Little Richard

USA, 1951–2020

American singer and pianist, billed as the Architect of Rock and Roll. His shouted vocal delivery and pounding piano set much of the rhythmic and vocal energy of early rock and roll.

MusicRoots documents 3 artists who influenced Little Richard and 20 artists Little Richard influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.

Who influenced Little Richard?

• Sister Rosetta Tharpe — Sister Rosetta brought the young Little Richard onto the stage.
• Ike Turner — Turner's piano intro on 'Rocket 88' is what sent Richard to the keyboard, and he used it again, note for note, as the lead-in to 'Good Golly, Miss Molly'.
• Mahalia Jackson — Richard's first models were gospel singers, Jackson among them: the range, and the held declamatory phrasing, come from that side before they meet boogie piano.

Which artists did Little Richard influence?

• Creedence Clearwater Revival — The rock and roll player Fogerty names first among his models, and the source of the attack in his singing.
• Stevie Wonder — Little Richard was the first rock'n'roll energy that struck Stevie as a child.
• Otis Redding — Redding's way into the business: he sang in Little Richard's style and worked in Richard's old band the Upsetters before Stax.
• The Sonics — Little Richard screamed — The Sonics screamed louder. That was their basic approach.
• The Beatles — Paul McCartney took his scream vocal from Little Richard.
• Jimi Hendrix — Hendrix played in Little Richard's touring band.
• Motörhead — Lemmy called Little Richard's rock and roll the root of his energy.
• Elton John — Little Richard was Elton's self-declared biggest influence — 'musically, vocally and visually' — the pounding-piano showman he modelled himself on.
• Michael Jackson — Little Richard's uninhibited vocal energy and showmanship were formative influences on the young Jackson.
• David Bowie — Bowie's father brought home a batch of American 45s when Bowie was nine, and hearing 'Tutti Frutti' among them is what turned him toward music; he took up the saxophone with the ambition of playing in Little Richard's horn section.
• James Brown — Brown's early career shadowed Richard directly — he fronted Richard's band The Upsetters when Richard quit rock and roll in 1957.
• Wilson Pickett — Pickett called Little Richard 'the architect of rock and roll' — the screaming, ecstatic energy Pickett built his own soul shouting on.
• The Dave Clark Five — The raw energy of American rock'n'roll and R&B — Little Richard among it — drove the stomping Tottenham Sound.
• The Righteous Brothers — Bill Medley came to R&B through black radio and cited Little Richard as an early influence — the source of the duo's soul power.
• Paul McCartney — Little Richard was McCartney's schoolboy idol — his screaming rock'n'roll the model for Paul's own raw vocals.
• Ritchie Valens — Little Richard's rock'n'roll fire was a direct model for Valens's energetic Chicano rock.
• Jim Steinman — Little Richard is the rock and roll Steinman grew up on, under the Wagner.
• Michael Monroe — Monroe learned the saxophone playing along to Little Richard records, and the piano stayed for the same reason — this is where the fifties rasp in his singing comes from.
• Procol Harum — Named with Ray Charles and the blues as Gary Brooker's roots.
• Scorpions — Part of the American rock'n'roll that was Schenker's first musical spark, with Elvis.