Song of the Day 5/10: Little Richard, “Tutti Frutti”

Many critics consider this song, released in 1955, as the first rock ‘n’ roll record, and while Richard Penniman rarely got as much credit as Chuck Berry or Bill Haley, “Tutti Frutti” embodied the raucous spirit of the new music better than any of them. It earned Little Richard a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s inaugural class. Here’s his performance of the song at the museum’s dedication concert.

Yet the tune almost didn’t make it onto his first LP, “Here’s Little Richard.” Richard had been singing since his early teens and made his first records of straight blues and jump blues tunes in 1952. That’s the sort of material that comprised the first eight songs recorded for “Here’s Little Richard,” including “All Night Long,” a re-recording from a demo he sent to Art Rupe, owner of Specialty Records. Rupe sent his producer, Bumps Blackwell, to New Orleans to record the aspiring singer with Fats Domino’s backing band.

It wasn’t until Blackwell took Penniman to a nightclub during a recording break that he heard the song and insisted it be included on the LP. First, though, they had to clean up the lyrics, which didn’t have anything to say about Rudi, Sue or Daisy. The original was actually an ode to gay sex, not entirely a surprise considering that the title is Italian for “all fruits.”

The original couplet was

Tutti frutti
Good booty

The following verses were even more explicit:

If it’s tight,
It’s alright

If it’s greasy,
It makes it easy

Dorothy LaBostrie, an aspiring songwriter who Blackwell said “kept hanging around the studio to sell songs,” was assigned the task, and came back in 15 minutes with a set of lyrics that still earned her five-figure royalty checks into the ’80s.

It was the only song on the album on which Richard played the piano himself. Huey “Piano” Smith played on the first eight cuts, but didn’t have time to learn “Tutti Frutti.” Drummer Earl Palmer, later a celebrated studio musician in Los Angeles, said in his autobiography, “The only reason I started playing what they come to call a rock and roll beat was came from trying to match Richard’s right hand. With Richard pounding the piano with all 10 fingers, you couldn’t so very well go against that.”