It’s been nearly 70 years since the release of Little Richard’s 1957 debut, and it’s easy in retrospect to sort of haphazardly lump this album into the category of a “classic example of American rhythm and blues”. It’s the “sound” you hear in your head when you think of the genre, especially after so much exposure to different iterations of Richard’s music in the decades since.
But imagine, just for a moment, transporting back in time to the 1950’s and hearing this record for the first time. It’s actually literally insane to imagine how much of a massive impact Here’s Little Richard would have had on you at the time. And it would be equally unfathomable to imagine the impact it would have on every album that came after its release. Plain and simple this is one of the most important albums in history and served as the foundation to inspire other transformational artists like The Beatles, James Brown, The Rolling Stones, and Etta James (who all consequently influenced other artists— on and on we go).
It’s a bit overwrought to call it an honor to listen to this record, but it’s certainly a tremendous experience.
A brief side note here that I think is interesting– throughout the album Richard’s vocals are distorted and grainy at certain moments, especially when he increases his volume to emphasize a word he’s delivering. In modern parlance this is called “clipping”, which basically means the microphone he’s using has been overdriven and is attempting to deliver an output beyond its maximum capability. In simpler terms, Little Richard is singing “too loud”.
If you ask a producer in 2023 how they feel about this they’ll quickly say this is an undesirable effect. And they’re not wrong. But on this album, it’s f***ing awesome. That sound adds so much character to the record, and is a hallmark of many early rhythm and blues records as well as the Motown recordings from the 60’s. Hell, half of Motown recordings are recorded “hot”. Once you hear it you can’t unhear it, and I think that is part of the charm that makes these old records sound so wonderful.
Nowadays you have about a million digital tools to emulate that grainy vocal effect (shameless self-plug: you can hear one type of this vocal effect in my single “Wage A War”). But back in 1957, Little Richard achieved it just by being an absolutely charismatic front man singing his goddamn heart out a little too loudly into his microphone.
At any rate, a really cool footnote and one that I think adds even more character to an album that already has character in spades.
Standout Songs: “Tutti Fruti”, “Ready Teddy”, “Long Tall Sally (The Thing)”, “Oh Why”
Matthew. 