Rev. Richard Wayne Penniman (born December 5, 1932), known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter and pianist. He is considered the key figure in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock 'n roll in the 1950s. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame web site entry on Richard observes that, "he claims to be 'the architect of rock and roll,' and history would seem to bear out Little Richard’s boast. More than any other performer - save, perhaps, Elvis Presley, Little Richard blew the lid off the Fifties, laying the foundation for rock and roll with his explosive music and charismatic persona. On record, he made spine-tingling rock and roll. His frantically charged piano playing and raspy, shouted vocals on such classics as "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly" defined the dynamic sound of rock and roll."[1]
Although he began his recording career in 1951, Penniman's reputation rests on a string of groundbreaking hit singles recorded from 1955 through 1957, which not only helped lay the foundation for rock and roll music,[1] but also influenced generations of rhythm & blues, rock and soul music artists. Little Richard's injection of funk during this period, via his saxophone-studded mid-1950s road band, The Upsetters,[1] also influenced the development of that genre of music. He was subsequently honored by being one of seven of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and was one of only four of these honorees (along with Ray Charles, James Brown, and Fats Domino) to also receive the Rhythm & Blues Foundation's Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award.
Little Richard's early work was a mix of boogie-woogie, rhythm & blues and gospel music, but with a heavily accentuated back-beat, funky saxophone grooves and raspy, shouted vocals, moans, screams, and other emotive inflections that marked a new kind of music. In 1957, while at the height of stardom, he became a born-again Christian, enrolled in and attended Bible college, and withdrew from recording and performing secular music.[2] Claiming he was called to be an evangelist, he has since devoted large segments of his life to this calling.[3]
