Artist: Little Richard
Author: Dorothy Labostrie/Richard Penniman/Joe Lubin
Label: Specialty
Year: 1955
Little Richard was in New Orleans for his first Specialty session with Bumps Blackwell, but as things didn't turn out as they should (I'm Just A Lonely Guy), they took a break at the Dew Drop Inn. They had an old piano in there where Richard immediately delivered an old nonsense song with mad abandon. Blackwell was nonplussed. This was it and they rushed back to the J&M Studio. Two takes and the bugger was nailed; take #1 became the master, with Richard's original lyrics ("Tutti Frutti good booty - if it don't fit don't force it, you can grease it, make it easy") already tempered (by Dorothy LaBostrie). She didn't want to hear the lyrics and Richard was too shy to spell them out in front of a lady. Opening line "I got a gal her name is Sue, she knows just what to do" was copied from New Orleans banjo player Papa Charlie Jackson's Skoodle Um Skoo (1927 - Paramount). The "A-wop-bop-a-loo-mop-a-lop-bam-boom" scat was Richard's standard yell any time he couldn't handle the amount of pots and pans he had to dishwash on his day-job at the Macon Greyhound bus depot, the exact same spot where the Georgia Music Hall Of Fame building stood. Good reason.
Covers:
Pat Boone [a bigger hit US than Little Richard's original; see also: Ain't It A Shame]
Johnny Hallyday [his first demo along with one of Heartbreak Hotel (as Je me sens si seul), released in 2006 on box set Souvenirs Souvenirs]
Sting [in film Party Party]
If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)