Two Dummies

LITTLE RICHARD - I Need Love / The Commandments Of Love - Okeh-4-7262 - 1967

Sorry it's been so long. Hopefully this record makes up for it! My plan is to get back to posting weekly.

I literally buy every Little Richard record I find, and I love every one. No explanation needed. But pulling this one out of the bin threw me for a loop: No yellow, black and white Specialty label? Did Little Richard even put stuff out on the Okeh label? Could this be a different Little Richard altogether?

When I got home and put the needle on "I Need Love," it took only a few seconds to figure out that this is the Little Richard. In fact, the track is exactly what you might imagine if you took the rhythm & blues insanity that is Little Richard from the 1950's and let it run loose on the Soul sound of 1967. It's nothing revolutionary, but man I can't get enough of these crazy drum breaks and wild falsetto yelps! I really gotta see how people dance to this one.

Come to find out, Little Richard recorded two albums on the Okeh label with the great Johnny Guitar Watson (on guitar, duh). "Commandments Of Love," the flip of this 45, was one of the few tracks that did well from this project. To me, at points, the song has almost a dub feel which is cool. And the choruses end with some pretty hard hits. It's worth a listen, but doesn't compare to "I Need Love," and my copy has such terrible surface noise, I really couldn't post it.

I Need Love:


[Kyle Brown]