"AWOP-BA-BELUBOP-BELAM-BAM-BOOM!".
Here's Little Richard is the debut studio album by Little Richard, released in 1957. It was a best seller at the time. It's probably as close to a Greatest Hits Album as you can get: "Tutti Frutti", "Ready Teddy", "Slippin' And Slidin", "Long Tall Sally", "Rip It Up" and "Jenny, Jenny" are all compiled on this record.
Tracklist:
Side One
- "Tutti Frutti" (2:25)
- "True Fine Mama" (2:43)
- "Can't Believe You Wanna Leave" (2:28)
- "Ready Teddy" (2:09)
- "Baby" (2:06)
- "Slippin' And Slidin'" (2:42)
Side Two
- "Long Tall Sally" (2:10)
- "Miss Ann" (2:17)
- "Oh Why?" (2:09)
- "Rip It Up" (2:23)
- "Jenny, Jenny" (2:04)
- "She's Got It" (2:26)
Bonus Tracks (2012 Reissue):
- "Baby (Demo)"
- "All Night Long (Demo)"
- "Interview With Specialty Records Founder Art Rupe"
We're gonna have some fun tonight, have some fun tonight, everything's all right!:
- Alliterative Title: "Slippin' and Slidin'".
- Big Beautiful Woman: "Long Tall Sally", praises a girl who fits these measurements.
- Break Up Song: "Can't Believe You Wanna Leave", about a girl who wants to leave him.
- Careful with That Axe: "AWOP-BA-BELUBOP-BELAM-BAM-BOOM!"
- Dancing Is Serious Business: "Ready Teddy" asks the listeners whether they are reading to rock 'n' roll.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The album cover is a black-and-white photograph of the singer against a yellow background.
- Face on the Cover: Little Richard's face is shown in close-up.
- Greatest Hits Album: Compared to others rock and roll albums of this era this record has a fine collection of essential hits by the artist.
- Incoming Ham: The legend of Little Richard's big break. Richard was making his first record for Specialty Records, but the session wasn't really working, so producer "Bumps" Blackwell suggested they take a lunch break at a nearby restaurant-slash-strip-joint. There, to impress the ladies, Richard sat down at the piano and starting banging out his dirty live hit "Tutti Frutti"... and the rest was history.
- Intercourse with You: What else do you think "Slippin' And Slidin'" is about? "Tutti Frutti" too - the lyrics were cleaned up from the far dirtier original version, which went "Tutti frutti, good booty!"
- Mundane Made Awesome: Only Little Richard could make stupid words like "A-Wop Bop-A-Lula A Whop Bam Boom" and "Tutti Frutti" awesome as hell!
- Obsession Song: "Oh Why?", where the singer wonders why all this misery happened to him.
- One-Woman Song: "Long Tall Sally", "Miss Ann", "Jenny Jenny" and "True Fine Mama".
- One-Word Title: "Baby".
- Questioning Title?: "Oh Why?"
- Rock & Roll:I'm ready, ready, ready Ted, I'm reaaaaady, I'm ready, ready, ready, Ted, I'm reaaady, ready, ready, Ted, I'm ready to rock 'n' roll!
- Rhyming with Itself: "Jenny Jenny".
- Scatting: The "A-Wop Bop-A-Lula A Whop Bam Boom" in "Tutti Frutti", made to simulate a drum solo.
- Three Chords and the Truth: The songs are short, simple, energetic and catchy as hell.
