# Tutti Frutti (song)
**"Tutti Frutti"** is a 1955 rock and roll song by [Little Richard](https://www.edgepedia.org/little-richard) (Richard Wayne Penniman), released on Specialty Records and recorded at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studios in New Orleans. Built on a nonsense-syllable opening hook, "A wop bop a loo mop a lop bam boom," it became Little Richard's breakthrough single and is widely treated as a founding record of rock and roll; the Library of Congress added it to the [National Recording Registry](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-recording-registry) in 2009.[1](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/TuttiFrutti.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Recorded | September 14, 1955, J&M Studios, New Orleans; producer Robert "Bumps" Blackwell[1](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/TuttiFrutti.pdf) |
| Label | Specialty Records; Little Richard's first single for the label[2](https://lithub.com/how-little-richard-brought-black-and-queer-culture-to-american-airwaves/) |
| Lyric rewrite | "Tutti frutti, good booty" replaced with "aw rootie" by songwriter Dorothy LaBostrie[1](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/TuttiFrutti.pdf) |
| Sales and charts | 200,000 copies in a week and a half; 22 weeks on the R&B chart; #17 pop; over 3 million copies by 1968[1](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/TuttiFrutti.pdf) |
| Best-known cover | Pat Boone's version, #12 on the pop chart in February 1956[1](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/TuttiFrutti.pdf) |
| Honors | National Recording Registry, 2009; ranked in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time[1](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/TuttiFrutti.pdf) • [3](https://au.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-songs-of-all-time-30065/little-richard-tutti-frutti-30532/) |
## The recording session
Little Richard had recorded for RCA and Peacock with little success before Specialty signed him; Robert "Bumps" Blackwell, doing artists and repertoire at Specialty, signed him as a potential rival to [Ray Charles](https://www.edgepedia.org/ray-charles).[1](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/TuttiFrutti.pdf) A session on September 14, 1955 was going poorly. During a break, taken at a nearby bar in most accounts, Richard sat at a piano and ran through an old, slightly obscene ditty he had long used as filler in his nightclub dates, punctuated by the "woos," howls, and scat-like singing that became his trademark.[1](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/TuttiFrutti.pdf) Richard himself later said, "I'd been singing 'Tutti-Frutti' for years, but it never struck me as a song you'd record."[3](https://au.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-songs-of-all-time-30065/little-richard-tutti-frutti-30532/)
Blackwell heard commercial potential and had the lyrics cleaned up in time for the afternoon session. Accounts differ on how many takes produced the master: the Goldmine history of the Specialty years says three takes, while The Originals archive states that two takes were made and the first became the master.[4](https://www.goldminemag.com/collectors-corner-collector-resources/little-richard-on-specialty-records/) • [5](https://www.originals.be/en/originals/6502) Richard's tongue-twisting opening line, "Wop-bop-a-loo-mop-a-lop-bop-bom," survived the rewrite intact.[6](https://www.waybackattack.com/littlerichard.html)
## Cleaning up the lyrics
The original lyrics celebrated the female backside: "Tutti frutti, good booty," with later lines, in one account, running "if it don't fit, don't force it, you can grease it, make it easy."[1](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/TuttiFrutti.pdf) • [3](https://au.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-songs-of-all-time-30065/little-richard-tutti-frutti-30532/) Blackwell asked Dorothy LaBostrie, a New Orleans songwriter whose "I'm Just a Lonely Guy" Richard had just recorded, to rework the words so the song could be recorded that afternoon.[4](https://www.goldminemag.com/collectors-corner-collector-resources/little-richard-on-specialty-records/) "Good booty" became "aw rootie," a slang adaptation of "all righty," and the more graphic lines were replaced with innocent verses about girls named Daisy and Sue.[1](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/TuttiFrutti.pdf)
LaBostrie gave a different account in a WGBH interview, saying the title came from an ice cream flavor and that she wrote the lyrics in fifteen minutes after a request from Penniman, while acknowledging his habit of reciting songs with "dirty" lyrics.[7](https://thequarterrat.com/2020/05/19/archived-interviews-tell-how-little-richards-tutti-frutti-came-to-be-inside-this-french-quarter-recording-studio/) The published credits list Richard Penniman and Dorothy LaBostrie as composer-lyricists; the Goldmine account adds that the credits are shared between Richard, Blackwell, and Enotris Johnson, a Georgia man who had helped look after Richard when he was younger.[8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L32usj28t9o) • [4](https://www.goldminemag.com/collectors-corner-collector-resources/little-richard-on-specialty-records/)
## Sound and musicians
The record fused New Orleans R&B, boogie-woogie, blues, and gospel into a harder, faster style than the city's usual insinuating groove. Richard attacked the piano's upper register as if it were percussion, drummer Earl Palmer drove a raucous backbeat, and the arrangement featured honking saxophone, with Lee Allen among the studio saxophonists.[9](https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/little-richard-is-everywhere/) Specialty owner Art Rupe chose the master for its wild intro as much as its tempo, saying, "You didn't hear things like that much on a record," and expected it to sell in the label's [Black market](https://www.edgepedia.org/black-market).[2](https://lithub.com/how-little-richard-brought-black-and-queer-culture-to-american-airwaves/)
