Editing Little Richard (section)

===Music===
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| quote = He claims to be "the architect of rock and roll", and history would seem to bear out Little Richard's boast. More than any other performer—save, perhaps, [[Elvis Presley]], Little Richard blew the lid off the Fifties, laying the foundation for rock and roll with his explosive music and charismatic persona. On record, he made spine-tingling rock and roll. His frantically charged piano playing and raspy, shouted vocals on such classics as "[[Tutti Frutti (song)|Tutti Frutti]]", "[[Long Tall Sally]]" and "[[Good Golly, Miss Molly]]" defined the dynamic sound of rock and roll.
| source = —[[Rock and Roll Hall of Fame]]<ref name="HallofFame1986"/>
}}Richard's music and performance style had a pivotal effect on the sound and style of popular 20th century music genres.<ref name="Britannica" /><ref name=Allmusic2013b/>{{sfn|Gulla|2008|p=27-28}} Richard embodied the rock and roll spirit more flamboyantly than any other performer.{{sfn|Campbell|2011|p=180}} Richard's raspy shouting style gave the genre one of its most identifiable and influential vocal sounds and his fusion of [[boogie-woogie]], New Orleans R&B and gospel music blazed its rhythmic trail.{{sfn|Campbell|2011|p=180}}{{sfn|Campbell|2008|pp=168–169}} Richard's emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music drove the formation of other popular music genres, including [[Soul music|soul]] and [[funk]].{{sfn|Erlewine|Harris|2020|loc=[https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/little-richard-20-essential-songs-15792/tutti-frutti-1955-209077/ "Tutti-Frutti" (1955)]}} He influenced singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to [[hip hop]]; his music helped shape [[rhythm and blues]] for generations.{{sfn|Erlewine|Harris|2020}}<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Browne|first1=David|date=May 9, 2020|title=Little Richard, Founding Father of Rock Who Broke Musical Barriers, Dead at 87|magazine=Rolling Stone|url=https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/little-richard-founding-father-rock-133000796.html|access-date=May 9, 2020|archive-date=May 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200509154647/https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/little-richard-founding-father-rock-133000796.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last1=McArdle|first1=Terence|date=May 9, 2020|title=Little Richard, flamboyant star of early rock-and-roll, dies at 87|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/little-richard-incendiary-spirit-of-early-rock-and-roll-dies-at-87/2020/05/09/4c0b038a-9201-11ea-a0bc-4e9ad4866d21_story.html|access-date=May 9, 2020|archive-date=May 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200509203345/https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/little-richard-incendiary-spirit-of-early-rock-and-roll-dies-at-87/2020/05/09/4c0b038a-9201-11ea-a0bc-4e9ad4866d21_story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Richard introduced several of rock music's most characteristic musical features, including its high volume, vocal style emphasizing power, its distinctive [[Beat (music)|beat]], and innovative visceral [[rhythm]]s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/little-richard|title=Little Richard &#124; Rock & Roll Hall of Fame|access-date=June 29, 2019|archive-date=August 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814070256/https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/little-richard|url-status=live}}</ref> He departed from boogie-woogie's [[shuffle rhythm]] and introduced a distinctive rock beat, where the beat division is even at all [[tempo]]s. He reinforced this rhythm with a two-handed piano style, playing patterns with his right hand, with the rhythm typically popping out in the piano's high [[Register (music)|register]]. His rhythm pattern, which he introduced with "[[Tutti Frutti (song)|Tutti Frutti]]" (1955), became the basis for the standard rock beat, which was later consolidated by [[Chuck Berry]].{{sfn|Campbell|Brody|2007|p=115}} "[[Lucille (Little Richard song)|Lucille]]" (1957) foreshadowed the rhythmic feel of 1960s [[classic rock]] in several ways, including its heavy [[bassline]], slower tempo, strong rock beat played by the entire band, and [[verse–chorus form]] similar to the blues.{{sfn|Campbell|Brody|2007|p=117}}[[File:Little Richard.jpg|alt=A worm's eye view of Little Richard in a sequined shirt with his arms raised, smiling|thumb|Little Richard in concert]]

