The best way to appreciate what "Little Richard" Penniman meant to the creation of rock and roll music is to listen to some of his hits, like "Good Golly, Miss Molly", "Keep A Knockin" and so on. He didn't write every one of his hits but whenever he did a song the resulting version was his and his alone, even when the original might have been pretty darn good as well. Bobby Troup may have written "The Girl Can't Help It" as the title track for the Jayne Mansfield movie, but it took Little Richard to make you believe it.
Penniman passed today at 87. His death leaves the 84-year-old Jerry Lee Lewis, Penniman's fellow piano man, as just about the final rock and roll pioneer still living. And no, nobody saw that coming.
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