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Box sets have a tendency to be exhaustive in the way they are often just a way to re-release an artist’s work to get more money. Don’t worry, this is not the case with the new box set, Directly From My Heart: The Best of the Specialty & Vee-Jay Years. On the set’s cover you are beckoned by a feisty looking Little Richard Penniman, who, dressed in drag, is caught in an exact moment of what is clearly one of his legendary “ooooooooweeeeee” calls. It’s as if he is pulling you into his alluring world of boogie woogie rock and roll.
Comprising three discs and a whopping 64 tunes, Directly From My Heart captures Little Richard at a crucial turning point in his career, the period between 1956 to 1965 when he cut arguably his biggest hits and also when he would blossom into the flamboyant maniac people most associate him with today. At the point when he signed to Specialty Records, Little Richard was not only a seasoned performer on the chitlin circuit, but had also been through major record deals with RCA Victor and Houston club mogul Don Robey’s Peacock Records, neither of which saw him tapping into the magic – financially and musically – that he would find at Specialty. In other words, this box set captures the performer at a pivotal moment.
Listening straight through, you can hear the change and progression of Little Richard in the music, starting with six songs written by the man himself. Songs like “Lonesome and Blue”, “Wonderin’”, and “All Night Long” are rooted in the blues with shimmers of swamp pop and doo wop peeking out. They are melancholy and capture a man crying out to be heard. By the eighth track everything gets flipped on its ass and we suddenly hear one of the most famous hooks in the history of rock and roll: “A-wop-bom-a-loo-mop-a-lomp-bom-bom!” From “Tutti Frutti” on out, the only thing to do is strap yourself in and ride the roller coaster that is Little Richard, and, mark my words, there are few better experiences in listening to music than that. It’s here that you realize just how prolific of a time period this box set covers in Little Richard’s career, a continuous output of one perfect tune after another. Songs like “True Fine Mama”, “Kansas City”, “Slippin’ And Slidin’”, “Long Tall Sally (The Thing)”, and “Rip It Up” have it all: boogie woogie piano, sleazy saxophones, in the pocket drumbeats and, of course, Little Richard’s orgasmic wail. And that’s only the first disc.
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“Lucille” kicks off disc two and boy does it swing, swaying and pulsating like a sweaty New Orleans nightclub. “Heeby-Jeepies” makes you want to jitter and jive with its rambunctious, explosive energy, while “All Around The World” – as cheesy as it sounds now – is perhaps the ideal anthem with its chorus of “all around the world/rock and roll is here to stay.” This sentiment carries disc two as the songs become more poppy, as if Little Richard knew exactly what the teens wanted (or at least his label did). Disc three is comprised of his recordings on Vee-Jay Records, a label looking for a big name to keep it afloat at the time. Using his road band to cut songs, there is a noticeable difference in the quality of these recordings, but they also offer an intriguing juxtaposition from his pop work just years before. One odd standout is the violin work on “Goin’ Home Tomorrow” and the bongos on “Goodnight Irene”. There is plenty of Little Richard’s trademark piano boogie on this disc, yet it may be the most intriguing in the way it seems to find him simultaneously going back to his roots and experimenting with new ideas and sounds.
You can find any number of Little Richard greatest hits albums out there, but few if any will come in as extensive of a package as Directly From My Heart. Its importance in presenting the musical evolution of one of the greatest artists of all time through the listening experience cannot be understated. The producing and mastering work of Chris Clough and Paul Blackmore gives these recordings – now fifty years old or more – a sound crisp and clean enough to send chills down your spine. Even for the most avid collectors, Directly From My Heart is an essential collection of music.
