“Louie Louie” by The Kingsmen
Speaking of songs that everybody knows but no one can actually tell you the lyrics to, “Louie Louie” would definitely be near the top of that list. In fact in this particular case, said indecipherability even got the musicians involved into a bit of hot water.
But despite possessing such a trait no one would deny that this tune is a classic, that type of shaggy White boy rock-and-roll whose sound helped define the late-1950s/early-1960s global music scene, even if it was actually written by a Black artist. But authorship and such is something to be expounded on later. For now, our focus is on analyzing the lyrics and breaking down what they mean.
Lyrics of “Louie Louie”
And right off the bat, putting sheer intelligibility aside for the time being, logically one of the reasons the lyrics have proven so difficult for many Americans to grasp is because in many instances the singer refers to himself in the first person as “me” instead of the traditional western ‘I’.
So for instance he makes the phrase “me think of girl constantly”. And if you’re saying to yourself, ‘hey, that sounds a lot like reggae’, you are in fact correct. For the aforementioned Black author, Richard Berry, fashioned “Louie Louie” after, according to Genius, a “Jamaican sea shanty”.
And of course in Jamaica people speak patois, a dialect of the English language where “me” is commonly used in place of ‘I’. Moreover, they don’t tend to put “the”, or what have you, in front of nouns.
So during the last verse, when vocalist Jack Ely states that “me see Jamaica”, he is not mocking the country or anything like that. Rather is more like a shoutout to the Caribbean island. It is even believed the song is actually about a sailor wanting to visit his girlfriend in Jamaica.
Song’s Narrative
Indeed what the featured narrative actually centers on is the vocalist traveling “across the sea” in order to hook up with the woman he loves.
Now again, the lyrics are based on a sea shanty, i.e. a song that was traditionally recited by sailors. So that would mean the subject was originally a sailor in the first place. But as far as reading into the lyrics symbolically, i.e. from more of a layman’s perspective, what they would point to is simply the idea of the singer being separated from his lady and his desire to “make it home” to be with her.
So said “home” can also be symbolic. It is representing the location where this lady may be and thus marking where the vocalist prefers to be also.
Chorus
Also in an attempt to make sense out of the chorus, on the surface it would appear the titular “Louie” is the same person whom the singer is referring to as “baby”. And whereas The Kingsmen may have been a tad bit raunchy, it’s highly unlikely they were referring to being in love with another man.
So going a bit out on a limb we can postulate that, unlike the verses, the chorus is actually being relayed from the perspective of the romantic interest. In other words, he would be “Louie”, and she is addressing him in the chorus.
Or a more-reasonable explanation is that Louie is a homey, i.e. a fellow seafarer, of the narrator’s. Perhaps he is even a captain or someone of authority. And the singer is telling him that ‘he has to go’, as in he must return home to his lady. Accepting this theory though makes it a lot harder to explain why Ely is referring to him as his “baby”.
But maybe, as used in the chorus, said term is an exclamation as opposed to a term of endearment.
All in all
At the end of the day, the thesis sentiment of “Louie Louie” is that the vocalist misses his lover and accordingly is eager to get back to her.
If a listener is able to get past the excitable chorus and actually understand what is being said in the verses, the latter of which admittedly is not easy, then he or she would likely be able to ascertain this themselves.
So conclusively we can say that’s one of general drawbacks of making a song where people cannot hear the lyrics clearly, that they may not be able to understand what exactly is going down. But “Louie Louie” is a very-rare case where such a factor contributed to the song’s overall popularity.
Moreover, said unintelligibility actually seems as if it makes the song sound better or at least more exciting as a whole.
Who wrote “Louie Louie”?
As stated earlier, this song was actually written by an African-American musician by the name of Richard Berry (1935-1997). And it was inspired by three songs that preceded it. First and foremost was “El Loco Cha Cha” (1957) by René Touzet. Secondly “Havana Moon” (1956) by Chuck Berry (no relation to Richard). And lastly “One for My Baby” (1947) by Frank Sinatra.
