The Beatles Used To Watch This Pioneering Rock ‘n’ Roller’s Pre-Show Ritual During Their Hamburg Days

When The Beatles were cutting their teeth at seven-hour-long gigs in nightclubs throughout Hamburg, Germany, they weren’t just learning how to power through long gigs, improvise, and build the stamina necessary for life on the road. They were also learning how to become rock stars. That unspoken lesson was offered to the young Liverpudlians by none other than pioneering rock ‘n’ roller Little Richard.

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The “Tutti Frutti” singer performed with the still (very) green Beatles back in the early 1960s. This was well after Little Richard had established himself as one of the biggest and earliest stars in rock history. Songs like “Tutti Frutti” and “Good Golly, Miss Molly” helped pique the band’s interest in skiffle to rock. But as McCartney recalled following Little Richard’s passing in 2020, Little Richard’s influence stretched out far past his prolific catalogue.

“In the early days of The Beatles, we played with Richard in Hamburg and got to know him,” McCartney tweeted following Richard’s passing. “He would let us hang out in his dressing room. We were witness to his pre-show rituals, with his head under a towel over a bowl of steaming hot water. He would suddenly lift his head up to the mirror and say, ‘I can’t help it cause I’m so beautiful.’ And he was.”

Paul McCartney Owes Much of His Career to Little Richard

When one considers the many examples of Paul McCartney raspily screaming through The Beatles’ catalogue, it’s not hard to draw parallels between his vocal delivery and Little Richard’s. In his memorial social media post, McCartney remembered how the “Long Tall Sally” singer came “screaming into my life as a teenager.” From that point on, McCartney looked to Little Richard as a major influence. “He would say, ‘I taught Paul everything he knows,’” McCartney wrote.

“I had to admit he was right,” the former Beatle said. “A great man with a lovely sense of humor and someone who will be missed by the rock ‘n’ roll community and many more. I thank him for all he taught me and the kindness he showed by letting me be his friend. Goodbye Richard, and a-wop-bop-a-loo-bop.”

McCartney took much of what he learned from Little Richard during those early Hamburg days and applied it to his own career, from the rock vocals to his showmanship to the practice of steaming the larynx before a show. “I was taught that by watching Little Richard do it when we were kids,” he told Rolling Stone in 2017.

Interestingly, McCartney’s former bandmate, John Lennon, seemed equally inspired by Chuck Berry. Berry was another early rock ‘n’ roller who paved the way for the genre’s evolution in the subsequent decades. That Lennon and McCartney were able to combine these influences so seamlessly is a large part of why they came to define their era of rock music.

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