"Louie Louie" is a rhythm and blues song written, composed, and recorded by American musician Richard Berry in 1956 and released in 1957. In 1963, a version by the Kingsmen attracted controversy over allegedly profane lyrics. The song is based on the tune "El Loco Cha Cha" popularized by bandleader René Touzet and is an example of Afro-Cuban influence on American popular music.
The song's historical impact and ongoing popularity, attested by books, articles, rankings, and hundreds of cover versions, have earned it a reputation as "a cornerstone of rock".
"Louie Louie" tells, in simple verse–chorus form, the first-person story of a "lovesick sailor's lament to a bartender about wanting to get back home to his girl".
Original version by Richard Berry and the Pharaohs Richard Berry was inspired to write the song in 1956 after listening to an R&B interpretation of "El Loco Cha Cha" performed by the Latin group Ricky Rillera and the Rhythm Rockers. The tune was written originally as "Amarren Al Loco" ("Tie Up The Madman" or "Tie Up That Lunatic") by Cuban bandleader Rosendo Ruiz Jr. (also known as Rosendo Ruiz Quevedo), but became best known in the "El Loco Cha Cha" arrangement by René Touzet which included "three great chords, solid and true" and a ten-note "1-2-3 1–2 1-2-3 1–2" tumbao or rhythmic pattern. The "unforgettable hook" of "Louie Louie" was lifted directly from Touzet's composition.
In Berry's mind, the words to "Louie Louie" "just kind of fell out of the sky", superimposing themselves over the repeating bassline as he scribbled backstage on a strip of toilet paper. Lyrically, the first person perspective of the song was influenced by "One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)", which is sung from the perspective of a customer talking to a bartender ("Louie" was the name of Berry's bartender). He additionally cited Chuck Berry's "Havana Moon" "Havana Moon" was not recorded until November 1956 -- well after Berry's April 1956 "Louie Louie" recording session -- so his recollection may have been inaccurate. and his own exposure to Latin American music for the song's speech pattern and references to Jamaica.
Los Angeles-based Flip Records recorded Berry's composition with his vocal group the Pharaohs in April 1956. The Pharaohs were Godoy Colbert (first tenor), Stanley Henderson (second tenor, subbing for Robert Harris), and Noel Collins (baritone). Gloria Jones of the Dreamers provided additional backup vocals. Session musicians included Plas Johnson on tenor sax, Jewel Grant on baritone sax, Ernie Freeman on piano, Irving Ashby on guitar, Red Callender on bass, Ray Martinez on drums, and John Anderson on trumpet.
Flip released the record in April 1957 with "Louie Louie" as the B-side of "You Are My Sunshine", but prior to the song's release, Berry sold his portion of the publishing and songwriting rights for "Louie Louie" and four other songs for $750 to Max Feirtag, the head of Flip Records, to raise cash for his upcoming wedding. Both 7-inch 45 RPM and 10-inch 78 RPM versions were pressed. (An early 45 RPM label misprint exists, reported by Steve Propes, with the title rendered as "Louie Lovie".)
A Cash Box review rated the A-side as a B+, but the B-side only rated a B with the comment, "Richard Berry chants a middle beat with a steady, syncopated rhythm that captures an excitement." Local A-side airplay was modest, but then KGFJ deejay Hunter Hancock flipped the record and put the B-side in heavy rotation, resulting in a regional hit, particularly in San Francisco. When Berry toured the Pacific Northwest, local R&B bands began to play the song, increasing its popularity. The song was re-released by Flip in 1961 as an A-side single and again in 1964 on a four-song EP, but never appeared on any of the national charts. Sales estimates ranged from 40,000 to 130,000 copies.
Other versions appeared on Casino Club Presents Richard Berry (1966), Great Rhythm and Blues Oldies Volume 12 (1977),This re-recording, produced by Johnny Otis with session guitar by Shuggie Otis, also appears on Shuggie Otis In Session: Great Rhythm & Blues (2002) and Pioneers of Rhythm & Blues Volume 5 (2008). and The Best of Louie, Louie (1983). Although similar to the original, the version on Rhino's 1983 The Best of Louie, Louie compilation is actually a note-for-note re-recording (with backup vocals by doo wop revival group Big Daddy) created because licensing could not be obtained for Berry's 1957 version. The original version was included on a 1986 Swedish compilation, but not until the Ace Records Love That Louie release in 2002 did it see wide distribution.
In the mid-1980s, Berry was living on welfare. Drinks company California Cooler wanted to use "Louie Louie" in a commercial, but discovered it needed Berry's consent because despite having sold the publishing rights, he still owned the radio and television performance rights. The company asked the Artists Rights Society to locate him which led to Berry's taking legal action to regain his rights to the song. The settlement made Berry a millionaire.
While the title of the song is often rendered with a comma ("Louie, Louie"), in 1988, Berry told Esquire magazine that the correct title of the song was "Louie Louie" with no comma.
The copyright for Richard Berry's "Louie Louie" was acquired by EMI Music Publishing from Windswept Pacific in 1999.
Cover versions
"Louie Louie" is the world's most recorded rock song, with published estimates ranging from over 1,600 to more than 2,000 "with ever more still being released and performed" (and uploaded to music and video websites). Due to its "raw, open structure that invites interpretation, mishearing and reinvention", it has been recorded and performed by a wide range of artists spanning reggae, hard rock, jazz, psychedelic, hip-hop, easy listening, and more. Peter Doggett labeled it "almost impossible to play badly" and Greil Marcus asked, "Has there ever been a bad version of 'Louie Louie'?" Paul Revere summarized, "Three chords and the most mundane beat possible. Any idiot could learn it, and they all did."
