![]() Almost overnight, Little Richard had made it big. It was followed by sixteen more Little Richard hits in the next three years. In September 1955, "Tutti Frutti" climbed to the top of the R&B charts and hit #17 on Billboard's pop chart. The band did three takes in the studio, and voilà: Little Richard's first hit single was made. But Blackwell hired a second songwriter to re-write the words to the song. It was one thing to roll out a song like that in a wild bar show that was partially improvised it was quite another to record it for posterity. "I'd been singing 'Tutti Frutti' for years," Little Richard said, "but it never struck me as a song you'd record." It seemed too wild, first of all second of all, there were those suggestive lyrics to deal with. After recording some songs that Blackwell was unsatisfied with, Bumps heard Richard pounding out "Tutti Frutti" on the piano and suggested they record it. It was at Specialty that Richard connected with Robert "Bumps" Blackwell, the producer who would go on to work with Richard on many of his big rock hits. In 1955, he successfully submitted a demo to Specialty Records, a gospel and R &B label. He formed a band called The Upsetters to play this style of music with him as a front man. He had musical tastes that went beyond just one genre, and he had a vision of integrating elements of boogie-woogie and gospel with the popular rhythm & blues of the day. However, blues was not what Little Richard had in mind. By 1951, big labels had noticed his unique talent, and he began recording blues music professionally.īlues was the type of music suggested for a lot of up-and-coming black singers. Imitating his role models, he did up his hair and feminized his style of performance. His idols were gospel divas like Sister Rosetta Tharp and Mahalia Jackson. He played spiritual music and blues, moved around the stage like a holly roller coming to Jesus, and sang with a growling, thrilling grind to his voice that sometimes bordered on yelling. By his mid-teens, he was touring and performing under the name Little Richard. Richard moved in with a local family and began performing to make money. At age 13, his parents kicked him out (In the 1980s, he revealed that it was because he was a homosexual. ![]() Richard loved the spotlight: by age 10, he started performing faith healings in which he would sing, preach, and heal other parishioners. Young Richard Penniman was one of 12 children in a relatively strict Seventh Day Adventist family (his father, by contrast, was a bootlegger by profession). Little Richard's tale begins in 1932 in Macon, Georgia. ![]() But, since we're Shmoop and we like trying to explain complicated things (as long as they're not your friends' relationships), we'll try to explain. Was Little Richard gay or bisexual? Was he a straight guy making fun of gay people? How could a song like that be sung onstage in the 1950s? Well, the answer to all of your questions can be summed up in a familiar phrase (at least in the land of Facebook): it's complicated. Yes, it's a little shocking-not just because of the sexual innuendo, but also because of the questions it raises about one of rock's greatest icons. "Frutti" was not a random rhyme, but a re-appropriation of the common slang "fruity" that meant, essentially, "gay-acting." The original lyrics, according to Little Richard, went as follows: "A wop bop a loo mop a good goddam, Tutti Frutti, good booty, if it don't fit, don't force it, you can grease it, make it easy."2 Why was the original version such a big problem for the record company? Funny you should ask, because there's a good answer: the song talked about gay sex so explicitly as to be almost pornographic. What the mainstream public saw in 1955, though, was a toned-down version of Richard's original style: a hired writer had rewritten “Tutti Frutti” before Specialty Records recorded it in 1955. Even where musical groups were not integrated per se, the popular new genre was associated with rebellion, in part because a lot of young white people listened to it and idolized black singers. Frankly, a big part of the shock factor was race: rock and roll was a genre that featured racially integrated musical groups. His in-your-face style, feminine makeup, and primped hair was a shock to many suburban households in the 1950s. Little Richard rocked a pompadour, sexually suggestive dance moves, and hit records even before Elvis Presley's first big song. The song hit the airwaves in 1955, just as the whole new-fangled idea of a type of music called "rock and roll" was starting to dig its heels into popular culture. The story of "Tutti Frutti" is one of the most essential stories in the history of rock and roll.
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