Songlines: ‘Long Tall Sally’
Little Richard / The Merseybeats / The Beatles / Fleetwood Mac (Live)
Little Richard was born December 05, 1932.
He made his recorded debut in 1951, releasing four 45’s on the RCA Victor label from November 1951 to November of ’52.
He went to Don Robey’s Peacock label the next year and was teamed with the “Duces of Rhythm” and the Tempo-Toppers”. Robey thought enough of him to provide him a separate credit on the labels. “Lead: Little Richard” on the first, and on the second, with just the Tempo-Toppers, “Featuring: Little Richard”.
The records didn’t see much movement and after Richard, at Lloyd Price’s suggestion, sent a demo tape to Specialty Records owner, Art Rupe. Rupe purchased his contract from Peacock.
Rupe sent him to New Orleans to record at J & M studios. Bumps Blackwell was in charge of the session and he brought in Fats Domino’s band to back Little Richard.
The band featured Huey Smith on piano, Lee Allen and Alvin “Red” Tyler on saxophones, Frank Fields on double bass and Earl Palmer on drums. Justin Allen was on guitar.
Specialty unleashed ‘Tutti-Frutti’ on an unsuspecting world in October of 1955.
Three months later, Dot Records released Pat Boone’s toned down cover in January of 1956. Boone’s version peaked at Number 12 on the charts while the original trailed at Number 21.
Elvis Presley recorded the song that January, and it was first released on his debut LP for RCA. The track was also released as the A-side of a single in September of that year.
Having had the sales of his first single, “Tutti Frutti” so deeply cut into by Pat Boone’s limpid cover, when Little Richard and producer Bumps Blackwell, went back into the studio to record a follow-up they decided that it would be instrumentally so wild, with lyrics shouted at such volume and so fast, that there would be no way that Boone would even think to attempt to cover it. (of course, this didn’t stop his record company from having him cover it anyway, releasing it less than a week after Richard’s.
Little Richard and His Band
Little Richard: vocal & piano /
Lee Allen: tenor saxophone /
Edgar Blanchard: guitar / Fred Fields: double bass /
Earl Palmer: drums / Alvin “Red” Tyler: baritone saxophone
Recorded February 07, 1956 (New Orleans) – released March 1956
A-side, Specialty single – b / w ‘Slippin’ and Slidin’
Little Richard and His Band – Long Tall Sally – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFFgbc5Vcbw
Marty Robbins released a cover within twelve days of Boone’s release on an EP titled “Rock’n Roll’n Robbins” and it took Presley until October to release his version, and that was an LP only release. The LP also contained covers of ‘Rip It Up’ and ‘Ready Teddy’.
There was only one cover released in 1957 and that was on “Rock ’n Roll Hit Parade Volume 1” from Johnny Otis, where Otis and his stable of musicians and singers recreated Top Forty hits from the past twelve months.
1958 started with veteran R & B singer Jim Breedlove covering the song on a similar LP, “Jim Breedlove Sings Rock ’n’ Roll Hits” released on RCA’s budget label Camden.
Wanda Jackson and Carl Perkins each recorded the song for LPs that year; Jackson for her self-titled debut and Perkins’ for his debut Columbia LP, “Whole Lotta Shakin’”. The Perkins LP also had covers of Richard’s ‘Tutti Frutti’ and ‘Ready Teddy’.
The year also saw the release of the first international cover; by Danish Elvis wanna-be, Finn and His Rock Ramblers.
There was only one cover in each of the next two years, both from Scandinavia the first by Sweden’s Little Gerhard and His G-Men and by Rock-Jerry and His Masters in Finland in 1960.
1961 saw the song covered on the first LP from France’s Vince Taylor Et Ses Playboys (Taylor was an English man who went to High School in Los Angeles, California – after not finding any success in the States, he returned to England, put together his band, and settled in France).
The second was done by American Teen singer Shirley Jean Wiley, her second and last single.
1962 saw an uptick with three covers being released by a wide array of artists.
On the first of many posthumous releases, Eddie Cochran’s label dug his recording of the song out of the vault to include on a four song EP “Never to Be Forgotten”.
Two months later, The Rocky Fellers (a Filipino American family band, a Father and his four sons) released it as the A-side to their first single.
