Little Richard: I Am Everything (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

A review of the motion picture soundtrack for the Little Richard documentary

Little Richard

Little Richard: I Am Everything (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Craft Recordings, distributed by Concord.

Well, I guess I’ll start with the negative — you don’t need this soundtrack. You are better served by almost any of the compilations that exist giving you the essence of Little Richard. You are better off just buying his first two albums, almost all of the hits and everything that made Richard magic is collected right there.

But, some people love soundtracks — and I’m one of them. And one thing soundtracks do is put you back in mind of the movie, they take you back to the experience, they allow you to channel your thoughts, where you were when you saw the film, how it made you felt, and of course — in this case particularly — the incredible music and artistry.

Lisa Cortes’ 2023 documentary about Little Richard is absolutely worth your time. I did like it. I must remind myself that I arrive at these sorts of films with a bit too much knowledge (sometimes) going in…so the revelations of it that were mentioned in advance-press maybe didn’t hit me as hard as they might for other filmgoers, but it’s still — 100% — the sort of film any music lover, or documentary lover should sit down with; should absorb.

And so, then, as a sampler, this OST does a more than decent job of taking you through Richard’s early gospel-referencing/blues years (the demo version of Baby is glorious), and we swing by plenty of the hits (Good Golly Miss Molly, Tutti Frutti, Long Tall Sally, Lucille) but it’s those blues ballads that hit much harder in this context. Price of admission (to the soundtrack, not the film) is almost worth it for I’m Just A Lonely Guy (All Alone) which is almost as impactful as hearing B.B. King sing Five Long Years in the Cook County Jail setting.

I quite like that you get a couple of other voices here too — and I’m a fan of Valerie June. So I really love her Strange Things Happening Every Day. I’m less convinced by hearing Cory Henry’s take on Tutti Frutti, particularly when we’ve had the original a few tracks back. This is real crayons and baking paper shit in comparison. But, again, if it puts you back in mind of the movie then as a soundtrack it is doing its job. No score, alas, just the songs, until the very final piece of music — which is nice, but I wanted more of the score.

So, again, I’m not hit super hard by this album — that revelation occurred when I was 9 years old and driving in my mother’s car. She put the top down and loaded in a 20-track Super Hits cassette tape and it blew my goddamn fucking mind. I’ve been a Little Richard fan since that day. And a documentary was never going to make me any more of a fan, nor any less. Same is true for this soundtrack.