Ripping It Up

Clockwise from left: Richard with fans in his 1950s heyday; in the studio circa 1959; with producer-songwriters Robert “Bumps” Blackwell and Rick Hall (right) at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, 1970; preaching from the pulpit in 1958, when he moved from secular to gospel music; with the Beatles, who opened two

U.K. shows for Richard, in 1962; after the concerts, Richard taught Paul McCartney the “obligato holler.”