry Clinton & His Orchestra – Vocal Refrain by Bea Wain, on March 1, 1939. Judy Garland’s recording was with Victor Young and His Orchestra, released in September of 1939, and was of course the hit song most will remember.
  3. “Body and Soul” Covered 1553 times. The music was written by Johnny Green and the lyrics by Edward Heyman, Frank Eyton, and Robert Sour. The first recording was by Jack Hylton and His Orchestra – Vocal Refrain by Pat O’Malley released in 1930.
  4. “All the Things You Are” Covered 1551 times. The music was written by Jerome Kern and the lyrics written by Oscar Hammerstein II. The first recording release was by Eddy Duchin and His Orchestra – Vocal Chorus by Stanley Worth. It was written for the 1939 musical Very Warm for May.
  5. “My Funny Valentine” Covered 1489 times. The music was written by Richard Rodgers and the lyrics were written by Lorenz Hart. The first recording was by Hal McIntyre and His Orchestra – Vocal Refrain by Ruth Gaylor in December of 1944 and released in January 1945. The first vocal performance was by Mitzi Green for the stage musical Babes in Arms in 1937.
  6. “Stardust” Covered 1202 times. The music was written by Hoagy Carmichael. First released as an instrumental by Hoagy Carmichael and His Pals in 1928. Included in this number there are about 220 plus Vocal versions, with lyrics by Mitchell Parish, first released by Chester Leighton & His Sophomores – Vocal Chorus by Chester Leighton in 1931.
  7. “Night and Day” Covered 1072 times. The music and lyric’s written by Cole Porter. The first recording was by Leo Reisman and His Orchestra – Vocal Refrain by Fred Astaire, released in 1933. First performed by Fred Astaire and Claire Luce for the stage production of Gay Divorce. It was Ginger Rogers with Fred Astaire for the 1934 film version, which was retitled The Gay Divorcee.
  8. “Sweet Georgia Brown” Covered 1052 times. The music and words written by Ben Bernie, Kenneth Casey and Maceo Pinkard, first released in 1925 by Ben Bernie and His Hotel Roosevelt Orchestra. There about 220 plus Vocal versions the first by Ethel Waters and Her Ebony Four.
  9. “Moon River” Covered 1048 times. The music was written by Henry Mancini and lyrics written by Johnny Mercer. The first recording was in 1960 and released in 1961 by Henry Mancini and His Orchestra and Chorus. The first theatrical release was by Audrey Hepburn October 5, 1961. Her recording was not released until 1993.
  10. ‘Georgia on My Mind” Covered 1031 times. The music was written by Hoagy Carmichael and the lyrics were written by Stuart Gorrell. First released by Hoagy Carmichael and His Orchestra in 1930.

  1. I am aware that other sources quote numbers of covers of various songs, and there has been special attention paid to “Summertime”. I believe the latest from the Guinness Book (2017) for 67,591 cover versions. I use Secondhandsongs.com to provide a more level look at verified covers from a database of over 145,000 songs. I like to think it’s a more balanced or “apples-to-apples” comparison. Therefore they cannot commit the resources to investigate just one song. Albeit their data shows it at #1 regardless of the number of versions. ↩︎

Little Richard Revisited

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Little Richard

Richard Penniman was born in Macon Georgia, on December 5th, 1932, and since my blog was first posted he has since passed on May 9, 2020 at age 87. He grew up with 11 brothers and sisters and learned music from family, friends and at Church. By 1951 he had a contract with RCA Victor and cut some tracks in Atlanta. Here is his first song “Taxi Blues“. He doesn’t sound like the Little Richard we have come to know, but very few artists find their ‘voice’ on the first attempt. And so there was an evolution to his style, in 1952 he was starting to Rock it up with “Get Rich Quick“. By 1953 he was still recording more traditional blues and some new material from other songwriters, such as “Ain’t That Good News” credited as ‘Duces Of Rhythm & Tempo Toppers’ (with lead Little Richard)”.

But he still had not released his flashy and flamboyant style, even though his live performances were getting fairly raucous compared to the toned down records. He would have seven single releases from 1951-54 before hitting the charts.

Sometime in mid 1952, Little Richard would meet Eskew Reeder and his musical future would start to change. Eskew who’s stage name is Esquerita, was a couple years younger than Richard but a gifted self taught piano player with a flamboyant style and a voice to match. Over a period of time he would tutor Richard and would have a tremendous effect on his music.

He is older here as pictured, but it has been documented that this was essentially Esquerita’s ‘look’ when they met. He was already a traveling stage performer at that time, before he met Little Richard. It certainly appears to me this is where Richard got some of his image and musical stylings. If you listen to this audio I think there is some revisionist history going on in Richard’s recollections of their relationship. While Esquerita’s recordings post date Little Richard’s initial success, his musical style was already there to be observed by Richards.

I’ve read several proclamations from Little Richard saying things as quoted here from Rolling Stone Magazine, “I am the architect” (of Rock and Roll) and how he believes “…from the bottom of my heart, I am the inventor” (of Rock and Roll). Well if that’s true, then Esquerita is the inventor of Little Richard. If we know anything about Rock and Roll it is that no one person or even a small group ‘invented’ it. Was Little Richard a big part of that? Yes absolutely. Was he insanely talented? Of course.

To be fair, Sam Phillips and a few others (Ike Turner comes to mind) also made similar claims. But when did this R&R thing really start to happen? What we know as Rock and Roll music was in little pieces around the US, but it’s real genesis was in the Southern States which of course includes Richards home state of Georgia. Certainly from the late 1940’s and early 50’s there were plenty of opportunities for Richard to pick things up from artists other than Esquerita to help him develop his music and modus operandi. Lest we forget the great Sister Rosetta Tharpe who gave Little Richard his first on-stage opportunity.

