MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES
Little Richard was just 18 years old when he started his recording career in October 1951 at the Atlanta radio station WGST used by his label RCA Victor. He had made his stage debut four years earlier, though, when Sister Rosetta Tharpe overheard the-then Richard Penniman singing one of her songs before a performance at the Macon City Auditorium. Tharpe was so impressed by Penniman’s voice that she invited him to open her show. After Tharpe paid him for his work, it inspired Richard to become a professional.
Little Richard’s eventual signing to RCA Victor saw him cut eight sides for the label, including the blues ballad Every Hour, which became his first single and won him attention on a local level in Georgia. Yet Richard’s rise to the top would be slow – he would have to wait until October 1955 and Specialty single Tutti Frutti for his first nationwide hit.