Little Richard’s 1956 song “Long Tall Sally” started with a piece of paper a young girl gave Little Richard’s producer Robert “Bumps” Blackwell. Popular disc-jokey Honey Chile introduced Blackwell to a girl who wanted to write a song in order to raise money for her ailing aunt Mary.

The song the girl had written was only three lines:

Saw Uncle John with Long Tall Sally
They saw Aunt Mary comin’
So they ducked back in the alley.

Not wanting to disappoint the popular disc-jockey, Blackwell took the lyrics back to Little Richard and they turned it into a song.

Release in March 1956, “Long Tall Sally” came on the heels of another Little Richard hit from the same year, “Tutti Frutti.”

White singer Pat Boone’s cover of “Tutti Frutti” charted better than Little Richard’s version, so they tried to thwart him by making this song too fast for him to sing. Boone ended up covering “Long Tall Sally,” but this time he couldn’t best Little Richard’s original.

“Long Tall Sally” was Little Richard’s biggest hit, peaking at #1 on the r&b charts and reaching the top 10 of the pop charts for the first time at #6 (Pat Boone’s peaked at #8).