Fact #187650
When:
Short story:
In Cosimo Matassa's J + M Studios, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Little Richard finishes his first two-day recording session for Specialty Records. One of the songs recorded at this session is Tutti Frutti.Full article:
Bumps Blackwell (A+R man, Specialty Records) : So here we go over to the Dew Drop Inn, and, of course, Richard's like any other ham. We walk into the place and, you know, the girls are there and the boys are there and he's got an audience. There's a piano, and that's his crutch. He's on stage reckoning to show Lee Allen his piano style. So WOW! He gets to going. He hits that piano, didididididi- didididi ...and starts to sing " Awop-bop-a-Loo-Mop a-good Goddam-Tutti Frutti, good booty…' I said, "Wow! That's what I want from you, Richard. That's a hit!" I knew that the lyrics were too lewd and suggestive to record. It would never have got played on the air. So I got hold of Dorothy La Bostrie, who had come over to see how the recording of her song was going. I brought her to The Dew Drop.
Dorothy was a little coloured girl so thin she looked like six o'clock. She just had to close one eye and she looked like a needle. Dorothy had songs stacked this high and was always asking me to record them. She'd been singing these songs to me, but the trouble was they all sounded like Dinah Washington's Blowtop Blues. They were all composed to the same melody. But looking through her words, I could see that she was a prolific writer. She just didn't understand melody. So I said to her, "Look. You come and write some lyrics to this, cos I can't use the lyrics Richard's got." He had some terrible words in there.
Well, Richard was embarrassed to sing the song and she was not certain that she wanted to hear it.
Little Richard : I'd been singing Tutti Frutti for years, but it never struck me as a song you'd record. I didn't go to New Orleans to record no Tutti Frutti. Sure it used to crack the crowds up when I sang it in the clubs, with those risque lyrics 'Tutti Frutti good booty/If it don't fit, don't force it/You can grease it, make it easy'. I never thought it would be a hit, even with the lyrics cleaned up.
Bumps Blackwell : Time was running out, and I knew it could be a hit. I talked, using every argument I could think of. I asked him if he had a grudge against making money. I told her that she was over twenty-one, had a houseful of kids and no husband and needed the money. And finally, I convinced them. Richard turned to face the wall and sang the song two or three times and Dorothy listened.
Break time was over, and we went back to the studio to finish the session, leaving Dorothy to write the words. I think the first thing we did was Directly From My Heart To You. Now that, and I'm Just A Lonely Guy, could have made it. Those two I could have gotten by with - just by the skin of my teeth. Fifteen-minutes before the session was to end, the chick comes in and puts these little trite lyrics in front of me. I put them in front of Richard. Richard says he ain't got no voice left. I said, "Richard, you've got to sing.
There had been no chance to write an arrangement, so I had to take the chance on Richard playing the piano himself. That wild piano was essential to the success of the song. It was impossible for the other piano players to learn it in the short time we had. I put a microphone between Richard and the piano, and another inside the piano, and we started to record. It took three takes and, in fifteen-minutes, we had it. Tutti Frutti!
Art Rupe (owner, Specialty Records) : The reason I picked it wasn't solely for the tempo. It was because of the wild intro, it was different, you know? Be Bop A Lop Bop! All that in front. You didn't hear things like that much on a record.
(Source : not known)
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Dorothy was a little coloured girl so thin she looked like six o'clock. She just had to close one eye and she looked like a needle. Dorothy had songs stacked this high and was always asking me to record them. She'd been singing these songs to me, but the trouble was they all sounded like Dinah Washington's Blowtop Blues. They were all composed to the same melody. But looking through her words, I could see that she was a prolific writer. She just didn't understand melody. So I said to her, "Look. You come and write some lyrics to this, cos I can't use the lyrics Richard's got." He had some terrible words in there.
Well, Richard was embarrassed to sing the song and she was not certain that she wanted to hear it.
Little Richard : I'd been singing Tutti Frutti for years, but it never struck me as a song you'd record. I didn't go to New Orleans to record no Tutti Frutti. Sure it used to crack the crowds up when I sang it in the clubs, with those risque lyrics 'Tutti Frutti good booty/If it don't fit, don't force it/You can grease it, make it easy'. I never thought it would be a hit, even with the lyrics cleaned up.
Bumps Blackwell : Time was running out, and I knew it could be a hit. I talked, using every argument I could think of. I asked him if he had a grudge against making money. I told her that she was over twenty-one, had a houseful of kids and no husband and needed the money. And finally, I convinced them. Richard turned to face the wall and sang the song two or three times and Dorothy listened.
Break time was over, and we went back to the studio to finish the session, leaving Dorothy to write the words. I think the first thing we did was Directly From My Heart To You. Now that, and I'm Just A Lonely Guy, could have made it. Those two I could have gotten by with - just by the skin of my teeth. Fifteen-minutes before the session was to end, the chick comes in and puts these little trite lyrics in front of me. I put them in front of Richard. Richard says he ain't got no voice left. I said, "Richard, you've got to sing.
There had been no chance to write an arrangement, so I had to take the chance on Richard playing the piano himself. That wild piano was essential to the success of the song. It was impossible for the other piano players to learn it in the short time we had. I put a microphone between Richard and the piano, and another inside the piano, and we started to record. It took three takes and, in fifteen-minutes, we had it. Tutti Frutti!
Art Rupe (owner, Specialty Records) : The reason I picked it wasn't solely for the tempo. It was because of the wild intro, it was different, you know? Be Bop A Lop Bop! All that in front. You didn't hear things like that much on a record.
(Source : not known)