Editing Little Richard (section)

===1956–1962: Initial success and conversion===
{{quote box|width=20%|quote=A lot of songs I sang to crowds first to watch their reaction. That's how I knew they'd hit.|source= —Little Richard{{sfn|Du Noyer|2003|p=14}}}}Richard's next hit single, "[[Long Tall Sally]]" (1956), hit number one on the R&B chart and number 13 on the Top 100, while reaching the top 10 in Britain. Like "Tutti Frutti", it sold more than a million copies. Following his success, Richard built up his backup band, The Upsetters, with the addition of saxophonists Clifford "Gene" Burks and [[bandleader|leader]] [[Grady Gaines]], bassist Olsie "Baysee" Robinson and guitarist Nathaniel "Buster" Douglas.{{sfn|White|2003|p=58}} Richard began performing on package tours across the United States. Art Rupe described the differences between Richard and a similar hitmaker of the early rock and roll period by stating that, while "the similarities between Little Richard and Fats Domino for recording purposes were close", Richard would sometimes stand up at the piano while he was recording, and that onstage, where Domino was "plodding, very slow", Richard was "very dynamic, completely uninhibited, unpredictable, wild. So the band took on the ambience of the vocalist."{{sfn|White|2003|pp=74–75}} Richard's high-energy antics included lifting his leg while playing the piano, climbing on top of his piano, running on and off the stage and throwing souvenirs to the audience.{{sfn|Bayles|1996|p=133: "He'd be on the stage, he'd be off the stage, he'd be jumping and yelling, screaming, whipping the audience on&nbsp;..."}} He also began using capes and suits studded with multi-colored stones and sequins. Richard said he became more flamboyant onstage so no one would think he was "after the white girls".{{sfn|White|2003|p=70}}

Richard's performances, like most early rock and roll shows, resulted in [[Racial integration|integrated]] audience reaction during an era where public places were divided into "white" and "colored" domains. In these package tours, Richard and other artists such as Fats Domino and [[Chuck Berry]] would enable audiences of both races to enter the building, albeit still segregated (e.g. blacks on the balcony and whites on the main floor). As his later producer [[H. B. Barnum]] explained, Richard's performances enabled audiences to come together to dance.{{sfn|Pegg|2002|p=50: "Although they still had the audiences together in the building, they were ''there'' together. And most times, before the end of the night, they would be all mixed together"}} Despite broadcasts on television from local [[racism|supremacist]] groups such as the North Alabama [[White Citizens Council]] warning that rock and roll "brings the races together", Richard's popularity was helping to shatter the myth that black performers could not successfully perform at "white-only venues" especially in the South, where racism was most overt.{{sfn|White|2003|pp=82–83}}

Richard claims that a show at [[Baltimore]]'s [[Royal Theatre (Baltimore)|Royal Theatre]] in June 1956 led to women throwing their [[undergarments]] onstage at him, resulting in other female fans repeating the action, saying it was "the first time" that had happened to any artist.{{sfn|White|2003|p=66}} Richard's show would stop several times that night to restrain fans from jumping off the balcony and then rushing to the stage to touch him.{{sfn|White|2003|p=66}}

Overall, Richard produced seven singles in the United States alone in 1956, with five of them also charting in the UK, including "[[Slippin' and Slidin']]", "[[Rip It Up (Little Richard song)|Rip It Up]]", "[[Ready Teddy]]", "[[The Girl Can't Help It (song)|The Girl Can't Help It]]" and "[[Lucille (Little Richard song)|Lucille]]". Immediately after releasing "Tutti Frutti", "safer" white recording artists such as [[Pat Boone]] covered the song, charting in the top twenty, higher than Richard's. His fellow rock and roll peers [[Elvis Presley]] and [[Bill Haley]] also recorded his songs later that same year. Befriending [[Alan Freed]],{{sfn|White|2003|pp=83–84}} the disc jockey eventually put him in his "rock and roll" movies such as ''[[Don't Knock the Rock]]''{{sfn|White|2003|p=80}} and ''[[Mister Rock and Roll (film)|Mister Rock and Roll]]''. Richard was given a larger singing role in the film, ''[[The Girl Can't Help It]]''.<ref name="WallStreet">{{Cite news|newspaper=The Wall Street Journal|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703545604575407661245246210|title=Little Richard, The First|author=Myers, Marc|date=October 10, 2010|access-date=September 29, 2011|archive-date=December 30, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141230152527/http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703545604575407661245246210|url-status=live}}</ref> That year, he scored more hit success with songs such as "[[Jenny, Jenny]]" and "[[Keep A-Knockin']]", the latter becoming his first top ten single on the Billboard Top 100. By the time he left Specialty in 1959, Richard had scored a total of nine top-40 pop singles, as well as seventeen top-40 R&B singles.{{sfn|White|2003|p=241}}{{sfn|White|2003|pp=264–265}}

