"Goodnight, Irene" (Little Richard)

I heard Little Richard's rendition of Leadbelly's "Goodnight, Irene" (1964) for the first time in the film Kiss the Girls (1997)—a decent crime/suspense drama in the Alex Cross franchise, starring Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman.  A good chunk of the film had been shot in Durham, NC, and several classmates of mine from Carolina had landed non-speaking roles as extras.  So, of course, a bunch of us went on opening night to see if their cameos had survived the editor's axe.  (Spoiler: they hadn't.)
If I'm being completely honest, the film got boring and predictable toward the end of the story, and even Freeman's performance couldn't save it.  Just as I was about to nod off, this funky little groove in 6/8 came blasting through the theater speakers as Freeman's "Cross" was gunning his little roadster through Duke Forest to save Judd's character from her untimely demise.
Those two and a half minutes saved the whole film for me.  The restless percussion, the slippery bassline, Little Richard's from-the-pulpit vocal, and the slightly off-key/behind-the-beat tent revival backing vocals: all of these elements just made it the most perfectly imperfect rendition of the song I'd ever heard.
As a side note, I've read various things over the years that claim a young Jimi Hendrix, fresh from a stint backing The Isley Brothers, played lead guitar on the track.  Other accounts say that Hendrix only recorded one track with Little Richard (the smoldering "I Don't Know What You Got" in 1965).  So, who knows.  To me, the guitar intro has Hendrix's rhythmic touch all over it.