| The Explosive Little Richard | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | January 1967 (1967-01) | |||
| Recorded | February 5, 1966 – September 15, 1966 | |||
| Studio | Columbia, Hollywood, California | |||
| Genre | Rock and roll,soul | |||
| Length | 29:49 | |||
| Label | Okeh | |||
| Producer | Larry Williams | |||
| Little Richard chronology | ||||
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The Explosive Little Richard is the first album byLittle Richard forOkeh Records, produced by his long-time friendLarry Williams andJohnny "Guitar" Watson. The songs reflect the then-popularsoul andMotown musical styles; no tracks were written by Richard.
At the time, Richard had wished Okeh would not release this album, as it favored horns over rhythm. In Charles White's 1984 biographyThe Life and Times of Little Richard, Richard noted he "was in the second year of the Okey (sic) contract and there was still no hit record. So I tore it up. The contract gave me no say in the material I recorded with them or in what was released.Larry Williams was the worst producer in the world. He wanted me to copyMotown and I was no Motown artist. [...] The Okeh stuff didn't sell at all because Okeh was an R'n'B label - a black label. I should have recorded on the Epic label, because I'm not primarily a black artist. It would have done a lot better."[1]
'Poor Dog' made it to No. 41 on the R&B chart, and 'Commandments of Love' made No. 30 on The Cash Box Black Singles chart. All Okeh 45's are highly regarded in Europe where they were released on the Epic label.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Record Collector |  [2] |
| Rolling Stone |  [3] |
| AllMusic | [4] |
| i-News | [5] |
CD reissues have seen the album attract positive reviews. In 2007,Record Collector gave the album four stars, and cited it as "quite possibly the best long player he ever made."[6]
In a review of the entire Okeh recordings,Rolling Stone stated that "Richard's hair-raising vocals on the Motown staple 'Money' effectively claim the song as his own."[7]
i-News reviewed the album for a 2016 vinyl release, giving it four stars and stating that Richard "was still blessed with an immaculate voice and threw himself wholeheartedly some great contemporary sounding tracks."[8]
