Charles ‘Chuck’ Connor
Kept A Knockin’
BORN 1935
Foundational New Orleansborn rock’n’roll drummer Charles ‘Chuck’ Connor joined Little Richard’s road band The Upsetters at the age of 18, having worked with Professor Longhair. His distinctive snare and heavy bass drum work became a much-imitated style. Earl Palmer had drummed on breakthrough single Tutti Frutti, but on the road Richard told Connor he wanted “more energy.” “He made me change so it was more heavy on the bass drum,” the drummer said in Charles White’s The Life And Times Of Little Richard. Connor started recording hits with Richard in 1956 with She’s Got It and 1957’s Keep A Knockin’, its distinctive shuffle intro copied by John Bonham on Led Zeppelin’s Rock And Roll. After his bandleader’s first retirement in 1957, Connor performed with James Brown, Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, and many others over the years. He formed Chuck Connor’s Upsetters in 1980, reunited with his former boss in 1990 and in 2013 recorded the aptly named album Still Knockin’.