The song that launched him into being the Little Richard we know was called “Tutti Frutti” (October 1955). Not uncommonly there is still some dispute as to who actually wrote the song, credited as co-writer Dorothy LaBostrie claims she mostly wrote the whole song. Richard says he did and there is good evidence he had played at least parts of it in prior live performances, so at the very least the genesis of the song and melody is certainly his. Richards could most definitely write and he has many single and co-writing credits on a couple dozen songs and a few of them were his big hits. Joe Lubin also shares a credit on “Tutti Frutti” solely I believe for helping on the ‘cleaning up’ of some of the lyrics and technical composition (as it was not an uncommon practice), Lubin’s seasoned songwriting talent would lie more with Pat Boone and Doris Day stuff than Little Richard.

Regardless, it is one heck of a Rock and Roll song and it really did have a huge impact on the type of songs and performance styles of the day. The tune combines boogie-woogie piano, blues, gospel, creative lyrics and along with the inspired delivery it’s earned the #43 spot on Rolling Stone Magazines The 500 Greatest Songs of all Time. In 1956 it rose to #2 on the R&B chart and contrary to what I’ve seen written that it reached #17 (Biography.com among others) it actually peaked at #21 for the week ending February 8, 1956 on precursor to the Billboard Hot 100 and #18 on another chart. There are 172 versions of the song covered by 162 artists. Say what you will about it but (with an amended version) it was first covered by Pat Boone in January 1956, followed by Elvis Presley. Little Richard himself said those covers helped him out. Here is a live performance by Queen from the Wembley Stadium shows in 1986.

Richards was on a hot streak in 1956, songs making it huge on Billboard’s two charts; on the Hot 100/R&B were “Long Tall Sally” #13/#1, “Slippin’ and Slidin‘” at #33/#1, “Rip it Up” at #27/#1, “Ready Teddy” at #44/#1. Out of five songs he had four that went to #1 on the R&B charts and the only reason “Tutti Frutti” got stalled at #2 is because “Great Pretender” by ‘The Platters’ would not budge from the #1 spot from the beginning of January through to the week ending March 10. Richards would not ever gain a #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, nor did Chuck Berry for that matter, until 1972 with the novelty song “My Ding-a-Ling”.

Just to put things into perspective, Little Richard was a dynamic performer and although he did develop his own style he did not always present himself on stage with his signature pompadour and glitzy outfits. In part that was due to requirements of TV show hosts and producers. We should remember Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley had already started recording at the same time and had established their own sound and style prior to the release of “Tutti Frutti”, and any opportunity to see him perform in person. There is no evidence that happen in either case prior to 1956.

So any claims or even opinions that support Richards ‘inventing’ R&R and his impact have to be tempered just a bit. Even Jerry Lee Lewis who released his first record late in 1956 had already started to develop his wild style and reputation during stage performances, again without the benefit of seeing Little Richard in person. As had James Brown, though that was a slow build. James Brown who was strongly influenced by Richard would emulate him in some ways and take it a step further by recording a live album at the Apollo.

What Little Richard did that few others could is bring the energy and excitement of the live performance to the recording studio and have that come out of your radio or record player. He was the one to popularize this type of recording, so to me this is Little Richard’s biggest contribution to R&R.

I don’t want you to think I’m down on Little Richard but some of his statements and support requires a bit of balance. These inventing R&R assertions really have done a disservice to his reputation as he has been at times written off and his importance watered down as a result. You need only watch some of these clips of Little Richard to see and hear he was a tremendous talent, a truly groundbreaking performer that opened the door for Rock and Roll to really spread its wings and show it’s wild side. The man is truly a Rock and Roll Legend. Of course today the stuff he did does not seem to be very controversial, but at the time his exciting performances pushed boundaries. He was also quite a brave person as he had to deal with many issues as a gay black man performing in the 1950’s.

His life and career would have it’s challenges, musical tastes are a fickle thing and after three years in the limelight and topping the charts, by 1958 all that would start to slowly disappear, though he did have a couple songs enter the charts in the UK up to 1964. He ‘found’ religion and continued to perform and record and his legend earned him a revered spot in the hearts and minds of those who understood his talent and the importance of his contributions. For example there is a great live version of “Rip it Up” with Little Richard on the ‘Tom Jones Show’ from 1970.

Here are more great original tunes from Little Richard. “Lucille” #1 R&B, #21 Hot 100 and #10 UK, “Send Me Some Lovin‘”#3 R&B,  “Good Golly, Miss Molly” #4 R&B, #10 Hot 100, #11 UK, covered over 120 times, Creedence Clearwater Revival (1969).

“Jenny, Jenny” #2 R&B, #10 Hot 100 and #11 UK was a reworking of this song, “Johnny, Johnny” by Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers with Mari Jones. (yep Johnny and three guys all wearing you guessed it, blazers! Oh yes and one Mari, pretty sure she wore a dress.

“Keep A-Knockin’” #2 R&B, #8 Hot 100 and #21 UK was a very pumped up cover of this song from 1928 “Keep a Knockin’ and You Can’t Get In” by “Boodle It” Wiggins. There is a bridge version or two such as from Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra, Vocals by Helen O’Connell (1939).

In all Little Richard would cover about 60 songs excluding the times he covered his own songs for his collaboration album, ‘Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka’. Other than the above mentioned I’m not aware of any of his covers that made the charts in a big way except “Baby Face” from July of 1958 which was his highest charting song in the UK at #2, #12 R&B and #41 Hot 100. The original is from Jan Garber and His Orchestra in 1926, written by Harry Akst and Benny Davis it was a #1 hit at the time and in total covered over100 times, Richard was about the twentieth artist to record it.

References:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & Specialty Records Archives.

Many thanks as always for reading my blog!