A cover of the Little Richard’s hit penned by the team Robert Blackwell and John Marascalco.
In 1956 the song went number one on the R&B Best Sellers chart for two weeks and number seventeen on the pop chart. Bill Haley, Gene Vincent, and Elvis Presley also recorded it in the 50’s. Buddy Holly demoed the song too and one can assume that this is Holly’ version that inspired the Stray Cats cover
‘Rip It Up’ was first played during the early days of the band (Tomcats era) and briefly revived during the first four shows of their 1982 tour (in support of Gonna Ball) with a piano and a saxophone (Mel Collins) but quickly dropped out of the setlist.