Tutti Frutti (song)
| "Tutti Frutti" | ||||
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| Single by Little Richard | ||||
| from the album Here's Little Richard | ||||
| B-side | "I'm Just a Lonely Guy" | |||
| Released | November 1955 | |||
| Recorded | September 14, 1955 | |||
| Genre | Rock and roll | |||
| Label | Specialty 561 | |||
| Writer(s) | Little Richard, Dorothy LaBostrie | |||
| Producer | Robert Blackwell | |||
| Little Richard singles chronology | ||||
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"Tutti Frutti" (originally shown as "Tutti-Fruiti") is a 1955 song by Little Richard, which became his first hit record. With its opening cry of "A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-lop-bop-bop!"[1] (supposedly a verbal imitation of a drum intro[citation needed]) and its hard-driving sound and wild lyrics, it became not only a model for many future Little Richard songs, but also one of the models for rock and roll itself.
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[edit] Original recording by Little Richard
Although Little Richard Penniman had recorded for Peacock Records since 1951, his records had been relatively undistinguished and had sold poorly. In February 1955, he sent a demo tape to Specialty Records, which was heard by producer Robert 'Bumps' Blackwell. Blackwell heard promise in the tapes and arranged a recording session for Little Richard at Cosimo Matassa's studio in New Orleans in September 1955, with Fats Domino's backing band. The band included Lee Allen and Alvin "Red" Tyler on saxophones, Frank Fields on guitar, and Earl Palmer on drums.[2][3]
However, as the session wore on, Little Richard's anarchic performance style was not being fully captured on tape. In frustration during a lunch break, he started pounding a piano and singing a ribald song which he had been performing live for some time.[4] The song that he sang was a piece of music that he “had polished in clubs across the South".[5]
The song "Tutti Frutti" bears similarities to an earlier song titled "Tutti Booty", recorded by Slim and Slam in 1938.[2] Little Richard sang:
"A-wop bop-a loo-mop, a-lop bam-boom! Tutti Frutti, aw-rooty"
After this lively performance, Blackwell knew the song was going to be a hit, but recognized that the lyrics, with their “minstrel modes and sexual humor” needed to be cleaned up.[5]
Blackwell contacted local songwriter Dorothy LaBostrie to revise the lyrics, with Little Richard still playing in his characteristic style. According to Blackwell, Dorothy La Bostrie “didn’t understand melody”, but was definitely a “prolific writer".[6] The original lyrics, “Tutti Frutti, good booty / If it don’t fit, don’t force it / You can grease it, make it easy",[7] were replaced with “Tutti Frutti, all rooty! Tutti Frutti, all rooty”. (All rooty was hipster slang for "all right".) In addition to Penniman and LaBostrie, a third name—Lubin—is credited as co-writer. Some sources considered this to be a pseudonym used by Specialty label owner Art Rupe to claim royalties on some of his label's songs,[2] but others refer to songwriter Joe Lubin.[8] Songwriter LaBostrie was quoted as saying that "Little Richard didn't write none of 'Tutti Frutti'." She was still receiving royalty checks on the average of $5,000 every three to six months from the song in the 80s.[9]
Blackwell stated that time constraints didn't permit a new arrangement, so Little Richard recorded the revised song in three takes, taking about fifteen minutes, with the original piano part. The song was recorded on September 14, 1955.[2] Released on Specialty 561, the record entered the Billboard Rhythm and Blues chart at the end of November 1955, and rose to # 2 early in 1956. It also reached # 17 on the Billboard pop chart. In the UK, it only scraped into the top 30 in 1957, as the B-side of "Long Tall Sally". The song, with its twelve-bar blues chord progression,[10] provided the foundation of Little Richard's career. It was seen as a very aggressive song that contained more features of African American vernacular music than any other past recordings in this style.[3]
The song, as sung by Little Richard, is #43 in Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[11] It is #1 in Mojo Music Magazine's list of 100 records that changed the world.
"Tutti Frutti" provided the title for one of the earliest books about the development of rock and roll and pop music from the 1950s, Nik Cohn's "Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom" (1969).
In 2010, The Library of Congress National Recording Registry added Penniman's original 1955 hit “Tutti Frutti” to its registry, claiming that the hit announced a new era in music: “A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-lop-bam-boom!” [12]
[edit] Racial connotations
Recording cover versions of songs was standard industry practice during the 1940s and 1950s. A hit song could generate many different versions: pop and instrumental, polka, blues, hillbilly, and others by a variety of artists.[13] Blue Suede Shoes, written and first recorded by Carl Perkins as an example, was recorded at least 30 times in the 1950s and 1960s.[14] Both Blue Suede Shoes and Bill Haley and the Comets' See You Later Alligator consistently outranked "Tutti Fruiti" on the Cash Box Best Selling Singles list.[15]
Pat Boone's version of the song led at 12 ranking with Little Richard's trailing behind in the 17th position.[16] Pat Boone himself admitted that he did not wish to do a cover of “Tutti Frutti” because “it didn’t make sense” to him; however, the producers persuaded him into making a different version by claiming that the record would generate attention and money.[17]
Little Richard admits that though Pat Boone “took [his] music”, Boone made it more popular due to his high status in the white music industry.[18] Nevertheless, a Washington Post Staff Writer, Richard Harrington, quotes Richard in an article:
They didn’t want me to be in the white guys’ way… I felt I was pushed into a rhythm and blues corner to keep out of rockers’ way, because that’s where the money is. When ‘Tutti Frutti’ came out… They needed a rock star to block me out of white homes because I was a hero to white kids. The white kids would have Pat Boone upon the dresser and me in the drawer ‘cause they liked my version better, but the families didn’t want me because of the image that I was projecting."[19]
Richard's contract with Peacock had been purchased by Specialty Records owner Art Rupe, who also owned the publishing company that bought Richard's songs. Specialty's deal with Richard was typical of the company's dealings with their artists.[20][21]
[edit] Other versions
The song has been covered by many musicians. After Pat Boone's success with "Ain't That a Shame", his next single was "Tutti Frutti", markedly toned down from the already reworked Blackwell version. Boone's version outdid Little Richard's on the US pop charts, reaching #12.
