From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Wed Mar 27, 2002  1:19 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : John Marascalco
 
JOHN MARASCALCO

Born 27 March 1931, Grenada, Mississippi

Songwriter. In April 1956, John Marascalco, a 25 year old college
drop-out living in the small Southern town of Grenada, Mississippi,
took it upon himself to write a song for his new hero, Little Richard.
Marascalco had no previous songwriting experience and viewed his
efforts purely as a recreational exercise. He had never been out of
Mississippi, but got a buddy to drive him all the way to Specialty
Records in Los Angeles, where he sang two of his compositions for
Specialty A&R man Bumps Blackwell, "Ready Teddy" and "Rip It Up".
After suggesting some changes, Blackwell said "Man, we're gonna put
these out back to back, it's gonna be a smash". And that's exactly what
happened : "Rip It Up"/"Ready Teddy" became Little Richard's third
single. "Rip It Up" went to # 1 R&B (# 17 pop), "Ready Teddy" was a
# 8 R&B hit (# 44 pop). During that same year, 1956, Marascalco
co-wrote four other songs that would become Little Richard classics:
"Good Golly Miss Molly", "Heeby-Jeebies", "Send Me Some Loving"
and "She's Got It" (a rewrite of Richard's own "I Got It"). He is also
credited as the composer of "Bertha Lou", but according to Donnie Brooks
(who recorded the song as Johnny Faire) the real writer of this song is
Johnny Burnette, who sold it to Marascalco. John also collaborated with
Fats Domino on "Be My Guest". He continued to write songs well into the
eighties and formed his own publishing company and record label.