Page 26 - ISI_171_AprilMay

PAGE 26 ENTERTAINMENT
The Million-Selling Sloppy Soundcheck
BY RANDAL C. HILL
Music critics were never kind to one
of the biggest hits of all time. One writer
proclaimed it “a ridiculous piece of junk.”
Another grumbled that “it had all the charm
of a clanging hubcap.” Strangely enough,
the Kingsmen, the band responsible for
“Louie, Louie,” felt the same way.
The three-verse ditty had originally
been a 1956 release by Los Angeles R & B
singer/songwriter Richard Berry, whose Flip
Records single told of a lonely sailor lament-
ing to a bartender named Louie. Berry’s 45
never cracked the national charts, but the
tune lingered on—and on and on—into the
early 1960s, where it became a staple of
three-chord garage bands throughout the
Pacific Northwest.
The Kingsmen were a Portland, Oregon,
rock quintet fronted by Jack Ely. Ken Chase,
the Kingsmen’s manager, provided work for
the outfit at a teen dance club he owned.
On a whim one night, the group played
a nonstop 90-minute set of nothing but
“Louie, Louie.” The dancers went wild and
even demanded more. Chase recognized
the song’s potential for the Kingsmen and
scheduled time at Northwest Recorders, the
only recording studio in Portland.
When a soundcheck was ordered
to test the microphone levels, Chase
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The Kingsmen in 1966. Clockwise from lower left:
Lynn Easton, J.C. Rieck, Kerry Magness, Mike Mitchell,
Dick Peterson. Public Domain. By Scandore/Shayne,
Billboard page 19 (1966).
raised the vocalist’s boom microphone
to 15 feet off the floor, claiming this
would offer a better “live” feel when
the Kingsmen recorded.
Things quickly went south when the
tape rolled. Ely had to lean back to sing—
shout, really—up to the microphone far
above him, resulting in a slurring of
Berry’s simplistic lyrics. Drummer Lynn
Easton lost the beat partway through.
And, following the instrumental break, Ely
came in too soon on the song’s final verse
and had to restart it. After two excruci-
ating minutes, “Louie, Louie” mercifully
ground to a halt.
Then came Chase’s jaw-dropping
announcement. “That’s it! That’s the
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take I want!” he enthused as he bolted
from the control room, explaining that
the soundcheck had exactly the raw edge
that he sought.
The Kingsmen, understandably, were
incredulous: This piece of garbage would
become their debut single? Sadly, the
answer was yes.
Jerden Records in Seattle released the
soundcheck version, which earned some
airplay on Pacific Northwest radio before
it fell off the playlists. Somehow, the for-
gotten 45 made its way across the country,
and popular Boston rock DJ Arnie Ginsberg
ended up spinning “Louie, Louie” on a
Friday night feature he called “The Worst
Record of the Week.”
Surprisingly, several record stores
phoned to ask about ordering the disc, and
soon New York’s Wand Records leased the
Jerden master, and by January 1964, “Louie,
Louie” sat at Number Two on Billboard’s
Hot 100 chart.
When some listeners erroneously
claimed that “Louie, Louie” contained filthy
lyrics, two FBI agents visited Richard Berry,
who later explained with a chuckle, “They
came to the conclusion that the singer’s
words were indecipherable.”
“I was never contacted about the lyrics,”
Ely grumbled in a postscript. “Nobody ever
wanted to talk to the guy who actually sang
the supposedly dirty words.” ISI
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