| Name |
Little Richard |
| Height |
|
| Naionality |
American |
| Date of Birth |
5-December-1932 |
| Place of Birth |
Macon, Georgia, U.S. |
| Famous for |
Singing |
Richard Wayne Penniman, known by his stage name Little Richard, is an American pianist, singer and songwriter. Penniman's innovative music and performance style of the mid-1950s had a pivotal impact on the shape of the sound and style of popular music and a number of its various genres. Penniman's hit songs of that period, such as "Tutti Frutti" (1955), "Long Tall Sally" (1956), "Keep A-Knockin'" (1957) and "Good Golly Miss Molly" (1958), were generally characterized by playful lyrics underpinned with sexually suggestive connotations. Penniman's distinctive, emotionally-charged vocalizations, charismatic showmanship combined with his fusion of boogie-woogie, New Orleans R&B and gospel music laid the foundation for rock and roll and was also cited to have influenced or inspired two rhythm and blues subgenres: soul and funk music. Penniman would go on to inspire and influence generations of performers in diverse genres from soul to funk and rock to rap.
Born to a religious family in a dirt-poor section of Macon, Georgia during the Great Depression, Penniman developed a love for singing in church and excelled at playing the saxophone in school. Penniman's first public performance occurred with Sister Rosetta Tharpe at the age of twelve at the Macon City Auditorium. Leaving home in his mid-teens due to family problems, Penniman joined several medicine shows before eventually joining his first musical band at sixteen. After being a part of a series of traveling vaudeville groups, Penniman began performing rhythm and blues on the road as a solo artist on the chitlin' circuit, gaining a reputation for his high-voltage antics in his live performances. Penniman began recording jump blues for RCA's Camden label in 1951 and in 1953 signed with Peacock Records, however, neither labels generated any major success. Penniman's contract with Peacock was bought out by Specialty Records, after hearing a demo of his work in early 1955. Eventually Penniman released his first hit, "Tutti Frutti", later that year. The song became an instant crossover hit, setting the pace for seventeen similarly successful singles in less than three years. Despite becoming an established star with a lucrative touring career and film appearances, Penniman suddenly quit show business in October 1957 amid a concert of major cities in Australia to become a born again Christian and follow a life in the ministry.
Penniman was among the first group of artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and received the Pioneer Lifetime Achievement at the Rhythm and Blues Foundation award ceremony in 1994. Penniman has been listed in several Rolling Stone "Greatest of All Time" lists including being ranked eighth on its 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Three of his songs made The Hall of Fame's list of 500 songs that shaped rock and roll including "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally" and "Good Golly Miss Molly". In 2007, a diverse panel of renowned artists and songwriters voted "Tutti Frutti" as the number one song on UK music magazine Mojo's list of the top 100 most influential & inspirational recordings ever made, hailing the song as "the sound of the birth of rock and roll." Three years later, the same song was included in the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry, claiming the song's "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music".
