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Little Richard's Greatest Hits - Recorded Live! (1967)

Where the lyrics of Little Richard's Greatest Hits - Recorded Live! take you, and where it was really made.

The album was not recorded at a concert hall. It was made in a Hollywood studio, with a small invited audience brought in.

Key places

Where the live album was recorded (1967)

Recording site The Music Grinder (Hollywood) — The album was recorded in the CBS Studios at Hollywood before a small invited audience. The point sits at the city-center level of Hollywood. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Second and last Okeh album by Little Richard
• Live album recorded in the CBS Studios at Hollywood
• Re-recordings of his 1950s rock and roll hits in a funk and soul style
• Released in the United States in July 1967 as Okeh LP-14121
• Twelve listed songs, plus an unlisted James Brown instrumental, "The Scratch"
• Not a concert recording: a small, enthusiastic audience was invited into a studio

Background

• Okeh's first Little Richard album, The Explosive Little Richard, had flopped
• Label heads chose to re-record his hits from his Specialty Records years
• His contract gave him no say in song selection or arrangement
• He had used the same strategy after his label moves to Vee-Jay (1964) and Modern (1965)
• Manager Bumps Blackwell pushed for a live album by encouraging European fans to petition Okeh
• Little Richard appeared in the film Catalina Caper in 1967
• He left the recording studios after 1967 and did not return until March 1970, with Reprise Records

Recording

• Produced by Larry Williams, who had worked with Richard at Specialty Records
• Richard was not satisfied with Williams' work and said it should sound like Motown
• Billy Preston on organ, Johnny "Guitar" Watson on guitar
• Eddie Fletcher on bass, Glenn Willings on second guitar
• The backing musicians were members of Richard's touring band, The Crown Jewels
• Drummer unknown; Okeh kept no records

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · de.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Career

• Richard Wayne Penniman (1932–2020), known as Little Richard, was an American singer, pianist and songwriter.
• Called the "Architect of Rock and Roll"; his mid-1950s work laid the foundation for rock and roll.
• Hits: "Tutti Frutti" (1955), "Long Tall Sally" (1956, No. 1 on the R&B chart), followed by a rapid run of further hits.
• Retired from rock and roll for evangelism in 1957, returned in 1962 after a European tour with Don Arden.
• The Beatles opened for him on some 1962 tour dates; he taught Paul McCartney his vocal style.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, its first group of inductees.
• "Tutti Frutti" was added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2009.

Influence

• His raspy shouting vocals and boogie-woogie, New Orleans R&B and gospel fusion shaped rock, soul and funk.
• Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and many others cited him as an influence.
• Covered by Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Everly Brothers.

Reception

At release

• Commercial performance was only moderate despite notable musicians as band and producer
• Like its predecessor, the album fell short with buyers in the United States
• Little Richard's live album was released as Okeh LP-14121 in July 1967

Reappraisal

• The German article describes the modern arrangement, the uninterrupted presentation of the singer with a spoken introduction, and the enthusiastic audience as combining into an unusual greatest hits album
• Several of the songs are shortened, with some verses cut to keep the familiar choruses in a compact performance
• Get Down With It and You Gotta Feel It are described as soul pieces the singer had added to his repertoire only recently

Records

• Hot 100 Album chart: a brief placement, Little Richard's biggest success since his 1963 comeback
• Okeh 7325 single issued in February 1969, pairing Lucille and Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
• Epic Records released the album in Germany, France, Spain and the Netherlands
• The British edition came only in 1977, on Embassy Records
• CBS handled the Australian market
• CD edition: Epic/Columbia EK 40389

Sources: de.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The studio audience was described as small but enthusiastic, creating an imagined "Club Okeh" inside a CBS studio
• The LP sleeve listed "Anyway You Want Me", but it is actually a Jimmy Reed medley of "Baby What You Want Me to Do" and "You Don't Have to Go"
• Three songs played the same evening were left off the album and remain unreleased
• The release notes give the location as "The Club Okeh", Hollywood
• During 1967 Little Richard appeared in the film Catalina Caper, the year before his return to the studio in 1970 was delayed

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · de.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

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