'Little Richard Live! 20 Super Hits' is a recording of a live-in-studio performance by Little Richard. Recorded at the Jack Clement Studio in Nashville before an audience, the album featured remakes of twenty of his Specialty Records tracks. Counting the live takes on this album, this was the second time that Richard had rerecorded his 1950s hits in studio. These August 1976 sessions and an early 1990s session with Japanese guitarist Masayoshi Takanakka are the last times that Penniman would re-record his 1950s hits for an album before his death in May 2020. Alternate takes from these sessions are found on a full stereo "Audiophile" album from 1980.

History

Just prior to recording Little Richard Live!, Richard appeared in the film The London Rock and Roll Show and on piano for two tracks on the Bachman–Turner Overdrive album Head On. Richard was approached by Stan Shulman in 1976, and after negotiations Richard finally agreed to the sessions – he had already made his decision to leave rock and roll for the second time. After recording this album for K-Tel, Penniman did not return to a recording studio until 1979, where he recorded gospel music for the World label. Penniman reflected on this during an interview for UK music show The Tube in 1985, where he told presenter Jools Holland, "I gave up rock and roll in 1976. I had a lot of death in my family, my brother fell dead, he had a heart attack, he was thirty-two years old. I had another friend who got shot in the head, another friend of mine got cut up with a butcher knife, another friend of mine had a heart attack, then my mother died. Then my nephew shot himself in the head, and so I decided I would just give my life to being an evangelist."

Track listing

(some tracks have been issued as alternate takes)

Personnel

According to K-Tel Records, it is not known whether Richard also played piano on these tracks.