Little Richard, rock and roll pioneer, dies aged 87

The American singer and rock music legend, whose smash hits included "Tutti Frutti", "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" and "Good Golly Miss Molly", has died aged 87, his family told Rolling Stone magazine.

With his wild rhythms and flamboyant anti-conformism, Little Richard brought 1950s America into the era of rock and roll.

He inspired a generation of musicians, including the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, David Bowie and Prince.

Along with Chuck Berry and Fats Domino, he helped transform the blues with his distinctive voice which could go from robust belting to howling falsetto.

But unlike his more conservative contemporaries, Little Richard helped give rock and roll an air of scandal. He dressed outlandishly, wore androgynous fashion, sported a 15cm pompadour haircut and a moustache as fine as a pencil line.

That look would later inspire artists like David Bowie.

Bowie said he was fascinated when, aged nine,  he saw a film by Little Richard. "Without him, I would probably never have become a musician," he admitted later.

Mentor to some of the greats
Richard's influence was incalculable. Early white rockers including Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley all pursued his sound and covered his tunes.

The upstart Beatles and Rolling Stones served separately as his opening acts when Richard toured England and a young Jimi Hendrix and members of Earth, Wind and Fire played in his back-up band.

Tributes quickly poured in for the late rock king, with the co-founder of Chic, Nile Rodgers, dubbing the death "the loss of a true giant."

Actress Viola Davis called Little Richard the innovator.

A consumate showman on and off the stage
Richard Wayne Penniman was born on December 5, 1932 to a poor family in Macon, Georgia, in the South.

His nickname "Little Richard" was misleading: he was in fact 1.80m tall.

He had been entertaining since childhood, playing piano with one leg hoisted over the keys and was first spotted in 1947 by a gospel singer.

He began to sing professionally, notably in clandestine drag queen shows.

The Tutti Frutti shock
He had his first big hit in 1955 with "Tutti Frutti," a raunchy number evoking gay sex and which became a staple in his shows.

He never thought of recording it until a producer at Specialty Records, a Los Angeles label specialising in black artists, heard the song.

He offered to record it in the studio with watered-down lyrics so it could be played on the radio.

"If it doesn't fit, don't force" became "I have a girlfriend Sue, who knows exactly what to do".

"Tutti Frutti" caused a stir nonetheless. At a concert in Baltimore in 1956, women undressed and threw their underwear on stage, while the police prevented euphoric fans from invading the scene or throwing themselves from the balconies.

"We had never seen an R&B artist being so extrovert, wild, noisy," Chris Morris, a musicologist who remastered his album "Here's Little Richard" (1957) told AFP.

In 1957, at the height of his glory, he cancelled a tour of Australia proclaiming himself a missionary of the evangelical "Church of God".

He remained ambivalent about his sexuality.
In 1995 he told Penthouse magazine: "I have been gay all my life, and I know that God is a God of love, not of hate". But speaking on a religious TV channel in Illinois in late 2017 he declared homosexuality "contrary to nature".