The Kingsmen version in particular has been cited as the "Rosetta Stone" of garage rock, the defining "ur-text" of punk rock, and "the original grunge classic". "The influential rock critics Dave Marsh and Greil Marcus believe that virtually all punk rock can be traced back to a single proto-punk song, 'Louie Louie'."
Pronunciation has varied widely from Berry's original "Lou-ee Lou-ee" to "Lou-ee Lou-eye" (Kingsmen, 1963), "Lou-ee Lou-eye-ay" (Angels, 1964), "Lou-eye Lou-way" (Sonics, 1966; Iggy Pop, 1972), "Lou-ee-a Lou-way" (Kinks, 1964; Motörhead, 1978), "Lou-way Lou-way" (Clarke/Duke Project, 1981), and others.
1950s Richard Berry was on the underbill for a concert in the Seattle–Tacoma area in September 1957 and his record appeared on local radio station charts in November 1957 after "African American DJs Bob Summerrise and Eager Beaver started playing it on their radio shows". Local R&B musicians Ron Holden and Dave Lewis popularized "Louie Louie", rearranging Berry's version and performing it at live shows and "battle of the bands" events.
Holden recorded an unreleased version, backed by the Thunderbirds, for the Nite Owl label in 1959. As a leader of the "dirty but cool" Seattle R&B sound, he would often substitute mumbled, "somewhat pornographic" lyrics in "a live tour de force [that] often lasted ten minutes or longer, devastating local audiences." Lewis, "the singularly most significant figure on the Pacific Northwest's nascent rhythm & blues scene in the 1950s and 1960s", released a three chord clone, "David's Mood - Part 2", that was a regional hit in 1963.
The Wailers, Little Bill and the Bluenotes, the Frantics, Tiny Tony and the Statics, Merrilee and the Turnabouts, and other local groups soon added the song to their set lists.
1960s Rockin' Robin Roberts and the Wailers (1961)
Robin Roberts developed an interest in rock 'n' roll and rhythm and blues records as a high school student in Tacoma, Washington. Among the songs he began performing as an occasional guest singer with a local band, the Bluenotes, in 1958 were "Louie Louie", which he had "rescued from oblivion" after hearing Berry's obscure original single, and Bobby Day's "Rockin' Robin", which gave him his stage name.
In 1959, Roberts left the Bluenotes and began singing with another local band, the Wailers, famed for their "hard-nosed R&B/rock fusion". Known for his dynamic onstage performances, Roberts added "Louie Louie" to the band's set and, in 1960 recorded the track with the Wailers as his backing band. The arrangement, devised by Roberts with the band, was "the first-ever garage version of 'Louie Louie'" and included "one of the true great moments of rock", his ad-libbed "Let's give it to 'em, RIGHT NOW!!" before the guitar solo.
Released as a single on the band's own label, Etiquette, in early 1961, it became a huge hit locally, charting at No. 1 on Seattle's KJR and establishing "Louie Louie" as "the signature riff of Northwest rock 'n' roll". It also picked up play across the border in Vancouver, British Columbia, appearing in the top 40 of the CFUN chart. The popularity of the Roberts release effectively buried another "reasonably close to the Richard Berry/Ron Holden arrangement" version put out at about the same time by Little Bill Englehardt (Topaz T-1305).
The record was then reissued and promoted by Liberty Records in Los Angeles, but it failed to chart nationally.The pre-Liberty first pressing of the record does not have the "Distributed by Liberty Records" text on the label. The track was included on the 1963 album The Wailers & Co, the 1964 compilation album Tall Cool One, the 1998 reissue of the 1962 album The Fabulous Wailers Live at the Castle, and multiple later compilations.
Roberts was killed in an automobile accident in 1967, but his "legacy would reverberate down through the ages". Dave Marsh dedicated his 1993 book, "For Richard Berry, who gave birth to this unruly child, and Rockin' Robin Roberts, who first raised it to glory."
The Kingsmen (1963)
On April 6, 1963, the Kingsmen, a rock and roll group from Portland, Oregon, chose "Louie Louie" for their second recording. The session took place at Northwestern Inc. Motion Pictures & Recording Studios at 411 SW 13th Avenue in Portland. The one hour session, originally intended to produce an audition tape for a summer cruise ship gig, cost either $36, $50, or somewhere in between, and the band split the cost.
The session was produced by Ken Chase, a local disc jockey on the AM rock station KISN who also owned The Chase, the teen nightclub where the Kingsmen were the house band. The engineer for the session was the studio owner, Robert Lindahl. The Kingsmen's lead vocalist, Jack Ely, based his version on the recording by Rockin' Robin Roberts with the Fabulous Wailers, but unintentionally reintroduced Berry's original stop-time rhythm as he showed the other members how to play it with a 1–2–3, 1–2, 1–2–3 beat instead of the 1–2–3–4, 1–2, 1–2–3–4 beat on the Wailers record. The night before their recording session, the band played a 90-minute version of the song during a gig at a local teen club. The Kingsmen's studio version was recorded in one partial and one full take. They also recorded "Jamaica Farewell" and what became the B-side of the release, an original "surf instrumental" by Ely and keyboardist Don Gallucci called "Haunted Castle".