Rest In Peace, Maestro

Little Richard died yesterday, Saturday, 9 May 2020. Just when you thought this year couldn't get much worse. 

So now, all of my "Mount Rushmore of Rock and Roll" icons are dead.

I've always regarded Little Richard and Chuck Berry as 1A and 1AA on my Mount Rushmore of Rock and Roll. Both rose to fame at about the same time. Berry, who died in 2017, is known as the "Father of Rock and Roll," Little Richard as the "Architect of Rock and Roll." It is impossible to say which was more influential. 

My third icon is Fats Domino, who also passed away in 2017. Domino is inexplicably overlooked by many critics, yet he's credited by everyone from the Beatles to Elvis Presley as an enormous influence; not only was Domino an innovative songwriter, he was a Billboard monster, scoring thirty-seven Top 40 singles in his career. Many music historians say Domino recorded the first rock and roll record, which was also the first of its genre to sell a million copies ("The Fat Man," 1950). Yes, Fats belongs on Mount Rushmore.

My fourth icon, Buddy Holly, died in 1959. He accomplished more in his 22 years of life than most people could accomplish in five lifetimes. 

There are other greats like Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Bo Diddley, Big Mama Thornton, Bill Haley, Sister Rosetta Tharpe... all of which deserve immense recognition... but I can only chose four.

[I realize Jerry Lee Lewis isn't on my list. There's a reason for that. Lewis essentially stole Little Richard's act. There was nothing Jerry Lee Lewis did that Little Richard hadn't already done -- he just made it more palatable to lily-white USA. Lewis did not write a single one of his hits; he is one of the original phony rock stars who also happened to a incestuous pedophile. I'm not a fan.]

Back to Little Richard... 

Little Richard not only had piano playing chops, he was the original Mr. Showman. He was outrageous and apologetically ostentatious, he was extravagant and flirted with gender-bending before there ever was such a term. 

He was the original rock star... (yes, even before Elvis). 

His wild antics on stage and dazzling show made contemporaries simply shrug their collective shoulders and say, "We can't compete." 

Little Richard's voice was its own instrument. Its sheer power, rawness and range was a thing of wonder. No one ever sounded like that on record before. His "Wooooo's!" and squeals and screams were imitated by everyone from Paul McCartney to Michael Jackson. 

His vocal improvisations were legendary in their own right: "Wop bop a loo bop a bop bam boom!" 

Not only was Little Richard one of the main architects of the new rock and roll style, he went on to become a prominent influence on R&B and soul music (hey, when Otis Redding, Stevie Wonder and Sam Cooke all identify Richard as an influence, that's good enough for me). 

Did you ever wonder where Prince came up with the idea of the eye-liner, pencil mustache and flamboyant stage outfits? Two words: Little Richard.

Little Richard and fans, 1962

And here's a little known fun fact: Little Richard gave a young guitarist named Jimi Hendrix his first big break as guitarist in Richard's backing band, "The Upsetters." But Hendrix was chronically late for shows and he kept upstaging Little Richard... and... well... you just didn't do that to the Architect.

But we wouldn't be talking about Little Richard today if it wasn't for the songs. Lost in shuffle, behind the zany, over-the-top personality lay an absolute songwriting genius. "Tutti Frutti," "Long Tall Sally," "Good Golly Miss Molly," "Ooh! My Soul!" "The Girl Can't Help It," "Rip It Up," "Ready Teddy," "Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!," "Lucille," "Keep a-Knockin'," the list is endless. Little Richard wrote or co-wrote almost all of them, and they're all staples in rock and roll.

Little Richard sold countless albums and singles. It is impossible to know how many Billboard Hot 100 singles he had because the Hot 100 wasn't even invented when his career took off. In fact, it isn't even possible to find a reliable source for Little Richard's record sales, although his catalog has logged 173,400,000 streams online. 

He belongs to at least nine different Hall of Fame organizations, including the Songwriter's Hall of Fame, the Apollo Theater Hall of Fame and a charter member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

Not bad for the son of a church deacon from Macon, Georgia.

Little Richard was a legend among legends. He had the right talent at the right time in the right place. We will never see another one like him. 

Rest In Peace, maestro.