Billboard's review of October 29, 1955 ranked the new release sixth in its R&B column and scored it 76 points, "Good," calling it "a cleverly styled novelty with nonsense words delivered rapid-fire."[2](https://lithub.com/how-little-richard-brought-black-and-queer-culture-to-american-airwaves/) The reviewer detected potential but no sign it would cross to the pop charts.[2](https://lithub.com/how-little-richard-brought-black-and-queer-culture-to-american-airwaves/)
## Sales, charts, and covers
The single sold 200,000 copies in a week and a half, spent 22 weeks on the R&B chart, reached #17 on the pop chart, and had sold over three million copies by 1968.[1](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/TuttiFrutti.pdf) It made Little Richard a household name nearly overnight and turned Specialty into, in one account's words, a label suddenly "in the Little Richard business."[10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivhauEr3KxU) • [11](https://www.rivetingriffs.com/Billy%20Vera%20Rip%20It%20Up%20The%20Specialty%20Records%20Story.html)
**The Pat Boone cover.** [Pat Boone](https://www.edgepedia.org/pat-boone)'s version entered the pop chart in February 1956 and reached #12, one place above Little Richard's #17, with greater sales; the practice of remaking records by Black artists with white singers for the pop market was common in the 1950s.[1](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/TuttiFrutti.pdf) Boone also covered "Long Tall Sally," where the outcome reversed: his version reached #8 while Little Richard's original reached #6.[1](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/TuttiFrutti.pdf) Later covers include [Elvis Presley](https://www.edgepedia.org/elvis-presley), Queen, the Chipmunks, the MC5, and Sting.[1](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/TuttiFrutti.pdf) • [10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivhauEr3KxU)
## Legacy
The song's influence ran in several directions. [John Lennon](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-lennon), hearing it at 15 in Liverpool, said, "It was so great, I couldn't speak," and [Paul McCartney](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-mccartney) studied it as a showcase in the Beatles' early performances.[4](https://www.goldminemag.com/collectors-corner-collector-resources/little-richard-on-specialty-records/) • [12](https://au.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/little-richard-20-essential-songs-10851/tutti-frutti-1955-10853/) Its gibberish hook and shouted interjections opened a lasting place in rock for nonsense-lyric songs and vocal sound effects, and Richard's gospel-derived shrieks and flamboyant, slightly androgynous persona laid groundwork for performers from [Mick Jagger](https://www.edgepedia.org/mick-jagger) to Prince.[1](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/TuttiFrutti.pdf) The Library of Congress essay calls it "a cannon shot among the first volleys that heralded a new age," and Rolling Stone's 2021 reboot of its 500 Greatest Songs list included it on the strength of votes from more than 250 artists, musicians, and industry figures.[1](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/TuttiFrutti.pdf) • [3](https://au.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-songs-of-all-time-30065/little-richard-tutti-frutti-30532/) In 2010 the official Little Richard channel described it as the song that made him "a household name nearly overnight," and it remains the anchor track of his 1957 debut album *Here's Little Richard*.[10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivhauEr3KxU) • [13](https://concord.com/concord-albums/heres-little-richard/)
## References
1. ["Tutti Frutti"—Little Richard (1955), National Recording Registry essay by Cary O'Dell, Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/TuttiFrutti.pdf)
2. [Jon Savage, "How Little Richard Brought Black and Queer Culture to American Airwaves," Literary Hub (2025)](https://lithub.com/how-little-richard-brought-black-and-queer-culture-to-american-airwaves/)
3. ["Little Richard, 'Tutti-Frutti'," The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, Rolling Stone (2021)](https://au.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-songs-of-all-time-30065/little-richard-tutti-frutti-30532/)
4. ["Little Richard on Specialty Records," Goldmine](https://www.goldminemag.com/collectors-corner-collector-resources/little-richard-on-specialty-records/)
5. ["Tutti Frutti," The Originals by Arnold Rypens](https://www.originals.be/en/originals/6502)
6. ["Little Richard," Way Back Attack](https://www.waybackattack.com/littlerichard.html)
7. ["How Little Richard's 'Tutti Frutti' came to be inside this French Quarter music studio," The Quarter Rat (2020)](https://thequarterrat.com/2020/05/19/archived-interviews-tell-how-little-richards-tutti-frutti-came-to-be-inside-this-french-quarter-recording-studio/)
8. ["Tutti Frutti · Little Richard," official YouTube channel, credits listing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L32usj28t9o)
9. [Jason King, "Little Richard Is Everywhere," Pitchfork (2020)](https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/little-richard-is-everywhere/)
10. ["Little Richard - Tutti Frutti (Official Lyric Video)," YouTube description](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivhauEr3KxU)
11. [Billy Vera, "Rip It Up: The Specialty Records Story," Riveting Riffs](https://www.rivetingriffs.com/Billy%20Vera%20Rip%20It%20Up%20The%20Specialty%20Records%20Story.html)
12. ["Little Richard: 'Tutti-Frutti' (1955)," Rolling Stone, 20 Essential Songs](https://au.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/little-richard-20-essential-songs-10851/tutti-frutti-1955-10853/)
13. ["Here's Little Richard," Concord Label Group](https://concord.com/concord-albums/heres-little-richard/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musical works and recordings › Compositions and songs › Pop, rock, and metal songs › Doo-wop and early rock and roll songs*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license