We do a piss poor job of respecting our legends in this country, sadly. It's worse when they're black, and worse still when they're queer. And so it was that, 20 years after he helped blow the doors open for rock & roll, Little Richard cut a re-recording of his greatest hits for K-Tel. Fucking K-Tel. Now, work is work, and the fire is there in these performances, but Ms. Penniman's little boy shouldn't have had to slum it on the oldies circuit. But Little Richard, a legend amongst legends, in a particularly fallow period, deserved better than recutting his finest songs for a "As Seen On TV" label.
This is the 1987 UK reissue on oldies' specialist label Charly, who are still going strong 51 years after their first releases. It has that really rad picture of Richard on the cover; plain artwork, yet still better than the other releases on K-Tel and Madacy over the years. I'm fairly certain I picked them up for a buck a few years ago, but only just got around to ripping it to share.
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