Little Richard

Richard Wayne Penniman (born December 5, 1932), known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, pianist, bandleader and recording artist, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame web site entry on Penniman states 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." 

Penniman began performing on stage and on the road in 1945, when he was in his early teens. He began his recording career on October 16, 1951 by imitating the gospel-influenced style of late-1940s jump blues artist Billy Wright, who was a friend of his that set him up with the opportunity to record. His early fifties recordings, however, did not achieve remarkable commercial success.

In 1955, under the guidance of Robert "Bumps" Blackwell, Penniman began recording in a style he had been performing onstage for years, featuring varied rhythm (derived from everything from drum beats he would hear in his voice to the sounds of trains he would hear thundering by him as a child), a heavy backbeat, funky saxophone grooves, over-the-top Gospel-style singing, moans, screams, and other emotive inflections, accompanied by a combination of boogie-woogieand rhythm and blues music. This new music, which included an original injection of funkinto the rock and roll beat, inspired many of the greatest recording artists of the twentieth century, including James Brown, Elvis Presley, Otis Redding, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson, and generations of other rhythm & blues, rock, and soul musicartists. He was subsequently among the seven initial inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and one of only four (along with Ray Charles, James Brown, and Fats Domino) to also receive the Rhythm and Blues Foundation's Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award.

On October 12, 1957, while at the height of stardom, Penniman abruptly quit rock and roll music and became a born-again Christian.[15] In January 1958, he enrolled in and attended Bible collegeto become a preacher and evangelist and began recording and performing only gospel music for a number of years. He then moved back and forth from rock and roll to the ministry, until he was able to reconcile the two roles in later life.

Very Best Of Little Richard

Greatest Gold Hits

Georgia Peach

Long Tall Sally

Here's Little Richard (Hybr) (Omr)

Little Richard Personal life

Born the third of twelve siblings, Penniman was put out of the home by his father, who told him that he had spoiled his wish to have seven sons because he was a homosexual. After Penniman began making records, his father had started to open up to him. But he was shot by Penniman's best friend, Frank, outside a local bar. At the time Penniman was 19 years old.  

Penniman married only once in his life. His only wife was Ernestine Campbell, whom he met while in church in 1957. They married in 1959 and divorced less than two years later. The marriage didn't produce any children. Though he doesn't have any biological children, he did adopt the son of a deceased church associate in the early 1960s. In June 1956, Penniman met what has been described as his life-long soul mate, Audrey Robinson, who goes by the name, Lee Angel, who was 16 when they first met and who had graduated from high school early and was then a college student. 

Though he had made statements denouncing homosexuality after his second conversion to religion, Richard said in an interview withPenthouse in 1995, "I've been gay all my life and I know God is a God of love, not of hate, how can I [put] down the fisherman when I've been fishing all my life?" A decade before, he told his biographer Ted White, "what kind of sexual am I? I am omnisexual!" Lee Angel described that she and Richard had a "an orthodox physical relationship".However, Richard said that he didn't share his sexuality with Lee Angel and his only wife because, he says, "they just thought of me as a pumper [fan of masturbation]. I was pumping so much peter in those days; eight or nine times a day." In addition to addictions to cocaine and alcohol, Richard also said he also used angel dust during his debauchery period in the late sixties through mid seventies.

Richard now lives in Lynchburg, Tennessee.

Little Richard: The Birth of Rock 'n' Roll

Specialty Sessions Boxed Set

Shake It All About

Lucille

The Specialty Sessions (Specialty)

Best of Little Richard-Vee Jay Years

Tutti Frutti

Little Richard

Richard Wayne Penniman (born December 5, 1932), known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, pianist, bandleader and recording artist, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. TheRock and Roll Hall of Fame web site entry on Penniman states 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."

Penniman began performing on stage and on the road in 1945, when he was in his early teens.He began his recording career on October 16, 1951by imitating the gospel-influenced style of late-1940s jump blues artist Billy Wright, who was a friend of his and set him up with the opportunity to record. His early fifties recordings did not achieve remarkable commercial success until 1955, when, under the guidance of Robert "Bumps" Blackwell, he began recording in a style he had been performing onstage for years, featuring varied rhythm (derived from everything from drum beats he would hear in his voice to the sounds of trains he would hear thundering by him as a child), a heavy backbeat, funky saxophone grooves, over-the-top Gospel-style singing, moans, screams, and other emotive inflections, accompanied by a combination of boogie-woogie and rhythm and blues music. This new music, which included an original injection of funk into the rock and roll beat,[2]inspired many of the greatest recording artists of the twentieth century, including James Brown, Elvis Presley,  Otis Redding, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson, and generations of other rhythm & blues, rock, and soul music artists.[14] He was subsequently among the seven initial inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and one of only four (along with Ray Charles, James Brown, and Fats Domino) to also receive the Rhythm and Blues Foundation's Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award.
On October 12, 1957, while at the height of stardom, Penniman abruptly quit rock and roll music and became a born-again Christian. In January 1958, he enrolled in and attended Bible college  to become a preacher and evangelist and began recording and performing only gospel music for a number of years. He then moved back and forth from rock and roll to the ministry, until he was able to reconcile the two roles in later life.
 from :http://en.wikipedia.org