Berry wrote the lyrics of this song based on the rhythm of “El Loco Cha Cha”. Moreover the noted Jamaican influence wasn’t necessarily an ode to music indigenous to the island but rather Latin American sounds Richard Berry had become exposed to.
Berry originally dropped a version of “Louie Louie” in 1957. It was a minor hit, selling almost 150,000 copies. However, it didn’t catch on enough to actually make the Billboard chart.
Richard Berry went on to sell songwriting and publishing rights to this song for $750 in 1959. According to InflationTool, as of 2021 that same amount would be worth around $7,000.
So by the mid-1980s, despite penning one of the most-recognizable songs in American history, he found himself “living on welfare at his mother’s house”. However, he ultimately ended up being associated with a lawyer representing a company who wanted to use the tune in a commercial, and Berry was able to re-secure rights to it.
And in the process he became a millionaire, meaning he probably lived out his latter days pretty well.
The Kingsmen’s Cover
And in the above regard, Richard Berry actually owed the popularity of “Louie Louie” to The Kingsmen more so than any other musician. This is despite the fact that hundreds of artists have covered it their own renditions throughout the years. It is believed that “Louie Louie” has close to 2,000 different covers.
In fact like Richard Berry another singer, Rockin’ Robin Roberts (1940-1967), dropped his own version before The Kingsmen. He did so in 1961.
The Kingsmen are a crew which originated in Portland, Oregon. Interestingly, they are still extant as at the early-2020s. And singer/guitarist Mike Mitchell has been a part of the group since their formation in 1959. But all of the studio albums they dropped were during the 1960s.
And their cover of “Louie Louie” is from the first of those, “The Kingsmen in Person” (1963), which was released by Wand Records. And said project peaked at number 20 on the Billboard 200.
The other members of The Kingsmen who participated on this track are:
- instrumentalist Lynn Easton (d. 2020)
- keyboardist Don Gallucci
- bassist Norm Sundholm
- drummer Gary Abbott
- vocalist Jack Ely (1943-2015)
Also before we forget, the official release date of “Louie Louie” by The Kingsmen was actually on 1 May 1963.
Who sang “Louie Louie”?
Throughout the majority of The Kingsmen’s existence, the late Jack Ely was not the band’s lead singer. That distinction apparently belonged to Mike Mitchell. However, it was he who sang “Louie Louie”.
And there are actually practical reasons why the lyrics are so difficult to understand. First and foremost would apparently be the fact that he was wearing tight braces at the time.
Secondly, you may notice that this sounds like a live recording. Well it’s not, so to achieve that effect Ely had to sing in a very interesting posture. He reportedly had to tilt his head at a very awkward angle of 45 degrees. And the microphone dangled from the ceiling while he sang.
Moreover, in the vocalist’s own opinion, he was too far away from said microphone. Indeed he had to position himself very awkwardly in order to be at all heard. In fact all of the instrumentalists were inputting into the same mic also, apparently in the name of achieving the aforementioned live effect.
So it would seem that the original intent was not for the words to come out as unintelligible as they actually did. Or simply put, “Louie Louie” is an enjoyable albeit bad recording.
Success, Success!
However, the unclear lyrics are one of the main reasons that this particular version of “Louie Louie”, out of all the others, was such a resounding success.
For example, in terms of the cover’s chart success, it peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Then it went on to top Cashbox’s Top 100 and R&B charts.
And its popularity at the time of its release was not only due to the fact that slurring sounds cool. But also (this was before fans could easily access lyrics on the internet) many people didn’t know what was being said even after the song blew up.
It wasn’t until the late-20th century when this track really began to be recognized for how great it truly is. It has made it onto virtually all of the important ‘greatest songs’ lists out there. And one such notable list is Rolling Stones’ “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”, where it was ranked at position 54 in 2004.
In 1994, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame also recognized it as one of the “Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll”. In 2018 the track was even enshrined into their institution.
Additionally, The Kingmens’ “Louie Louie” has held a place in the Grammy Hall of Fame since 1999. And this is despite the fact that the band itself has not been inducted.
