Little Richard Is Back (And There's a Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!)

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.

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 1964 and had a further six sessions until late in 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 any more 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.

Track listing

1. A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
2. Going Home Tomorrow
3. Money Honey
4. Only You
5. Hound Dog
6. Goodnight Irene
7. Lawdy Miss Claudie
8. Groovy Little Suzy
9. Short Fat Fanny
10. Cherry Red
11. Memories Are Made Of This
12. Blueberry Hill

Charts

Album