Next up was probably meant as filler for a quick cash-in LP by the doo-wop band The Rivingtons. The song was actually a good fit for the frenetic vocal gymnastics of the group best known for ‘Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow’,
In 1963, Atlantic Record’s Atco subsidiary released a single by a white female singer named Barbara Greene which flipped the two sides of Little Richard’s 1956 original, with ‘Slippin’ And Slidin’’ as the A-side and ‘Long Tall Sally’ as the B-side.
Accompanying her is a male singer who drones like a Tuvan throat singer; when he sings in a syncopated rhythm, the number bringing to mind the Rivingtons!
The Tornados (Joe Meek’s house band) who had scored on both sides of the Atlantic with their instrumental, ‘Telstar’ wanted to widen their range with vocals and released a cover of the song on the Decca EP “Tornado Rock”.
Finishing off the year was another LP only track, this one billed to The Famous Isley Brothers, on their United Artists LP “Twisting and Shouting”.
The floodgates opened in 1964, seeing eleven covers being released, with the renewed interest in the song almost certainly due to the success, (commercially and artistically) of The Beatles recording of the song.
First out of the gate though were The Kinks. Shel Talmy produced the song as the A-side of their first single, released in February of 1964.
Unlike their subsequent early singles, this version comes off as standard Mersey sound fodder, lacking the power chords and grit of ‘You Really Got Me’ and ‘All Day and All of the Night’ which would be released a few months later.
Ironically, (based on their name) it was The Merseybeats who first recreated some of the energy of Richard’s original on a version buried on an EP.
The Merseybeats
Tony Crane: vocal & lead guitar /
Aaron Williams: rhythm guitar / John Gustafson: bass /
John Banks: drums / Unknown: harmonica
Recording date (not known) – Released March 1964
The Merseybeats – On Stage (Fontana) (EP)
The Merseybeats – Long Tall Sally – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fb7qmHoQjjI
The EP’s title, “On Stage” was something of a misnomer as the four songs were all recorded in a studio.
The arrangement makes excellent use of harmonica (the best feature of The Kink’s cover as well) – None of the Merseybeats’ members were known to play the instrument.
The song had been in John and Paul’s repertoire from their days as The Quarrymen, until The Beatles final concert performance in San Francisco in 1966.
They performed it frequently for broadcast for the BBC (seven times between April 1963 and July 1964).
They cut it in the studio during the sessions for “A Hard Day’s Night”, needing only one take.
It is hard to imagine that they could have improved upon it –
One of the advantages that they had was George Martin pounding the eighty-eights.
The Beatles
Paul McCartney: vocal & bass /
John Lennon: rhythm guitar, 1st guitar solo /
George Harrison: lead guitar, 2nd guitar solo /
Ringo Starr: drums /
George Martin: piano
Recorded March 01, 1964 – first release, April 10, 1964
The Beatles’ Second Album (U.S. Capitol) / Long Tall Sally (U.K. EP Parlophone June 1964)
The Beatles – Long Tall Sally – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c31X4muVRms
Peter Green has cited Little Richard as a favorite growing up and he would cover six of his songs while with Fleetwood Mac.
This performance was the last of three of the song that are in circulation. The first, at the Carousel Ballroom, in San Francisco in June of 1968 saw Paul Butterfield on stage with them. The second was recorded at the Royal Albert Hall during their tour with B. B. King in April of 1969.
The attached comes from the Fillmore West in January of 1970; this performance has the added bonus of Janis Joplin sitting in on backing vocals. She isn’t prominent, but she can be heard.
Fleetwood Mac
Peter Green: vocal & guitar /
Jeremy Spencer: guitar, vocal & piano /
Danny Kirwan: guitar & vocal /
John McVie: bass / Mick Fleetwood: drums
Special guest: Janis Joplin: backing vocal*
Recorded January 04, 1970, Fillmore West, San Francisco CA
Available on: bootleg
Fleetwood Mac w/ Janis Joplin (live) – (Intro 0:43) / Long Tall Sally – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx1Gy6NnEtM
My apologies – this video has been removed from YouTube –
The song has continued to be a band favorite over the decades, earning close to two hundred released covers all over the world.
