“PUT your man in the can, honey?” Suzi Quatro gets the chance to discover what on earth the songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman were on about when she hosts Chinnichap, a documentary on Radio 2 tomorrow at 9pm.

Toilet humour or no, 1973’s Can the Can was the first of 16 British hits for her. It came nearly ten years after she joined her first band in Detroit, aged 14 — her statuesque sister Patti’s group the Pleasure Seekers. Five foot nothing Suzi sang, played bass and wore a black top hat. In matching micro-skirts the band’s set included Twist and Shout, Louie Louie, the self-penned garage classic What a Way to Die, and occasionally the whole Sergeant Pepper album. They toured all over America when Suzi turned 16 and once — just the once — they played in Vietnam to a hospital ward full of amputees.

Sometimes overzealous boys were a problem. After one show the girls complained to their agent about some particular nasty louts. The phone call came through the next day: “Don’t worry, those guys ain’t never going to bother nobody no more.” It seems that their agent was a friend of the underworld king Bugsy Siegel and pulled a few strings to have the bothersome punks “done in”. The group never traduced their fans again.

By 1972 Patti had formed hard rockers Fanny. Suzi — having been spotted by Mickie Most — was in London, hair dyed purple, smoking cheroots and indulging in her new favourite hobby of “throwing nuts to Guy the Gorilla”.

It was only when she reverted to her snooker-playing tomboy look a year later that fame finally called.

And, no, I still don’t know what a 48 Crash is.