If you don't know this song, I am really sorry. If you don't know this artist - where have you been? Little Richard is an institution as far as rock n' roll history is concerned. There when it started, continued as it got popular, acknowledged when it became an art form. Little Richard has never been duplicated.

This track, Keep a Knockin' is my absolute favorite and in my top five as all-time great records is concerned. This is an alternate take, an earlier take that included the lyric "I'm drinkin' gin and you can't come in", which was dropped in the released version (Specialty Records owner Art Rupe knew a thing or two about the teenage market). The interesting thing about this track is that it wasn't recorded in either New Orleans or Los Angeles, as all of Richard's Specialty sessions were thought to be. This one was recorded at a Washington D.C. radio station during a tour break in September 1957. A little piece of history for you buffs. I know this is true because a: I saw the paperwork for the original session and b: I remastered this track when I was working for Specialty when we did the giant box set of the Complete Little Richard Sessions in 1989.

In any event, it's an iconic track from an immortal artist and it ages really well. Play it very loud.

(Little Richard, with Jimi Hendrix in the foreground - yes, but it was brief)

By the time Little Richard made his way over to Vee-Jay Records (after leaving Specialty, the label with all his hits), Vee-Jay was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. True, they were the first American label to issue a Beatles album, and they rang up a string of hits with other artists such as Betty Everett, John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed and a ton of others. Bad management, shaky financial footing and some errors in judgment finally forced the label into receivership in late 1965, pretty much putting an end to Vee-Jay as a force in the music business and leaving a number of artists without a label.

But before it came to a crashing halt, Little Richard managed to do two sessions in 1964. One session was a greatest hits rehash of his earlier Specialty material. But the second session featured new material including this track I Don't Know What You've Got, featuring a then-unknown Jimi Hendrix on guitar, during a brief tenure with the band.

Sadly, this track hardly made a dent in the charts when it was issued in 1965. Richard would head off to another label shortly after and Hendrix would head off to England and start another chapter in rock n' roll history.

It does make you wonder what would have happened if history had turned out different.