To me this was the song that indelibly placed The Beetles into the hearts and minds of young girls all over the listening Planet. Of course this happened to coincide with the Little Richard influenced 'wooo's' in "She Loves You". I read an article regarding Brian Epstein getting Little Richard (and others) to headline shows in order to get "The Beetles" exposure. In the wake of the death of "Prince", and reminiscing of the many influences of Little Richard. Henry Holt and Company, New York, NY, 1997. Pyramid Books, an imprint of Octopus Publishing Group Limited, London, UK, 2006.
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Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 2001. The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul. But those Little Richard roots stayed firmly planted. Although the Beatles never released "Miss Ann", they did record it during their January 1969 sessions, along with "Jenny, Jenny" (the original A-side companion to "Miss Ann"), both of which exist in bootleg form. Paul also sang "Miss Ann" as part of a sound check on 5 February 1993 that was recorded.Īlthough certainly more associated with McCartney, Lennon illustrated his own affection for Little Richard on his 1975 album Rock 'n' Roll through the tracks "Medley: Rip It Up/Ready Teddy" and "Medley: Bring It On Home To Me/Send Me Some Lovin'".Įverett, Walter. That second performance was included on the album The Beatles Live at the BBC.Įven when not covering Little Richard's recordings, his influence is clearly discernible on the Beatles' music - most notably in their falsetto "woos" that can be heard in tunes like "She Loves You", and "From Me To You". But where Richard's "woo" is harsh and aggressive, the Beatles' "woo" is softer and cuddlier - it contributes to their cute, mop top appeal, whereas Little Richard's contributes to his flamboyant and at times hysterical performances.Īs Paul developed musically, however, he eventually hit a point where they no longer wanted to depend on their original influences and inspirations, but rather wanted to create his own, original material. "I used to sing his stuff but there came a point when I wanted one of my own, so I wrote 'I'm Down'" specifically to replace "Long Tall Sally" in the band's stage repertoire (Miles, page 201). The former was originally released by Little Richard in 1956. The Beatles recorded "Lucille" twice - once on 3 September 1963 as part of the Pop Go The Beatles radio broadcasts, and once again four days later, also for radio broadcasting purposes. Recordings of the Beatles' performances of these Little Richard songs exist for only 4 (5 if you count "Good Golly Miss Molly", but I suspect that's not the Beatles - see below) of the 11 listed above.īoth "Lucille" and "Long Tall Sally" were in the band's repertoire from the beginning (or at least since Paul joined in mid-1957). NOTE: Walter Everett (page 40) cites 14 Little Richard tunes, but I have not been able to confirm that, much less identify which three extra titles. "Can't Believe You Wanna Leave", 1960-62.Throughout the Quarrymen/Beatles' existence, they played a total of at least 11 Little Richard songs in live shows (as dictated in Lewisohn, page 362-65). Paul joined the band shortly thereafter, and consequently their repertoire expanded to include several Little Richard tunes. John seemed quite impressed" (Everett, page 24). The 15-year-old Paul was confident enough in his ability to impersonate Little Richard that he performed some of his songs for John Lennon the day they met and he auditioned to join the Quarrymen. "I did my Little Richard imitation, went through all the stuff I knew. In fact, Paul liked Little Richard so much that "he celebrated his last day of term at the Liverpool Institute by taking in his guitar, climbing on a desk in the classroom and singing his two party pieces, 'Long Tall Sally' and 'Tutti Frutti'" (Miles, page 200). You have to leave your current sensibilities and go about a foot above your head to sing it" (Miles, page 201). On Tuesday I'm leading a seminar through LifeLearn in West Hartford on the legacy of rock 'n' roll, so this seems like a perfect opportunity to 'kill two birds with one stone'.Ĭertainly the biggest appeal of Little Richard on the young Paul McCartney was his voice, which the Brit could imitate reasonably well. "I could do Little Richard's voice, which is a wild, hoarse, screaming thing, it's like an out-of-body experience.
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I cited his vocals as an influence on Paul, proffering "Long Tall Sally" as the obvious example, and ever since I have been wanting to do a more detailed look at Little Richard's influence on the band. At some point in the past few months, following one my Beatles programs at a local library, a woman asked me to comment on the influence of Little Richard on the Beatles.