Little Richard ...ANOTHER ICON GONE!

A wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom!

The founding father of Rock , Richard Wayne Penniman..."Little Richard" to the world has died today at the age of 87. He was battling bone cancer.

After growing up in Macon, Georgia, singing gospel in church and traversing the South singing in rude, nomadic traveling shows (during which time he modeled himself after the flamboyant, gay pianist Esquerita),

In 1956 and 1957 he placed 11 titles on the pop chart and appeared in three movies, "Don't Knock the Rock", "Mister Rock and Roll" and the mainstream comedy "The Girl Can't Help It", introducing his supersonic vocals and trademark piano pounding (often with right leg splayed above the keyboard) to a wider, awestruck audience.

Richard’s catch phrases echoed across the metastasizing new rock ’n’ roll culture — “slippin’ and a-slidin’, peepin’ and a-hidin’,” “Jenny, Jenny, Jenny, won’t you come along with me,” “you keep a-knockin’ but you can’t come in.” He was even bigger in 1957 than in ’56, with two Top 10s among his six hits, and he toured the country and the world. Richard flat-out quit show business after an in-flight fright on his 1957 Australian tour.

Richard felt more drawn towards the church and in 1957, he announced publicly that he quit from performing music. He became committed to ministry and started recording gospel songs. In 1959, his first religious album ‘God is Real’ was released.

In 1964, Little Richard once again entered the rock music world and by 1993, he became the recipient of the prestigious Pioneer Award of the Rhythm & Blues Foundation. The iconic star has been acclaimed with a number of rewards among them awards in his lengthy career. Richard was able to make it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, The Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame, Apollo Theatre Hall of Fame and, the NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame. In 2012, Little Richard’s song Tutti Frutti was declared the most inspired rock lyric by Rolling Stone Magazine.

A 2013 heart attack led to the singer's retirement.