Little Richard — Tutti Frutti

"Tutti Frutti" is a song by Little Richard, which became his first hit record in 1955. With its opening cry of "Womp-bomp-a-loom-op-a-womp-bam-boom!" (supposedly intended to be a verbal parody of a drum intro) and its hard-driving sound and wild lyrics, it became not only a model for many future Little Richard songs, but also one of the models for rock and roll itself.

Rev. Richard Wayne Penniman (born December 5, 1932), better known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter and pianist.

A key figure in the transition from rhythm & blues to rock & roll in the 1950s, Penniman’s reputation rests on a string of groundbreaking hit singles from 1955 through 1957, such as “Tutti Frutti”, “Lucille” and “Long Tall Sally”, which helped lay the foundation for rock and roll music, and 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, 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.

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