Good Golly, Miss Molly (1958) – Little Richard

I mentioned in The Beatles’ Dizzy Miss Lizzy post how you could hear similarities with today’s featured track, Good Golly, Miss Molly. It quickly became apparent to me that I hadn’t posted about this timeless early rocker. So here I am, backpedalling with this pumping song that has such a killer vibe. Pure Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Few, if any, songs are as fervent and immediately arresting as this from the infancy of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Around this time, Jerry Lee Lewis was one of Little Richard’s key contemporaries, sharing a similarly high-energy, percussive rock-and-roll style and formidable piano technique. And would you believe it? In November 1962, Jerry Lee Lewis released his own version of Good Golly Miss Molly.

When I hear Little Richard’s Good Golly, Miss Molly, I feel like I’m smack bang in one of those clandestine Black nightlife venues known as juke joints or at one of the famous rent parties, dancing with my girl in sheer reckless abandon. I never got to experience such places, of course, but listening to this is probably the closest my senses can transport me to one of those cracking festivities.

You can see why white kids out in the middle of nowhere, having lived a sheltered and conservative 1950s existence, went bonkers when they first heard this. The likes of Bob Dylan and John Lennon spring to mind. Those with the nerve tried to emulate pioneering artists such as Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis, to name but a few.

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The following was mostly abridged from the Wikipedia article below:

The song, a jump blues, was written by John Marascalco and producer Robert “Bumps” Blackwell. Little Richard first recorded it in 1956, but it wasn’t released until 1958.

The Valiants’ version of it was released first (in 1957), but Little Richard’s original had the hit and for good reason being the far superior, reaching No. 4. The song became a rock ‘n’ roll standard and has subsequently been recorded by hundreds of artists. 

Little Richard himself later claimed that he took Ike Turner’s piano intro from his influential 1951 rock and roll song “Rocket 88“, and used it for “Good Golly, Miss Molly”

The song is ranked No. 92 on the Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

[Chorus]
Good golly, Miss Molly sure like to ball
Good golly, Miss Molly sure like to ball
When you’re rockin’ and rollin’
Can’t hear your mama call

[Verse 1]
From the early, early morning
To the early, early night
When you caught Miss Molly
Rockin’ at the House of Blue Lights

[Chorus]
Good golly, Miss Molly sure like to ball
When you’re rockin’ and rollin’
Can’t hear your mama call

[Verse 2]
Mama, Papa told me
“Son, you better watch your step”
If they knew about Miss Molly
I’d have to watch my Pa myself

[Chorus]
Good golly, Miss Molly sure like to ball
When you’re rockin’ and rollin’
Can’t hear your mama call

[Post-Chorus]
Ah

[Chorus]
Good golly, Miss Molly sure like to ball
Good golly, Miss Molly sure like to ball
When you’re rockin’ and rollin’
Can’t hear your mama call

[Verse 3]
Goin’ to the corner
Gonna buy a diamond ring
Would you hug me and kiss me?
Make me ting-a-ling-a-ling?

[Chorus]
Good golly, Miss Molly sure like to ball
When you’re rockin’ and rollin’
Can’t hear your mama call

References:
1. Good Golly, Miss Molly – Wikipedia