The Georgia Peach (CD - 1991)

Personnel: Little Richard (vocals, piano); Justin Adams, William "Frosty" Pyles, Edgar Blanchard, Ray Montrell, Nathaniel Douglas (guitar); Clarence Ford (tenor & baritone saxophones); Lee Allen, Joe Tillman, Wilbert Smith, Grady Gaines, Clifford Burks (tenor saxophone); Alvin "Red" Tyler, Jewell Grant, Samuel Parker (baritone saxophone); Renald Richard (trumpet); Huey Smith, Edward Frank (piano); Frank Fields, Lloyd Lambert, Olsie Richard Robinson (bass); Earl Palmer, Oscar Moore, Charles Connor (drums); The Robins (background vocals).

Producers: Art Rupe, Bumps Blackwell.

Re-issue producer: Billy Vera.

Recorded between 1955 & 1959. Includes liner notes by Billy Vera.

Perhaps the greatest of Little Richard's greatest hits compilations, the 25-track Georgia Peach features all of his biggest hits in chronological order, as well as terrific singles that never were as big as "Tutti Frutti" and "Good Golly Miss Molly." On top of the sublime song selection and sound, the liner notes by compiler Billy Vera are splendid and insightful. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Richard Penniman - aka Little Richard, aka the Beauty, aka the Georgia Peach (hence the title) began recording in 1951 (see Bear Family's excellent THE FORMATIVE YEARS 1951-53) but he didn't really hit his stride until his tenure at Specialty Records. While there, beginning in 1955 with "Tutti Frutti," he turned out a long string of hits - piano driven, falsetto laden, three chord rockers pounded out at dangerously fast tempos - that influenced countless artists. The best of them -- "Long Tall Sally," "Lucille," "Slippin' and Slidin'", "Rip It Up," "Ready Teddy," "Keep a Knockin'" and more - are collected on this definitive one disc best-of, along with less familiar ("Ooh! My Soul") but no less cataclysmic (Ooh! My Soul") assaults on bourgeois propriety. Make no mistake -- this is rock-and-roll at absolute Ground Zero. minimize