POP MUSIC REVIEW : Heydays Over, the Temps and Little Richard Still Get the Job Done

“The beauty is still on duty!” declared Little Richard early in his performance Saturday at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts. He and fellow co-headliners the Temptations (they closed, but Richard got his name printed larger on the tickets) both showed that, decades removed from their heyday, they can still get the job done.

Those who have seen Little Richard Penniman’s recent performances, particularly those at the Coach House last year, know that the self-proclaimed originator, architect and emancipator of rock ‘n’ roll can still pound out a song with a primordial fury.

They also know that he only rarely elects to do so. Usually he turns it on just long enough to let the audience know what they’re missing the rest of the time, which is spent preening, complaining, proclaiming how much he’s about to rock you and doing whatever else he can to avoid actually doing what he does best. Like most early rockers, Little Richard was cheated by the music business at nearly every turn, and one sometimes has to wonder if he isn’t getting even now.

But saying Little Richard has an ego is a little like saying water is wet, and there may be a great advantage to keeping him in a show’s opening slot, however much his legacy deserves a headlining position. Saturday, knowing the Temptations were to follow him, he performed like a man who had something to prove.

The 62-year-old singer arrived on the center’s revolving stage resplendent in a black and metallic silver-striped jacket, his hair piled high and wearing so much pancake makeup that it looked like he was dripping syrup when he started to sweat. And, yes, he did sweat. For 70 minutes, with--for him--a minimum of pomp, Richard was the screaming, rocking sensation of ‘50s parents’ nightmares.

Backed by a hard-driving nine-piece band, with a particularly propulsive two-bass, two-drummer rhythm section, Richard tore into his old rockers, with “Ready Teddy” and “Long Tall Sally” consumed at a wonderfully breakneck pace that outstripped the drive of his original 1950s versions. (This is saying something, considering that Richard’s stated intent when recording the latter song was to sing it so fast that Pat Boone would find it impossible to duplicate.)

Most of his other usual suspects were in the set, including “Tutti-Frutti,” “The Girl Can’t Help It,” “Keep a Knockin’,” “Jenny Jenny” and “Good Golly Miss Molly,” along with the less-frequently heard “All Around the World” and “Baby Face.” He included covers of Larry Williams’ “Bony Moroney” and Fats Domino’s “Blueberry Hill,” and acknowledged his recent successes in the children’s music market by doing “On Top of Spaghetti” and “Itsy Bitsy Spider.”

He got several children up on stage for “Spider” and even more adults up there dancing to his version of Bob Seger’s plodding Little Richard knockoff “Old Time Rock and Roll.”

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The Temptations have been through so many member changes since their ‘60s successes that it gives a new meaning to their nickname, the Temps.

With the death in February of bass singer Melvin Franklin, only Otis Williams remains from the original lineup. (David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks, the lead singers who animated most of the group’s hits, exited the group decades ago; both died in 1991. The other original member, Paul Williams, died in 1973.)

The group dedicated its show Saturday to Franklin.

“You know the old show business adage, the show must go on,” Williams said, and one could see how their performance would not be just a show but also a solace to the group. For all their years on the road, and all the repeated-nightly slick Vegas machinations of their act, there is still a resounding celebration of life at the core of the Temptations’ performance.

The group now is Williams, on harmony vocals, newcomer Ray Davis on bass vocals, and Ali Ollie Woodson, Ron Tyson and Theo Peoples trading lead and harmony vocals. They were backed by a 15-piece band, situated offstage to leave room for the group’s famed dance steps.

The show was balanced between expected old hits, covers and lesser-known songs from their catalogue. The hits included “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” “Ball of Confusion,” “Get Ready” and “My Girl.” Lesser, more-recent hits included 1984’s “Treat Her Like a Lady” and the Temps’ 1982 collaboration with Rick James, “Standing on the Top.”

Only a couple of songs fell short of the mark: On “Just My Imagination” Tyson’s vocal did little to either recall the original version or to claim it as his own (try checking out O.C.’s Derek Bordeaux Group sometime for a truly goosebump-inspiring rendition).

Other old songs, particularly “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” sung by Woodson, were delivered with both immediacy and rich vocal interplay that spoke more clearly than any lyric about camaraderie and friendship. The group’s unison dance steps are still a minor marvel, with Williams nimbly keeping up with his younger partners.

Their set contained a nod to the Isley Brothers, with a rousing send-up of that clan’s crowd-pleasing “Shout.” Less successful was a Peoples-led cover of the Dolly Parton-penned Whitney Houston hit “I Will Always Love You,” which just didn’t come close to Houston’s vocal fireworks.

Two of the finest moments came in unexpected places, with the gentle group harmonies of the ballad “Soul to Soul,” and on a gospel-derived encore number that again offered lush harmonies, as well as Woodson’s pleading vocal that recalled Bobby Womack in its gritty power.