This article is going to discuss which song is regarded as the first important garage band hit on a national level. I will start out by quoting who wrote the song and who performed it. “Louie Louie” was written by Richard Berry in 1955, but it’s not clear how much he actually contributed to the final product. Brian Wilson said that Berry wasn’t pleased with the lyrics, so he probably didn’t write them.
Berry never recorded a song with his name on it, but the famous refrain is his. “Louie Louie” became a huge hit for The Kingsmen in 1957. It was originally recorded as a demo by Berry’s acquaintance Al Casey and it eventually ended up on their album “Kingsmen”. The song was so good that the group got signed to Mercury Records (the label that produced recordings from Little Richard).
The Kingsmen had four other top 40 hits in the ’50s and The Beatles got to hear their version when they were playing up and down the U.S. West Coast.
In August 1963 The Beatles were playing at The Washington Coliseum in D.C. and they played “Louie Louie” during the encore. It was said that John Lennon introduced the song as “a song by a group called The Kingsmen.”
Kingsmen lead singer Jack Ely claimed that he had told Lennon about the song, but there is no evidence of his claims, so he is not regarded as being a big influence on the Beatles.
The famous version of “Louie Louie” was recorded on February 15, 1963 in a studio in Portland, Oregon and it was produced by Richard Bock for his label Wand Records.
This wacky version was the apex of the band’s career. They liked it so much that they performed it on a concert tour with comedian Bob Newhart in 1963. Other than that, only one other single was released from the album with “Louie Louie” as the only track.
The list of singers who appeared on this song is quite long – Gordon MacRae, Kay Starr, The Chiffons, Jim Croce and Helen Reddy to name a few. Also a young Michael Martin Murphey (later to be known as Emmylou) did an excellent version for his 1968 album called “Texas Outlaw”.
It’s commonly said that Chuck Berry and his song “Maybelline” had the biggest impact on The Beatles’ sound, but it was “Louie Louie” that gave John Lennon the courage to try out three-part harmony vocals. They didn’t use it as often as Berry, but they used it often enough to prove its effectiveness.
“Louie Louie” is a good example that if a famous song is written from one person’s point of view, then it is most likely the original performer who gets the credit. It still counts as a cover song, though.
The Kingsmen version of “Louie Louie” sold 600,000 copies in 1963 and it went gold in 1968 when it sold another million. This makes it the third best-selling single to ever come out of Oregon.
Many would ask why this article was written on such a well-known song. I appreciate that people are interested but they are missing the point. My main reason was to show people that it’s possible to get a concept across in an article, even if it is the most well known song in rock and roll.
Why is the title of this article so long? My answer to that is simple. When a person hears the name of a well-known song, they immediately know what the song is about and they want to hear it right away. If I had titled this article “The Kingsmen” or “Best Rock Song Ever”, I wouldn’t have gotten as many hits as I did with my title.
