Released August 1964 Artist Little Richard Label Vee Jay Records | Length 39:22 Release date August 1964 Genres Rock and roll, Rock music | |
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Recorded June 30 1964 - August 31 1964 Little Richard Is Back (And There's a Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!)
(1964) Little Richard's Greatest Hits
(1965) Similar Little Richard albums, Rock and roll albums | ||
Little Richard Is Back (And There's a Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!) was Little Richard's seventh original album, and his first rock music album in five years. Having retired from rock and roll and spending three years recording gospel music, Richard was finally enticed back into rock studios via a successful UK tour. During his time away from rock music, Richard had cut off his trademark pompadour and can be witnessed on the album cover with significantly shorter hair.
Contents
History
After leaving Specialty Records in 1957 to record gospel music, Richard recorded twenty tracks for the Goldner Records label in September 1959. Although tempted back to record rock and roll with his old band The Upsetters for Little Star Records in 1962, he soon went back to gospel, recording for Atlantic Records in 1963. (There are 36 tracks reported to have been cut for Mercury Records and Atlantic). A successful British tour finally made Richard return to his rock and roll roots, and tracks for singles were cut in 1964 with Specialty, though not enough for an album.
Although the records kept in the Vee-Jay Records vaults aren't terribly accurate (many even disputing whether or not Jimi Hendrix played guitar on several tracks), it's believed that Richard stepped into the recording studios on June 30th, 1964 and had a further six sessions until May/June/July 1965, recording forty-six tracks. Over half of these tracks were split between this and the follow-up album, Little Richard's Greatest Hits, yet the company was not able to do anymore with the unreleased recordings as financial problems caused them to file for bankruptcy in January 1966.
As a result of Vee-Jay Records's collapse, the archive tracks were gradually released over a period of time, often adding just one unreleased track from the vaults. These four additional albums were released by different labels such as Dynasty Records and Joy (UK) Records, the last one in 1974, nearly ten years after Richard had stopped recording for the label. Two of these albums featured never-on-l.p. and previously unreleased tracks. A Vee Jay executive said that a session of instrumentals was also cut.
Track listing
- "A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" (Dave Williams, Sunny David)
- "Going Home Tomorrow" (Alvin E. Young, Fats Domino)
- "Money Honey" (Jesse Stone)
- "Only You" (Buck Ram)
- "Hound Dog" (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller)
- "Goodnight Irene" (Huddie Ledbetter, John Lomax)
- "Lawdy Miss Claudie" (Lloyd Price)
- "Groovy Little Suzy" (Harry Nelson, John Marascalco)
- "Short Fat Fanny" (Larry Williams)
- "Cherry Red" (Bill Lazerus, Jack Moon)
- "Memories Are Made of This" (Frank Miller, Richard Dehr, Terry Gilkyson)
- "Blueberry Hill" (Al Lewis, Larry Stock, Vincent Rose)
Personnel
Charts
Album
Songs
1A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On3:03
2Going Home Tomorrow3:14
3Money Honey2:22