Born Richard Wayne Penniman, Little Richard said he invented rock 'n' roll. He didn't, but the world would have been very different without 'Tutti Frutti', two minutes of wild exhibitionism, recorded in 1955. It transformed American music and world culture. There still would have been the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie and Prince without Little Richard but their careers would have been different. Little Richard: Send Me Some Lovin' is a fun-packed biography about an influential and charismatic man who lived his life as though he were continually on stage.

'I have known and admired Spencer Leigh's work as a music historian for many years. When he describes music and musicians of a bygone age, we become aware of so much more than the songs and performers - the era itself returns to life and we are reminded that all art, notably popular art, is inspired by, and inseparable from, its time and place, and if we don't understand that background, the story is far from complete', Sir Tim Rice

The journalist, acclaimed author and former BBC broadcaster Spencer Leigh, is an acknowledged authority on popular music. He was born in 1945 and hearing Little Richard for the first time in 1956 changed his life. He is a world expert on the Beatles, and he has written a series of music-based biographies - Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel - all of which are full of facts and opinions. He says that the key to a good biography is never to be boring: "always give the reader a good reason for turning to the next page."