Top 10 Greatest Little Richard Songs Of All Time – Vote Now!
Always larger than life, and blessed with a charisma that has won him fans including Elvis Presley, The Beatles and David Bowie, Little Richard is responsible for creating the type of controlled shout-and-falsetto sound that liberates and excites with near maniacal fervour – as can be heard across his 10 greatest songs of all time.
He also helped make the transition from rock to funk – ask James Brown – and injected show business with bold abandon into everything he did. His legacy is vast – The Beatles and Rolling Stones both opened for him, Jimi Hendrix joined his band The Upsetters – and his stage act was explosive, as anyone who has seen him live would testify. Those in thrall to him include Bob Dylan, AC/DC, Elton John, The Allman Brothers and Patti Smith. He provided an anarchic, rebellious soundtrack for generations who grew up with him in the 50s, and his Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, received in 1993, was long overdue.
Here’s our pick of the 10 greatest Little Richard songs of all time. Disagree? Let us know which ones you would pick in the comments below…
UK English
Jorge Li
October 26, 2017 at 10:28 pm
LongTallSally, Lucille, GoodGollyMissMolly, Sleeping&Sliding, RipItUp, KeepAKnocking, Tutti-frutti, ReadyTeddy, TrueFineMama, Can’t BelieveYouWannaLeave….
Mike ahlheim
May 10, 2020 at 2:25 pm
RIP it up or bama Lamar loo where is miss Ann it was one of the best songs he sang my favorite
Bernd Haake
October 27, 2017 at 11:22 am
Baby Face
Bruce Grossberg
October 27, 2017 at 6:24 pm
1. Long Tall Sally
2. Tutti-Frutti
3. Slippin’ And Slidin’
4. Rip It Up
5. Keep A-Knockin’
6. Good Golly, Miss Molly
7. Ain’t Nothin’ Happenin’
8. I’m In Love Again
9. I Brought It All On Myself
10. Ready Teddy
11. True Fine Mama
12. Miss Ann
13. Send Me Some Lovin’
14. Lucille
15. Baby
16. The Girl Can’t Help It
17. Every Hour
18. Get Rich Quick
19. Hey Hey Hey Hey
20. Taxi Blues
21. Kansas City
22. Rice, Red Beans And Turnip Greens
23. Ooh! My Soul
24. Early One Morning
25. Little Richard’s Boogie
26. Jenny, Jenny
27. I’ll Never Let You Go
28. Heeby-Jeebies
29. Every Night About This Time
30. Fool At The Wheel
31. Bama Lama Bama Loo
32. Ain’t That Good News
33. All Night Long
34. By The Light of The Silvery Moon
35. I Got It
36. She’s My Star
37. Why Did You Leave Me?
38. Can’t Believe You Wanna Leave
39. She’s Got It
40. All Around The World
41. She Knows How to Rock
42. Directly from My Heart
43. Baby Face
44. Oh Why
45. Freedom Blues
46. Lonesome And Blue
47. Always
48. I’m Just A Lonely Guy
49. I Love My Baby
50. Valley of Tears
georgi osipov
November 26, 2017 at 7:55 pm
Freedom Blues, Get Down With It, Tutti Frutti (live at the Okeh Club), Girl Can’t Help It, He Got What He Wanted, Dew Drop Inn, Oh Why, Directly From My Heart To You, She Knows How to Rock Me, I Need Love, Rockin’ with the King (gest appearance on Canned Heat recording).
Remi
November 26, 2017 at 8:40 pm
The best songs ever i like them beautiful
Charles Fortune
December 29, 2017 at 3:14 am
Nice list. I would have to sneak “Ooh My Soul” on there somewhere.
Oleg
April 21, 2018 at 7:53 am
Good Golly, Miss Molly
Russell Carson
April 21, 2018 at 10:54 pm
Everything he did was great, but I would place “Good Golly, Miss Molly” at the top of my list. It does surprise me that it isn’t in the top ten shown at the top of this post. I would probably take out “Bama Lama Loo” to make room for it. Maybe it’s because I have a thing for girl name songs. My top ten would be something like Good Golly Miss Molly, Jenny Jenny, Long Tall Sally, Lucille, followed by Tutti Frutti, Keepa Knockin’, Rip it Up, Ready Teddy, The Girl Can’t Help It and his version of Whole Lotta Shakin’ goin’ on. I don’t think it made the charts and I don’t see it mentioned here (though I could have missed it), and I know it’s a Jerry Lee Lewis signature song, but I bought the record. It was only fair. After all, Jerry Lee did a cover of Good Golly Miss Molly and it was pretty good, too. R & B and Rockabilly were and still are my favorite forms of Rock n’ Roll. The rockabillies covered just about everything Little Richard did and that was all right with me. Elvis did Long Tall Sally, Tutti Frutti, Rip It Up and Ready Teddy. I had the records. The Everly Brothers did Lucille (I kid you not – it was on one of their albums). My four favorite piano pounders were Little Richard, Jerry Lee, Fats Domino and Ray Charles. My favorite guitar slingers were Elvis (even though he didn’t play it much), Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, Bo Diddley, Eddie Cochran and Carl Perkins. And then – kind of in a class by himself because he let his guitar do the singing – Duane Eddy.
Egon Harfeldt
December 5, 2018 at 12:32 pm
I miss Good golly miss Molly. Should be among top 3!
Kenneth
December 5, 2018 at 2:33 pm
True fine mama is number one.
Jack
December 5, 2018 at 9:01 pm
The list is seriously diminishesd in quality with the leaving out of “Good Golly Miss Molly “ as many have pointed out!!!
Others are great…but what we’re makers of list thinking in leaving out so obvious a choice!!!
Little Richard
May 14, 2020 at 7:39 am
1) LONG TALL SALLY – Easily number one (practically unanimous).
2) READY TEDDY – Can’t believe it didn’t even make it into a top 5. Absolute rocker!
3) GOOD GOLLY MISS MOLLY – Classic! Not even in the top 10?! Unquestionably top 3.
4) THE GIRL CAN’T HELP IT – Agree.
5) KEEP A-KNOCKIN – Agree.
6) TUTTI-FRUTTI – Too much of a classic to be left out (although not a top 5 song for me).
7) RIP IT UP
8) OOH! MY SOUL
9) SLIPPIN’ AND SLIDIN’
10) LUCILLE