I got a gal, named Daisy, She almost drives me crazy .... She knows how to love me

Songs Everybody Should Know

“Tutti Fruiti”, Little Richard, 1955

Who inspired James Brown, Michael Jackson, Prince, Elton John, David Bowie, Marc Bolan, the New York Dolls, Alice Cooper, even Elvis himself?  Who put the funk in the rhythm?

If there was a black Elvis, Little Richard was him. Probably as important to the birth of rock and roll was Richard Wayne Penniman, or ‘Little Richard’ as he called himself.

Well, it's one for the money, Two for the show, Three to get ready, Now go, cat, go.

The birth of Rock and Roll

Pop quiz people -Is “Rock and Roll”?:

  

a)      An incarnation of rhythm and blues.

b)      A mixture of country, gospel, folk, and blues.

c)       A spin-off of boogie-woogie and jazz

d)      A reference to the old mariners’ term ‘rock and roll'.

And the answer is.......all of the above!

Music Historian Robert Palmer (not the Robert Palmer with the dancing girls, addicted to love, sorry), best known for his book “Deep Blues”, 1981 wrote:

"Rock 'n' roll was an inevitable outgrowth of the social and musical interactions between blacks and whites in the South and Southwest. Its roots are a complex tangle. Bedrock black church music influenced blues, rural blues influenced white folk song and the black popular music of the Northern ghettos, blues and black pop influenced jazz, and so on. But the single most important process was the influence of black music on white."