Elvis Presley recorded the song and it was included in his first RCA album Elvis Presley March 23, 1956. Presley's version uses "A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-lop-bam-boom!" for every verse, with "bam-boom" instead of "bop-bop" at the end.
Queen played it every gig during their live Magic Tour shows in 1986. It is also featured during the T.Rex jam session with Elton John during the 1972 rock film Born to Boogie. It is the first song on the MC5 album, Back in the USA. The song was covered by Fair Weather in 1970.
Sting recorded the tune for the original soundtrack of the 1982 film Party Party.
The Disney Channel ran a DTV music video of the song, set mostly to clips from the 1940 Donald Duck cartoon Mr. Duck Steps Out (Daisy Duck represents the character of the same name in the lyrics), but also the 1942 cartoon Mickey's Birthday Party (with Clara Cluck representing Sue in the lyrics).
This song is also featured in the 1987 movie The Brave Little Toaster.
The song is featured on the California Raisins soundtrack from their first special, Meet the Raisins.
The song is sung by Val Kilmer in Top Secret!
The song is featured in DJ Hero mixed with "Beats" by Shlomo.
WWE's Mean Gene Okerlund covered it, and uses it as his entrance tune. It appears on 1985's The Wrestling Album.
The song is performed in Rock 'n' Roll High School Forever.
Alvin and the Chipmunks did their rendition of the song in their 1990 T.V. documentary special Rockin' Through the Decades starring Will Smith, and their full version can be heard in their album of the same name.
In the 1991 film Flirting, Thandie Newton recites the song lyrics in full at a school debate on the relative importance of the intellectual and physical spheres of human experience.
[edit] References
- ^ Various transliterations of this have been made. Nik Cohn's book on the history of pop music used the title "Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom".
- ^ a b c d Jim Dawson and Steve Propes, What Was The First Rock'n'Roll Record, 1992, ISBN 0-571-12939-0
- ^ a b Penniman, Richard Wayne. "Little Richard." Little Richard 24 Jan 2008. GroveMusic.com (subscription only)
- ^ White, Charles (2003), pp. 55. The Life and Times of Little Richard: The Authorised Biography. Omnibus Press.
- ^ a b Lhamon, W.T.. Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s. USA: The Smithsonian Institution, 1990.
- ^ Brackett, David. , the Pop, Rock, and Soul Reader: Histories and Debates. New York: Oxford, 2004
- ^ White, Charles. The Life and Times of Little Richard: The Quasar of Rock". New York: Harmony, 1984
- ^ allmusic ((( Joe Lubin > Overview )))
- ^ http://www.rockabilly.nl/references/messages/dorothy_labostrie.htm citing material on page 219-224 of "I Hear You Knockin'" by Jeff Hannusch. Ville Platte, LA : Swallow Publications, 1985 retrieved 10.30.2011
- ^ A sample of 100 rock and roll songs
- ^ "The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". RollingStone.com. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/11028260/the_rs_500_greatest_songs_of_all_time/1. Retrieved 2007-06-02.
- ^ "Culpeper Star-Exponent : News". M.starexponent.com. http://m.starexponent.com/culpeper/db_6501/contentdetail.htm;jsessionid=7F4B24B2D77D68B6D0F464B77E664A6B?full=true&contentguid=6KQyJ7zJ&pn=&ps=. Retrieved 2010-09-18.
- ^ The Blue Moon Boys - The Story of Elvis Presley's Band. Ken Burke and Dan Griffin. 2006. Chicago Review Press. page 87. ISBN 1-55652-614-8
- ^ Rockin Country style database
- ^ http://www.cashboxmagazine.com/archives/50s_files/19560324.html Weekly rankings available at Cash Box web site retrieved 9.1.2011
- ^ Smothers, Robert. "Macon Journal; Georgia's Very Own: a Wop Bam Boom." The New York Times 08 Jan. 1990, Late ed., sec. A10
- ^ Harrington, Richard. "VIDEOS; 'the Early Days', When Rock Began to Roll." The Washington Post 19 May 1985, Final ed., sec. G12
- ^ O'connor, John J. "Television Review: Rock's Story as Told by Rockers." The New York Times 08 Mar. 1995, Late ed., sec. C20
- ^ Harrington, Richard. "'a Wopbopaloobop'; and 'Alopbamboom', as Little Richard Himself Would Be (and Was) First to Admit." The Washington Post 12 Nov. 1984, Final ed., sec. C1.
- ^ The Life and Times of Little Richard: The Quasar of Rock.Charles White. Contributor Paul McCartney. Edition: 2, illustrated. Da Capo Press. 1994. page 57. ISBN 0-306-80552-9, 9780306805523
- ^ Discography
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