![]() ![]() ![]() His early vocal influences were gospel singers - Alex Bradford, Brother Joe May, Clarence Fountain of the Blind Boys of Alabama, Claude Jeter of the Swan Silvertones and, most importantly, Mahalia Jackson. The third eldest of a dozen children, he was the son of a church deacon and sometime nightclub operator his mother was a devout Baptist and sister in the Pentecostal church. He was born Richard Wayne Penniman in Macon, Ga. He made a splashy return to rock on his ’62 tour of England and cashed in on the rock ‘n’ roll revival of the ’60s and ’70s, but returned to religion again in 1977.Īnother comeback ensued after the 1984 publication of Charles White’s authorized bio “The Life and Times of Little Richard, the Quasar of Rock.” This second renascence was highlighted by a thesping and musical appearance in “Down and Out in Beverly Hills,” director Paul Mazursky’s 1986 adaptation of Jean Renoir’s “Boudu Saved From Drowning.” “Great Gosh A’Mighty,” a rocker in the grand, gospelized Richard manner drawn from the soundtrack, became his last solo chart hit. In 1957, at the height of his popularity, he quit rock ‘n’ roll, enrolled in theological school and undertook a new career as an evangelical minister and gospel singer. ![]() Richard’s career was discontinuous after the late ’50s. In 1955, in the early days of his career, future R&B mega-star James Brown masqueraded as Little Richard, whom he had befriended in Georgia, at several dates booked by Brown’s manager in the South. ![]()
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