Lyrics are Investigated
So rumors began to spread that the wording of the track was actually centered on some type of raunchiness too extreme to be censor-approved, which is why the vocalist garbled them. And note that this was back in the days when American authorities took such things very, very seriously.
In fact the FBI, under the direction of the infamously conservative J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972) himself, investigated the lyrics for over two years. The FBI were trying to ascertain whether The Kingsmen and co. were trying to subliminally defile the public at large.
This included stepping to Richard Berry, The Kingsmen, Paul Revere & the Raiders (who also recorded a cover) as well as the executives behind the tune’s issuance. And the research came back inconclusive, as the FBI’s attempt to interpret the lyrics proved futile.
And in the aftermath of that whole fiasco, it has been concluded that perhaps the marketers behind the song likely leaked the rumor that the lyrics were obscene just to generate additional buzz. Either that, or like some college jacka-s did so trying to be funny, on top of making a quick buck by selling the false lyrics.
And to give you an idea of just how pervasive that lie had become, even the Governor of Indiana at the time, Matthew Welsh, went about having the song banned.
A NSFW Word
That being noted, there is one NSFW word that actually made it into the song. And that is when about a third of the way through Lynn Easton shouts out the word “f**k”, as he missed his cue due to apparently suffering some kind of mishap while recording. But said exclamation is at a low volume compared to that of the main vocalist. And apparently it is something the FBI overlooked or didn’t think was too important giving the severity of the aforementioned rumors.
Indeed “Louie Louie” has had more than one mishap which proved advantageous to the song. For example, on top of the braces and all that stuff that was mentioned earlier, when Jack Ely was teaching his bandmates how to play the tune (based on Rockin’ Robin Roberts’ version), he actually showed them the wrong beat setting.
More Facts about The Kingsmen’s Version of “Louie Louie”
The Kingsmen recorded their version in 1963, paying $50 to do so. And once again according to InflationTool, that would be about $430 in 2021 money, which is a really good deal for such a massive hit. But one of the reasons it cost so little is because the band recorded it in just one take.
The producers of this cover are DJ Ken Chase and the late Jerry Dennon (1938-2017).
The Kingsmen’s rendition was released concurrently with that of Paul Revere & the Raiders. And for a time both were equally popular. Yet by the end of the day, The Kingsmen’s version proved more-successful on a national level. Ironically enough, the song’s success came after a Boston DJ gave it the distinction of being “the Worst Record of the Week”.
During the mid-1980s “Louie Louie”, initially as somewhat of a prank, was officially proposed to Washington’s government to become that state’s official song.
The resolution, which also consisted of a proposal to name a specific area of Washington “Louie Louie County”, did not pass.
However, 12 April 1985 was officially declared as Louie Louie Day. This was an event which attracted The Kingsmen, the Raiders and The Wailers to the state’s capitol to celebrate. Thousands of non-musical citizens also attended the event.
Washington state again decided to honor this song in 2003 via an event called LouieFest. One of the highlights of the event was the nearly 800 guitarists who simultaneously played “Louie Louie”.
And just to note, there is also an official International Louie Louie Day. This special day apparently came into existence sometime during the 21st century. And it is held on 11 April annually. It should be noted that Richard Berry was born on April 11.
Was this the only hit released by The Kingsmen?
No. The Kingsmen experienced other notable hits, most notably “The Jolly Green Giant” (1964), which also broke the top 5 of the Hot 100.
However, one of the logical reasons they were never able to replicate the success of “Louie Louie”, which was their second single overall, was because shortly after recording the song Jack Ely (along with Bob Nordby) left the band.
And the way the story reads, based on a laymen’s understanding, is as if Lynn Easton, who co-founded the group with Ely, was jealous of his bandmate. Then on top of that, his mother actually owned the name “The Kingsmen” moniker.
And based on that fact Easton rather asserted himself as the lead singer despite he and Jack being de facto cousins, i.e. sharing a close history, even outside of the band, since their parents were besties. And just to note, it was also Jack Ely who encouraged The Kingsmen to learn “Louie Louie” in the first place.
