LITTLE RICHARD

Recordings
The booklet of the cd "Dancin' All Around The World - The Complete Vee-Jay Recordings 1964-65 (Charly CD 5121932)" as well as the book "The Life And Times of Little Richard" by Charles White both include listings of Vee-Jay tapelogs.

Two songs from this session were released on 45s by Vee-Jay in 1965, the master numbers listed in the above sources correspond to the ones on the Vee-Jay 45 labels (including the "Dance A Go Go" 45 that wasn't even known to exist when the cd & book were published) thus I believe them to be fairly accurate (although there is confusion about the numbers for the 2 takes of "I Don't Know What You've Got But It's Got Me").

Based on those listing Jimi only played on one Little Richard studio session, most likely recorded in New York City in early 1965. The Charly cd dates it as July 1965 while the "Vee-Jay: Celebrating 40 Years Of Classic Hits 1953-1993" -boxset even gives an exact date of 13 May 1965 but since the recording date apparently wasn't noted in the tapelogs it's unclear where Rhino got that date from?

Yazid Manou asked Bernard Purdie about the Little Richard tracks when Purdie played Paris on the 13th of January 2011. Manou: "He confirmed he only played on the two takes of I Don't Know What You've Got (But It's Got Me). He did not play on You'd Better Stop or Dance A Go Go. He said it was another drummer (from California) who played the other songs."

65-8652 Dance A Go Go (aka Dancing All Around The World)
Composers: B.Mitchell, Little Richard
Recorded at: ?
Engineer: ?
Producer: Calvin Carter
Date: around May-July? 1965
Vocals - Little Richard
Piano - Little Richard
Guitar - Jimi Hendrix
Guitar - Glen Willings
Bass - ?
Drums - ?
Percussion - ?
Baritone sax - ?
Tenor sax - ?

This track is listed in the Vee-Jay tape logs and also originally released by Vee-Jay as "Dance A Go Go", it was renamed on later releases as "Dancing All Around The World". The "solo" guitar part is on the left in the stereo mix, the rhythm guitar part is on the right, almost inaudible as it's been mixed very low.

Mix 1 (2.31)
Original single mix, in mono.
The timing is taken from the label of the disc.
Available on: 7" Little Richard: What You've Got / Dance A Go Go (Vee-Jay VJ-698)

The lp "Mr. Big" has a mono mix of this track, likely the same one that was used on the 45 but I haven't confirmed this 100% yet.
Available on: Lp Little Richard: "Mr. Big" (Joy LP-195) 1971

Mix 2 (2.59)
Stereo mix.
Available on: Cd Little Richard: Dancin' All Around The World - The Complete Vee-Jay Recordings 1964-65 (Charly CD 5121932)

65-8655 You'd Better Stop
Composer: ?
Recorded at: New York City?
Engineer: ?
Producer: Calvin Carter
Date: around May-July? 1965
Vocals - Little Richard
Piano - Little Richard
Guitar - Jimi Hendrix?
Guitar - Glen Willings?
Bass - ?
Drums - ?
Tambourine - ?
Sax - ?

Based on the tape logs this track would have been recorded during the same session as "Dance A Go Go" and "I Don't Know What You've Got But It's Got Me" but I'm not 100% confident yet that it has Hendrix playing on it.

Mix 1 (3.09)
Mono mix.
The sax solo is mixed very low (or perhaps wiped altogether and it only bleeds through from other instruments)
Available on: Cd Little Richard: Dancin' All Around The World - The Complete Vee-Jay Recordings 1964-65 (Charly CD 5121932)

Mix 2?
A stereo mix might exist but I haven't heard of one yet?

I Don't Know What You've Got But It's Got Me
The following two takes of "I Don't Know What You've Got But It's Got Me" are causing a bit of headache. All of the 45 releases use the numbers 65-8657 and 65-8658 as side A and side B regardless of which take actually is on the record (see the discography -section). The singles include various couplings of the two takes split in two and none use the number 65-8656. The Charles White book doesn't list 65-8656 at all while the Charly cd gives 65-8656 to part 1 of one of the takes and number 65-865 (thus only the first 3 digits) for part 2 and lists nothing for 65-8657.

65-8656/7? I Don't Know What You've Got But It's Got Me (take 1)
Composer: Don Covay
Recorded at: New York City?
Engineer: ?
Producer: Calvin Carter
Date: around May-July? 1965
Vocals - Little Richard
Organ - Billy Preston?
Backing vocals - Don Covay
Guitar - Jimi Hendrix
Bass - ?
Drums - Bernard Purdie
Baritone sax - ?
Tenor sax - ?

With backing vocals by Don Covay, organ mixed low.

Mix 1 ()
Original mono single mix

Mix 2 ()
Stereo mix
Available on: Cd Little Richard: Dancin' All Around The World - The Complete Vee-Jay Recordings 1964-65 (Charly CD 5121932)
In much better quality (but harder to find) on the cd boxset: "Vee-Jay: Celebrating 40 Years of Classic Hits 1953-1993" (Rhino Handmade RHM2 7706)

65-8658? I Don't Know What You've Got But It's Got Me (take 2)
Composer: Don Covay
Recorded at: New York City?
Engineer: ?
Producer: Calvin Carter
Date: around May-July? 1965
Vocals - Little Richard
Organ - Billy Preston?
Guitar - Jimi Hendrix
Bass - ?
Drums - Bernard Purdie
Baritone sax - ?
Tenor sax - ?

No backing vocals, organ high in the mix.

Mix 1 ()
Original mono single mix
Available on: Cd Little Richard: Dancin' All Around The World - The Complete Vee-Jay Recordings 1964-65 (Charly CD 5121932)

Mix 2?
Is there a mix 2? There is a stereo mix of take 1 but so far I haven't heard of a stereo mix of take 2?

65-8659 Come See About Me - Unissued instrumental

Significant in that this probably is a version of the Don Covay song of the same title. If it exists that is, only the Charly cd liners list this track, the Charles White book lists "Everytime I Think About You" for this session instead but doesn't give it a master number. It does however list master 7844 "Something Moves In My Heart" for a different session, these two are very likely the same song (since Little Richard sings "Everytime I think about you something moves in my heart"). On this track there are also female backing singers so it's very likely from a different session and the listing under this session in the book is a duplicate entry / mistake.

The following track is a bit problematic:

64-6931 It Ain't Whatcha Do (It's The Way How You Do It)
Composers: R.Penniman, R.Codrington
Producer: Calvin Carter
Very similar to "Suey" by Jayne Mansfield. This track was coupled on the Vee-Jay single VJ 652 with "Cross Over". The Charly cd lists these two tracks as part of the same session but this can't be correct as "It Ain't Whatcha Do (It's The Way How You Do It)" is credited on the label as being produced by Calvin Carter and "Cross Over" by R.Parker so they must be from 2 different sessions. The master number of this track suggests that it's not from the session that Hendrix played on but apart from "I Don't Know What You've Got But It's Got Me" and "Dance A Go Go" from the session Jimi did play on this track seems to be only other track from all the Little Richard Vee-Jay tracks available in a stereo mix.

This doesn't necessarily mean that it's from the same session, it could be just co-incidence that a stereo mix exists but it's all a bit of a puzzle so I'm including it here in the hope that someone knows more about this.