Craft Recordings, the Catalog division of Concord Music, is pleased to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Here’s Little Richard, with a deluxe reissue of the rock ‘n’ roll icon’s 1957 debut full-length album.
Due out November 3rd, the 2-CD set will offer a slew of demos, alternate takes and previously unreleased material from the original sessions, in addition to the remastered classic album, which features some of the artist’s best-loved hits, including “Long Tall Sally,” “Ready Teddy” and “Tutti Frutti,” a song which many consider to mark the birth of rock ‘n’ roll. New liner notes by Grammy-nominated writer, music editor and journalist Chris Morris will round out the package.
In the early ’50s, Little Richard (born Richard Penniman) combined the spirit of church music, the bawdiness of blues and the swing of New Orleans jazz and turned it into something altogether new: rock ‘n’ roll. It wasn’t until the Macon, Georgia native signed to Art Rupe’s Specialty Records at the age of 23, however, that Little Richard truly developed his signature sound and over-the-top persona. His legendary debut album (and the first 12-inch LP for the Los Angeles-based independent label), Here’s Little Richard offers many of his most recognizable songs, and garnered the artist seven hits in the R&B Top Ten chart, and two in the Pop Top Ten.
This expanded edition of the album includes 22 tracks of bonus material, eight of which are previously unreleased. Included is an early take of “Tutti Frutti,” demos of “Slippin’ and Slidin'” and “Miss Ann” and alternate takes of classic tracks like “Rip It Up” and “Reddy Teddy.” In his liner notes, Chris Morris writes, “Like the classic recordings on Here’s Little Richard, these alternate versions reveal the blossoming of an unprecedented and wholly original talent whose first recordings broke down the categorical doors between R&B and pop. As they did in late 1955 when Little Richard arrived, like something from another planet, these wailing, rampaging songs present something new, rich and strange under the sun.”
One of the first artists to be inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, Little Richard remains a living legend, and has been honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 1993 Grammy Awards, inductions into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (2003), the NAACP Image Awards’ Hall of Fame (2002) and, most recently, the Blues Hall of Fame in June of 2015. In 2010, Little Richard was listed as number eight in Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Artists of All Time,” while also that year, the Library of Congress inducted “Tutti Frutti,” the song that started it all, into its National Recording registry, proclaiming that the song “announced a new era in music.”
Track list for Here’s Little Richard (60th Anniversary Deluxe Edition):
Disc 1
Tutti Frutti
True, Fine Mama
Can’t Believe You Wanna Leave
Ready Teddy
Baby
Slippin’ and Slidin’
Long Tall Sally
Miss Ann
Oh Why?
Rip It Up
Jenny Jenny
She’s Got It
Disc 2
Tutti Frutti (take 2)
True Fine Mama (incomplete take)
Can’t Believe You Wanna Leave (take 6)*
Can’t Believe You Wanna Leave (take 8)
Ready Teddy (take 1)*
Ready Teddy (takes 2 & 3)*
Baby (demo)
Baby (take 1)
Slippin’ and Slidin’ (demo)*
Slippin’ and Slidin’ (piano & drums demo)
Long Tall Sally (take 1)
Long Tall Sally (take 6)
Miss Ann (demo)
Miss Ann (take 1)
Miss Ann (take 6)
Oh Why? (takes 3 & 4)*
Oh Why? (take 9)
Rip It Up (take 1)*
Rip It Up (take 3)
Rip It Up (take 4)*
Rip It Up (take 6)*
She’s Got It (alternate version)
