“All around the world, rock ’n’ roll is here to stay,” Little Richard sings on the hit “All Around The World.” But by the time his self-titled sophomore LP was released in 1958, Little Richard himself was on his way out of the soaring genre: The 25-year-old had just retired from rock ’n’ roll to join the ministry and make gospel records (getting out of his record deal was just a bonus). His record company Specialty, of course, had other ideas and forged ahead with gathering this array of mostly previously released singles from the pioneering rocker. As an LP, it didn’t do much. But the singles—and they are almost all singles, with nine A-sides and three B-sides on the album—were huge. They span a four-year period, from 1956 to 1959, and while they offer just a fraction of the singer-songwriter’s famous onstage theatrics, the fervent, teeming energy of the era still seeps through the rollicking songs — many of which Little Richard either wrote or adapted so fully that he had a writing credit for. The wails, the growls, the yelps that would be cribbed by the singer’s peers are all etched into wax, proof positive of a dynamism so electric that it helped create a century-defining genre. “Good Golly, Miss Molly” and “Lucille” are probably this album’s two best known entries in rock’s canon, both songs that Little Richard originated and have since been covered by just about every act imaginable. But the iconic rocker’s pop-music fingerprints stretch across the release: “Keep A Knockin’” and its influential opening drum fill; his unrecognizable, crowd-participation-inducing riff on Leiber and Stoller’s “Kansas City”; and “Ooh! My Soul,” just one of many Little Richard songs performed by The Beatles. “The Girl Can’t Help It” even has explicit influence stretching into the 21st century as the source sample for Fergie’s “Clumsy.” Within these 12 songs lie the DNA for countless ensuing performances and recordings, most of which might never even recognize Little Richard as an influence. It is, beyond being an exuberant listen, a foundational text in popular music.