Little Richard Debut Album Deluxe Reissue Due

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Craft Recordings, the catalog division of Concord Music, will celebrate the 60th anniversary of Here’s Little Richard with a deluxe reissue of the rock ’n’ roll icon’s 1957 debut full-length album. Due out November 3, the 2-CD set will offer a slew of demos, alternate takes and previously unreleased material from the original sessions, in addition to the remastered classic album, which features some of the artist’s best-loved hits, including “Long Tall Sally,” “Ready Teddy” and “Tutti Frutti.” New liner notes by writer, music editor and journalist Chris Morris will round out the package.

This expanded edition of the album includes 22 tracks of bonus material, eight of which are previously unreleased. Included is an early take of “Tutti Frutti,” demos of “Slippin’ and Slidin’” and “Miss Ann” and alternate takes of classic tracks like “Rip It Up” and “Reddy Teddy.” In his liner notes, Morris writes, “Like the classic recordings on Here’s Little Richard, these alternate versions reveal the blossoming of an unprecedented and wholly original talent whose first recordings broke down the categorical doors between R&B and pop. As they did in late 1955 when Little Richard arrived, like something from another planet, these wailing, rampaging songs present something new, rich and strange under the sun.”

One of the first artists to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Little Richard has been honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 1993 Grammy Awards, inductions into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (2003), the NAACP Image Awards’ Hall of Fame (2002) and, most recently, the Blues Hall of Fame in June 2015. In 2010, Little Richard was listed as number eight in Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Artists of All Time,” while also that year, the Library of Congress inducted “Tutti Frutti” into its National Recording registry, proclaiming that the song “announced a new era in music.”

Listen to the previously unreleased track “Can’t Believe You Wanna Leave”

Little Richard in his heyday (Photo courtesy of Specialty Archives)

Pre-order Here’s Little Richard here

Here’s Little Richard (60th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) Track List
Disc 1
1. Tutti Frutti
2. True, Fine Mama
3. Can’t Believe You Wanna Leave
4. Ready Teddy
5. Baby
6. Slippin’ and Slidin’
7. Long Tall Sally
8. Miss Ann
9. Oh Why?
10. Rip It Up
11. Jenny Jenny
12. She’s Got It

Disc 2
1. Tutti Frutti (take 2)
2. True Fine Mama (incomplete take)
3. Can’t Believe You Wanna Leave (take 6)*
4. Can’t Believe You Wanna Leave (take 8)
5. Ready Teddy (take 1)*
6. Ready Teddy (takes 2 & 3)*
7. Baby (demo)
8. Baby (take 1)
9. Slippin’ and Slidin’ (demo)*
10. Slippin’ and Slidin’ (piano & drums demo)
11. Long Tall Sally (take 1)
12. Long Tall Sally (take 6)
13. Miss Ann (demo)
14. Miss Ann (take 1)
15. Miss Ann (take 6)
16. Oh Why? (takes 3 & 4)*
17. Oh Why? (take 9)
18. Rip It Up (take 1)*
19. Rip It Up (take 3)
20. Rip It Up (take 4)*
21. Rip It Up (take 6)*
22. She’s Got It (alternate version)