Little Richard's Greatest Hits

Little Richard's Greatest Hits was Little Richard's eighth original album. This Greatest Hits album re-released all of Little Richard's 1950s songs when he was in his recording heyday with the Vee-Jay Records label. The album is considered by some Little Richard aficionados as misleadingly labelled, because the tracks on the album often make up budget CD compilations of the artist. For this reason, the versions in this Greatest Hits album are significantly different from the Specialty originals, most notably "Lucille", which in this Greatest Hits album, presents the listener with a completely different arrangement including violin, percussing, and jazz backing.

History

Little Richard recorded forty-six tracks for the Vee-Jay Records label, but nearly half of the tracks went unreleased as the company filed 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. These four albums containing the rest of the Vee Jay output (barring three unreleased tracks) were as follows: Mr. Big (1971), Friends from the Beginning - Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix (1972), Rip It Up (1973) and Talkin' 'Bout Soul (1974). To date, three tracks recorded for the Vee Jay label remain unreleased: an alternate version of She's Got It, plus I Don't Come From England and Thank You.

Critical Assessment

Critically, both the recordings and Richard's self-parodying persona of the time have been regarded as low points in his career: Vee Jay rerecorded many of Richard's Specialty hits, too. But, blinded by commercial considerations, they rushed the session without concern for quality. The result was dreadful. Low-key promotion and the overwhelming "invasion" of British groups prevented the records from making it. [...] His stage act was rapidly becoming a form of self-parody. The undiscriminating audiences, who seemed to love his camp fooling more than his music, encouraged his displays of narcissistic nonsense and he became even more eccentric." ^[1] (page 127).

Track listing

1. Good Golly Miss Molly (2:07)
2. Baby Face (2:33)
3. Tutti Frutti (2:24)
4. Send Me Some Lovin' (2:19)
5. The Girl Can't Help It (3:02)
6. Lucille (2:16)
7. Slippin' And Slidin' (2:26)
8. Keep A Knockin' (2:15)
9. Rip It Up (2:02)
10. She's Got It (2:11)
11. Ooh! My Soul (2:17)
12. Long Tall Sally (2:03)

Charts

Album

References