Long Tall Sally

First released by Little Richard Penniman in 1956, Long Tall Sally is one of the most iconic and frequently covered songs in Rock n'Roll history.  According to one story, Little Richard was annoyed by Pat Boone's bland cover of Tutti Frutti, and he vowed to write a song so fast that Boone couldn't sing it.  That didn't work, as Boone did cover Long Tall Sally, but so did The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis, Led Zeppelin, and approximately every rock band that could play three chords in twelve bars (and some that couldn't).

Note: be sure to look at the last clip below.

Little Richard 

The Beatles  

Bruce Springsteen 

John Fogarty (with Jerry Garcia on rhythm guitar) 

Wanda Jackson (audio only) 

Led Zeppelin 

 Elvis 

The 5.6.7.8's 

 

Little Richard vs. Pat Boone (movie unknown) 

 

Comments

[Bernie Burk]

I had never thought about how extensively this chart was covered, and by what an amazing range of artists. Thank you for this.

--Bernie

[Steve L.]

Thanks, Bernie.

The Beatles began by covering American R & B songs at the Cavern Club. Even after they began recording original music -- mostly by Lennon & McCartney -- they kept Long Tall Sally in their live sets. It may be the last non-original song they ever performed live (although they also kept performing Twist and Shout).

[Ian Holloway]

You’re right, Steve. They played it (along with Rock and Roll Music) in their very last “proper” concert in San Francisco in Aug, 1966.

[anon]

At that last concert in SF, they also did Chuck Berry's Rock and Roll Music (first song, LTS was the last song).