Richard's voice was able to generate croons, wails, and screams unprecedented in popular music.<ref name="Britannica" /> He was cited by two of soul music's pioneers, [[Otis Redding]] and [[Sam Cooke]], as contributing to the genre's early development. Redding stated that most of his music was patterned after Richard's, referring to his 1953 recording "Directly From My Heart To You" as the personification of soul, and that he had "done a lot for [him] and [his] soul brothers in the music business."{{sfn|White|2003|p=231}} Cooke said in 1962 that Richard had done "so much for our music".{{sfn|White|2003|p=228}} Cooke had a top 40 hit in 1963 with his cover of Richard's 1956 hit "Send Me Some Loving".<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=http://www.billboard.com/artist/277951/sam-cooke/chart |title=Sam Cooke – Chart history |magazine=Billboard |access-date=January 17, 2017}}</ref>

[[James Brown]] and others credited Richard and his mid-1950s backing band, The Upsetters, as the first to put funk in the rock beat.<ref name="HallofFame1986" />{{sfn|Palmer|2011|p=139}}<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/top-10-greatest-little-richard-songs/ |title=Top 10 Greatest Little Richard Songs Of All Time - Vote Now! uDiscover |website=Udiscovermusic.com |date=October 24, 2017 |access-date=April 22, 2020 |archive-date=May 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200509212755/https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/top-10-greatest-little-richard-songs/ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfn|Erlewine|Harris|2020|loc=[https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/little-richard-20-essential-songs-15792/freedom-blues-1970-207794/ "Freedom Blues" (1970)]|ps=. "His influence is incalculable. The Beatles learned their ecstatic falsetto shouts from him; James Brown said he was "the first to put the funk in rhythm." In his yearbook, Bob Dylan listed that his ambition was "to join Little Richard," and nine-year-old David Bowie bought a saxophone hoping to do that as well."}}

Richard's hits of the mid-1950s, such as "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally", "Keep A-Knockin'" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly", were generally characterized by playful lyrics with sexually suggestive connotations.<ref name="Britannica" /> [[AllMusic]] writer Richie Unterberger stated that Little Richard "merged the fire of gospel with New Orleans R&B, pounding the piano and wailing with gleeful abandon", and that while "other R&B greats of the early 1950s had been moving in a similar direction, none of them matched the sheer electricity of Richard's vocals. With his high-speed deliveries, ecstatic trills, and the overjoyed force of personality in his singing, he was crucial in upping the voltage from high-powered R&B into the similar, yet different, guise of rock and roll."<ref name=Allmusic2013b/>

Emphasizing Richard's folk influences, English professor W. T. Lhamon Jr. wrote, "His songs were literally good booty. They were the repressed stuff of underground lore. And in Little Richard they found a vehicle prepared to bear their chocked energy, at least for his capsulated moment."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lhamon|first=W.T.|year=1985|title=Little Richard as a Folk Performer|journal=Studies in Popular Culture|volume=8|issue=2|pages=7–17|issn=0888-5753|jstor=23412946}}</ref>

[[Ray Charles]] introduced him at a concert in 1988 as "a man that started a kind of music that set the pace for a lot of what's happening today."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdM4gSzb_ug | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211028/ZdM4gSzb_ug| archive-date=October 28, 2021|title=Little Richard – Great Gosh A'mighty|publisher=Eagle Rock|date=August 29, 2008|access-date=August 10, 2009|via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Richard's contemporaries, including [[Elvis Presley]], [[Buddy Holly]], [[Bill Haley]], [[Jerry Lee Lewis]], [[Pat Boone]], [[the Everly Brothers]], [[Gene Vincent]] and [[Eddie Cochran]], all recorded covers of his works.{{sfn|Gulla|2008|p=27}} As they wrote about him for their Man of the Year – Legend category in 2010, [[GQ|''GQ'' magazine]] stated that Richard "is, without question, the boldest and most influential of the founding fathers of rock'n'roll."{{sfn|Chalmers|2012}}