RIP Little Richard - The King of Rock & Roll

Little Richard, who passed away yesterday, was nicknamed The Originator", "The Innovator", "The Architect of Rock and Roll".

Taking early secular rhythm and blues, and merging gospel, (jump) blues and boogie woogie, he injected his own fun wild personality and wrote catchy, high-octane songs on piano, that were sung and performed with so much energy and gusto it thrilled audiences particularly across the United States. Songs such as "Long Tall Sally", "Good Golly Miss Molly", "Rip It Up" and "Tutti Frutti", which was ranked by a range of musicians No.1 for Mojo Magazine to find out the "Top 100 Records That Changed The World":

Soon many of his contemporaries were covering his songs, including Elvis Presley, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and Bill Halley; Elvis called him "The Greatest". His influence soon also passed into the sixties too where artists such as Elton John, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles were inspired; Sir Paul McCartney paid tribute yesterday on Instagram saying 'I owe a lot of what I do to Little Richard'.

Clearly he must have faced a lot of prejudice and pressure in his career, but what he created in those early years really did set the template for what we know as Rock and Roll and instill in those artists who followed the passion and inspiration to go out and forge their own careers in music and for that we should be grateful.