Little Richard, flamboyant star of early rock-and-roll, dies at 87

In rock’s infancy, Little Richard was the unstoppable pacesetter, the pompadoured wild man whose flamboyant showmanship and incendiary spirit of abandon — “a-wop-bop-a-loo-mop-a-wop-bam-boom” — would drive the music for generations.

He sang but more often shrieked with falsetto whoops and an electrifying gospel fervor. He pounded the piano with one leg in the air. He often climaxed his shows by climbing on top of the stage speakers, leaping offstage to run through the crowd or tossing articles of clothing to the audience — even stripping to his bare chest on one raucous tour in 1957.