On September 2, 1956, Richard performed at the twelfth [[Cavalcade of Jazz]], held at [[Wrigley Field (Los Angeles)|Wrigley Field]] in Los Angeles, which was produced by [[Leon Hefflin, Sr.]] Also performing that day were [[Dinah Washington]], The Mel Williams Dots, Julie Stevens, [[Chuck Higgins]]' Orchestra, [[Bo Rhambo]], Willie Hayden & Five Black Birds, The Premiers, [[Gerald Wilson]] and His 20-Pc. Recording Orchestra, and [[Jerry Gray (arranger)|Jerry Gray]] and his Orchestra.<ref>{{Cite news |title=12th Annual Cavalcade of Jazz starring Little Richard |work=Los Angeles Sentinel |date=August 9, 1956}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Stars Galore Set for Sept. Jazz Festival |work=The California Eagle |date=August 23, 1956}}</ref>

[[File:Little richard specialty 624 a.jpg|thumb|"Good Golly, Miss Molly", 45&nbsp;rpm recording on Specialty Records]]
Shortly after the release of "Tutti Frutti", Richard relocated to Los Angeles. After achieving success as a recording artist and live performer, Richard moved into a wealthy, formerly-predominantly-white neighborhood, living close to black celebrities such as boxer [[Joe Louis]].{{sfn|White|2003|pp=82}} Richard's first album, ''[[Here's Little Richard]]'', was released by Specialty in March 1957 and peaked at number thirteen on the [[Billboard 200|''Billboard'' Top LPs]] chart. Similar to most albums released during that era, the album featured six released singles, as well as "filler" tracks.<ref name="entertainment.time.com">{{Cite magazine|last=Light |first=Alan |url=https://entertainment.time.com/2006/11/02/the-all-time-100-albums/slide/heres-little-richard/ |title=Here's Little Richard |magazine=Time |date=January 27, 2010 |access-date=January 17, 2017}}</ref> In October 1957, Richard embarked on a package tour in Australia with [[Gene Vincent]] and [[Eddie Cochran]]. In the middle of the tour, he shocked the public by announcing he was following a life in the [[minister (Christianity)|ministry]]. In early 1958, Specialty released his second album, ''[[Little Richard (album)|Little Richard]]'', which did not chart.{{sfn|White|2003|pp=89–92}}

Richard claimed in his autobiography that, during a flight from Melbourne to Sydney, while his plane was experiencing some difficulty, he saw the plane's red-hot engines, and felt angels were "holding it up".{{sfn|White|2003|p=91}} At the end of his Sydney performance, Richard saw a bright red fireball flying across the sky above him and claimed he was "deeply shaken".{{sfn|White|2003|p=91}} Though he was eventually told that it was the first [[artificial satellite|artificial Earth satellite]] [[Sputnik 1]], Richard took it as a "sign from God" to stop performing secular music and repent for his wild lifestyle.{{sfn|White|2003|pp=89–92}}

Returning to the States ten days earlier than expected, Richard later read news of his original flight having crashed into the Pacific Ocean, and took it as a further sign to "do as God wanted".{{sfn|White|2003|p=92}} After a "farewell performance" at the [[Apollo Theater]] and a "final" recording session with Specialty later that month, Richard enrolled at [[Oakwood College]] in [[Huntsville, Alabama]], to study theology.{{sfn|White|2003|p=95}}{{sfn|Miller|1996|p=248}} Despite his claims of spiritual rebirth, Richard later admitted his reasons for leaving were more monetary. During his tenure at Specialty, despite earning millions for the label,{{Citation needed|date=July 2023}} Richard complained that he did not know the label had reduced the percentage of royalties he was to earn for his recordings.{{sfn|White|2003|pp=88–89}} Specialty continued to release Richard's recordings, including "[[Good Golly, Miss Molly]]", and his unique version of "[[Kansas City (Leiber and Stoller song)|Kansas City]]", until 1960. Ending his contract with the label, Richard agreed to relinquish [[royalties]] for his material.{{sfn|White|2003|pp=95–97}}

In 1958, Richard formed the Little Richard Evangelistic Team, traveling across the country to preach.{{sfn|White|2003|pp=94–95}} A month after his decision to leave secular music, Richard met Ernestine Harvin, a secretary from Washington, D.C., and the couple married on July 11, 1959.{{sfn|White|2003|p=97}} Richard ventured into gospel music, first recording for [[End Records]], before signing with [[Mercury Records]] in 1961, where he eventually released ''King of the Gospel Singers'', in 1962, produced by [[Quincy Jones]], who later remarked that Richard's vocals impressed him more than any other vocalist he had worked with.{{sfn|White|2003|p=102: "Richard had such a unique voice and style that no one has ever matched it – even to this day"}} His childhood heroine, [[Mahalia Jackson]], wrote in the liner notes of the album that Richard "sang gospel the way it should be sung".{{sfn|White|2003|p=103: "He sang gospel the way it should be sung. He had that primitive beat and sound that came so naturally&nbsp;... the soul in his singing was not faked. It was real"}} While Richard was no longer charting in the U.S., with pop music, some of his gospel songs such as "He's Not Just a Soldier" and "He Got What He Wanted", and "Crying in the Chapel", reached the pop charts in the U.S. and the UK.{{sfn|White|2003|p=267}}