“Good Golly Miss Molly” by Little Richard

Little Richard cut "Good Golly, Miss Molly" as far back as 1956, but Specialty held it until January 1958, when it finally came out as a single; the Little Richard album picked it up that March. John Marascalco wrote it with Bumps Blackwell, who also produced, and Blackwell had a soundalike version made by the Valiants, copying Richard's breakneck first take. Theirs reached the shops first, in 1957. It didn't matter: Richard's was the hit, climbing to No. 4, and to No. 8 in Canada.

It's jump blues with the throttle jammed wide open, Earl Palmer on drums, Frank Fields on upright bass, Edgar Blanchard on guitar, and Lee Allen and Alvin "Red" Tyler blowing tenor and baritone sax while Richard hollers over the top. Like all his early hits it turned into a rock 'n' roll standard, recorded by hundreds of acts since, and Rolling Stone placed it at No. 92 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.