Little Richard
recorded some of the greatest of all rock & roll sides during his time with
Specialty Records
in the 1950s, and when he pulled the plug on his secular career in October 1957 after having a spiritual revelation, it seemed he'd closed the door on a truly singular body of work. Of course,
would change his mind about the devil's music more than once, and he spent much of the 1960s and '70s trying to regain the musical momentum he lost in late 1957. If he never quite made it, you can't say he didn't try, and 2023's
The Complete Atlantic & Reprise Singles
offers an interesting sampling of his work as he strove to convince the world that he was still the greatest rock & roller to ever walk the Earth. After re-establishing himself as a live act,
signed with
Reprise Records
in 1970 and cut three albums for the label that hit a middle ground between his revved-up attack of the 1950s and more contemporary rock, soul, and funk sounds. "Freedom Blues" and "Greenwood, Mississippi" put a solid groove behind
Richard
, and he fares well with the material, while "Dewdrop Inn" is a raucous homage to his
Specialty
heyday, and "I Saw Her Standing There" finds him borrowing back some of what
the Beatles
learned from him. These four songs appeared on the 1970 album
The Rill Thing
, while "Shake a Hand (If You Can)" is a charged spiritual number and "Somebody Saw You" is hard-grooving R&B, both of which appeared only on 45s. "Money Is" was produced by
Quincy Jones
for the soundtrack to the 1972 film
$
: it's a seriously funky number loaded with wah-wah guitar and breakbeat-worthy drums, while "Green Power" (from 1971's
The King of Rock and Roll
) is a deeper, more Southern variation on the same themes. "Dancing in the Street" (also from
) aims for the sweaty vibe of a live show, and "Mockingbird Sally" and "Nuki Suki" were drawn from
's last
Reprise
LP, 1972's
The Second Coming
, the former song a reasonably good rocker and the latter a loose, extended studio jam with lots of sax and clavinet. The biggest surprises here are four rare singles for
Atlantic
issued in 1962 and 1963 -- before
returned to rock. He adds some gospel touches to "Crying in the Chapel," livens up a tale of salvation in "Hole in the Wall," and gets happy on the very churchy "Travelling Shoes" and "It Is No Secret," showing he may have been singing for the Lord, but his manic spirit hadn't faded away. Since it focuses strictly on tracks that had been issued as 45s,
isn't the best or most accurate overview one could hope for of
's material from these periods, but what's here is mostly good fun, is sometimes truly inspired, and deserves a second look from fans. ~ Mark Deming