Welcome!
Welcome to LittleRichard.Com, a tribute to the
"Emancipator of Rock and Roll!"
This is NOT an official site, it's a fan
site. That means I am NOT Little Richard, and I've never communicated
with him, I'm just a fellow fan.
If you're Little Richard, and are going to sue
my ass, drop me a line at
webmaster@littlerichard.com first, and you can have the domain name! :-)
News: Little Richard's retiring! Richard announced that he'll retire from show business next year, and dedicate his life to God. "I'll be 70 years old this year, and in fact I should be thankful that I still have health because all my friends are dead and gone and God has let me still be here."
Best Fan Site:
The Little Richard News Site
Timo Reijola's runs the best LR fan site around. He's is a true devotee,
and it's the sort of fan site that makes you appreciate the Internet.
There are pics of Timo with Little Richard in London in '85, and in
Germany in '98, so he's been a fan a while! His site has
news clippings, a biography, a
discography
by song & era,
lyrics
for 18 songs, some pictures,
a FAQ,
and an useful page of other links.
You can also submit requests to be forwarded to Little Richard's office
from Timo's site. Go to the main page
and select "Contact Info."
Best Discography:
All Media Guide's (AMG's)
Little Richard section
AMG offers an extensive catalog of the performer's works.
It has a biography, bibliography, and the most complete
discography you'll find (you wouldn't believe how many
albums and compilations he's done so far!). Many of the albums
have ratings, reviews, and song lists. Extensive hyperlinking
lets you easily follow links like what other albums the
second tenor sax player on George Peach did...it's quite
amazingly well done as web site.
The strangest thing is that they don't have "BUY ME" buttons
on the site...evidently AMG resells the info to other media
sellers, but their main site is rather non-commercial. Perhaps
this is to encourage readers to submit their own ratings and
opinions on the varoius albums.
Best Recording Samples: Amazon.com
Amazon.com offers a selection of
Real Audio samples, about 30 seconds
each, of almost all the tracks on all the Little Richard albums they carry.
These include his Essential Little Richard,
20 Greatest Hits,
Very Best of Little Richard,
Georgia Peach,
and even a single track (On Top of Spaghetti) on the mixed-artist Silliest Songs
and a whole host of other Little Richard albums.
Of course they're trying to get you to buy the albums, but it's still
a great use of the Internet, and a nice way of promoting his tunes
without infringing on copyrights. "Fair use" exceptions to copyright
law allow excerpts, and for songs in particular, publishing 30 second
clips can only help improve sales of the full songs.
By the way, while Amazon offers an affiliate program with which webmasters
can get a kickback for referring surfers, I'm not using that with these
links; for legal reasons, this site intentionally avoids making any money.
Upcoming Little Richard appearances
There's no single definitive source of Little Richard's upcoming
appearances, but I'd try the following sources.
Pollstar
Timo's fan site (some different, smaller venues listed)
Tickets.com (less likely to have listings)
Ticketmaster
(only listed if their monopoly-aspiring tentacles can leach money out of each ticket sale)
Rockability.net (probably nothing the others don't have, but one more place to look.)
Encyclopedia Little Richardica
Not that there were any doubts before, but it's always an added sign of
your indellible mark on history when you get your own
Encyclopedia Britannica entry.
Though in truth, the World Book's entry is a bit more informative.
Concert Bookings:
William Morris Agency
After listing the agency below for a couple years, I got word from
the William Morris Agency that they are "the Agency for Mr. Richard."
Their biography link includes scans of several interesting articles,
though there's little else of interest on the site unless you're a
professional trying to book a concert.
The Richard De La Font Agency
According to their site, The Richard De La Font Talent Booking Agency also
handles concert bookings for Little Richard. I'm guessing that perhaps
they're a reseller, acting as liaison with WMA. Anyway, bookings are
ALL they do.
They are not the Richard De La Font Can-You-Pass-This-Along-to-Richard Agency,
nor are they the Richard De La Font How-Tall-is-Little-Richard Agency.
If you're still unsure what is not a concert booking inquiry, they've
itemized a list of info and
and services they WILL NOT provide, such as ticket sales, concert info,
contact info, and a whole host of other services. Please respect their
need to run their booking business efficiently. As said before, the
likeliest way I know to contact Ricahrd is via
Timo's site.
Other Little Richard Sites
Rockabilly.net has a good collection
of info on Little Richard. In addition to a a bio and some upcoming gigs,
they also have a few photos,
some
info and clips
from NBC's biographical drama The Little Richard Story (2000),
copies of some articles, as well as links to other Rockabillystars of the era.
Little-Richard.com is similarly
named to this, but bills itself as part of a network of unofficial
"fan" sites, operated as a for-profit venture. They include another
biography, a limited discography, and a guest book where you can
leave messages to Ricahrd (I doubt Richard has ever read it).
While it's a nice effort and worth a look, it seems more like
the work of a company out to make money on page views than an
authentic fan site.
Other Articles and Mentions
The Detroit News did a great interview in 1997 on
Little Richard as the Great Emancipator. Interesting parallel
to 1955 and 1997's perceived threats of new music to middle class
America. They also did a fun article, Little Richard's the Life of the Party,
about a great Detroit performance with Ike Turner, Bo Diddly and others
at Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In USA Today's Little Richard Playing Life Large, from January 29, 1997, Little Richard discusses some personal history and reflections, as well as current aspirations.
Little Richard looked great on his 1998 apperance on the Rosie O'Donnell show. There are three pics and a multimedia clip in Rosie's Little Richard scrapbook page
The Pop Art Times' Little Richard interview in September 1998 probes the artist's thoughts on his musical influences, who he influenced, feelings on his treatment, being ripped off, his spirituality, and what he's been up to lately.
Celine Chamberlin has a simple site with twelve pics she took at LR's August 1996 Concert in Salem, Oregon.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee page for little Ridchard includes a nice brief biography, along with a list of "essential recordings" and a picture of one of Little Richard's colorful jackets that's on display at the Hall of Fame. As the little-disputed "architect of rock and roll", Little Richard was inducted, of course, at the first annual induction ceremony!
The History of Rock n Roll web site has a biography with a good emphasis on the artist's early years. It includes info up until 1993, but is focuses on the fifties.
Three articles from the previously-mentioned
Rockabilly.net site are
one from
Reuters on 2/18/2000,
the Boston Herald on 2/17/2000, and
the Chicago Sun Times on 1/14/2000
Sonic Net's Little Richard page is full of links, including a couple articles like their great revew of Little Richard's BB King Club performance, June 30, 2000, complete with RealAudio clips. As always, he was rockin' hard as ever! But Sonic Net's bio and other info seems to be rehashed data from AMG's site but with ads and a bunch of advertisements. (Both sites erroneously list his year of birth as 1935, for example).