“Louie Louie, oh no
Me gotta go,
Aye-yi-yi-yi, I said
Louie Louie, oh baby
Me gotta go.”

- The Kingsmen

Almost every ’60’s garage and basement band started out learning Louis Louis. It was easy for me on bass because I had two open strings - “E”, “A” - and then I had to stretch up two frets to play “B.” Now, if the guitar player couldn’t play “B” then you might have started in “A” then “B” then “E” - all “Farmer Brown” chords meaning no barre chords.

Wilkipedia says that “The song is written in the style of a Jamaican ballad; and tells, in simple form the first-person story of a Jamaican sailor returning to the island to see his lady love. The singer brags of his “fine little girl” to the Louie of the title, presumably a bartender. Richard Berry released his version in April 1957 with his band, the Pharaohs, on the “B-side” of You Are My Sunshine.

The Kingsmen made the big hit for the amazing low price of $52 for recording time. The session was produced by Ken Chase - aka Mike Korgan - who was a local radio personality on the AM rock station 91 KISN and also owned the teen nightclub that hosted the Kingsmen as their house band.

A factor in the success of the record was the rumor that the lyrics were intentionally slurred by the Kingsmen to cover the fact that were vocally depicting sex between the sailor and his girl. We all ate this up and made up our own lyrics in parts because, let’s face it, when you’re learning a song lyrics off the jukebox you don’t linger on the fine details.

My favorite version is by Paul Revere and the Raiders, one of my favorite ’60’s bands.