Little Richard: The musician that taught Paul McCartney how to scream
Hamburg was crucial in the development of The Beatles, gifting the band an opportunity to gain the required stage time to hone their skills. Not only did the German city offer Paul McCartney a platform to perform on a nightly basis, but he also picked up a party trick from the great Little Richard.
Before meeting the rock ‘n’ roll pioneer, the Beatles admired Richard Wayne Penniman greatly and grew up listening to his records. Little Richard helped parachute the genre into the mainstream with ‘Tutti Frutti’ in 1956, inspiring a legion of hopeful musicians in the process. Given his impact, the opportunity to share a stage with Little Richard in Hamburg was the ultimate honour for the Liverpudlians, who were still an unknown entity at this time.
Following their 15-night rendezvous, Little Richard was equally blown away by The Beatles, and later commented in an interview: “I’ve just finished a tour with The Beatles, in fact, I toured with The Beatles right before they made their first hit, and I was the star of the show… you wouldn’t believe it. They had never made a record at the time, and I was with them for 15 days, and that was right before they got their start.”
Shortly after, The Beatles returned to the United Kingdom, and their career accelerated. The Fab Four were soon to emerge as global superstars, surpassing their hero in popularity. Paul McCartney, especially, had Richard to thank for one specific part of his musicianship: his signature scream.
It was a running joke between the pair that McCartney stole the move from Little Richard, and during an interview with Charlie Rose, Macca finally came clean. He told the broadcaster: “Little Richard was a big influence on me because I do a lot a sort of screamy thing that is directly based on what he does. Yes, Richard if you’re watching, I admit it all.”
Imitating Richard, Macca explained a conversation on the origins of that scream: “I taught you that Paul, woo woo, oh come on Paul, you know I did!”. McCartney added: “That’s true, Richard, you did. I owe him a lot. I doubt he is going to be watching this show. We will get him a tape.”
Following the sad death of Little Richard in 2020, McCartney paid tribute to the late singer and mentioned his legendary scream. The former Beatle wrote on social media: “From ‘Tutti Frutti’ to ‘Long Tall Sally’ to ‘Good Golly, Miss Molly’ to ‘Lucille’, Little Richard came screaming into my life when I was a teenager. I owe a lot of what I do to Little Richard and his style, and he knew it. He would say, ‘I taught Paul everything he knows'”.
Referring to Hamburg, McCartney added: “I had to admit he was right. In the early days of The Beatles, we played with Richard in Hamburg and got to know him. He would let us hang out in his dressing room, and we were witness to his pre-show rituals, with his head under a towel over a bowl of steaming hot water, he would suddenly lift his head up to the mirror and say, ‘I can’t help it cos I’m so beautiful’. And he was.”
Watch the footage of The Beatles covering Little Richard’s ‘Long Tall Sally’ below.
