Classic Cuts

AMG Review of Classic Cuts

Steve Leggett
All Music Guide

Merging gospel passion with hard charging New Orleans R&B piano riffs, singing like a manic angel, and blessed with the streetwise poetry of a junkyard Shakespeare in his songwriting, Little Richard burst on the scene in the mid-'50s like no-one before or since, and his run of classic hits in 1956 and 1957 is nothing short of astounding. This explosive 20-track set has them all, from "Tutti Frutti" to "Long Tall Sally," "Lucille," "Good Golly Miss Molly," "Jenny, Jenny," and more, a clattering, rocking litany by this one of a kind artist. He may have ended up as somewhat of a parody of himself, but these tracks are the real deal, and while ock & roll may have gotten louder and bigger as time went on, it never sounded more alive or electric than it did with Little Richard at his mid-'50s peak.