If you listen to music from the early 1960s now it all sounds quite innocent. If you look at the top ten charts on Spotify six of the singles have an explicit tag next to them. This was unheard of over 50 years ago. Or so you would think.
Parents are not supposed to like what their children listen to. There are exceptions with some legendary artists and bands but for the most part, the parents do not approve. This was especially so in the late 1950s and early 1960s when the Devil gave us Rock and Roll. Parents were worried their children would become devil worshippers and rebels without a cause if they listened to the likes of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and the like. It all came to a head when a bunch of high school students in the Pacific Northwest pooled their money together and recorded a song. A song that no one could decipher and led to a FEDERAL investigation. This week the Beat Marches On to January 11th, 1964 when The Kingsmen were number one on the Cashbox music chart with Louie, Louie.
The original version of Louie, Louie was written by Rhythm and Blues singer Richard Berry. A regional star in California throughout the 1950s Berry didn’t have any hits that gained national attention. Other than writing the song the only other claim for Berry’s work is appearing uncredited on an early Etta James single that didn’t chart.
He heard a mariachi band play a melody while waiting for his set to begin in a club. This melody is the start of what would become the basis of the song Louie, Louie. In 1957 he recorded the song as a B-side to his next single, a version of You Are My Sunshine. The single was a flop nationally but reached some recognition regionally selling 130,000 copies.
By the time we get to 1963, the song had managed to get to the Pacific Northwest. A version recorded by a Seattle band The Wailers in 1961 was played on the Portland radio and was very popular within that region. This is also where the Kingsmen first get wind of the song.
Every high school band was performing the song by early 1963. They were all performing the song at all the clubs around Portland. Then an opportunity came along for The Kingsmen whose version grabbed the attention of a Portland radio program manager who couldn’t play The Wailers version because of licensing issues.
He promptly asked the band to record the song in a studio that night. Being the naïve school children that they were they agreed. The Program manager Ken Chase took them to a studio, and they recorded it in one take.
When songs are recorded in the present day, you don’t necessarily need a studio to do it. Laptops now have the technology to record and produce songs without the use of a studio, but in 1963 studios were the only place to record music and it was very expensive. This is why the Kingsmen’s recording of Louie, Louie was only done in one take. The band had to pay for the session out of their own pocket because Chase had left before they finished recording.
The studio wasn’t a top-of-the-line one like Abbey Road or Sun Studios. This had one microphone hanging from the top of the ceiling and the band had to record the song together performing in a circle. Being the band’s first experience in the studio the singer Jack Ely didn’t realize that he was singing into the back of the mic. He stretched his neck and stood on his tiptoes to make sure it could pick up his vocals. He comes in too early just after the guitar solo and the whole thing just sounds mumbled. He tried to put on a Caribbean-sounding accent although he had never been to or heard an accent from that area. It didn’t help that he wore braces, and they were tightened on the day of recording. All of the different aspects made the lyrics of the song hard to figure out and it started to get some unwanted attention.
The Kingsmen’s version started to get some national prominence on a Boston radio show that played it as a gimmick. An influential DJ played the song as part of his “worst record of the week” segment but the public thought differently. They kept requesting the song to be played on the air, which spread to the public requesting the song in other cities. The song peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. Only to be held off by the Singing Nun’s Dominique.
As the song crept up the charts Parents started to get concerned. As the lyrics were too mumbled to decipher, they were worried the words were of bad taste. It doesn’t help that the demographic was teenagers whose interpretations are probably dirtier than their mums and dads. You couldn’t google the lyrics like you can now either.
It ended up that the concerned parents wrote letters to the US Attorney General, Robert F Kennedy and the director of the FBI J Edgar Hoover asking them to investigate the song to make sure that the song didn’t contain any dirty lyrics.
Due to the COINTELPRO operation, Hoover set up to help the fight against communism he could investigate the song which the FBI did for 30 months. A 120-page document (which is available on the web via the link will be posted below) was produced. Which contained letters from concerned parents, multiple test listens at different speeds, what parents thought the lyrics were saying and the agent’s interpretation of the lyrics. Even the actual lyrics from the record label were examined but they didn’t believe that they were the same as those Ely was singing on the record.
So, what did the FBI find after all of the listening at different speeds and even going to the band’s concerts? Nothing. The results were inconclusive. They attained that whichever speed you listened to the song you could not understand what was being sung and deemed it worthy for teenage listening.
With all the multiple listening of the song, the FBI neglected a couple of things. The first is they didn’t interview Jack Ely for reasons unknown. He wasn’t part of the band during the investigation as he left not long after the studio recording but the investigators didn’t bother to contact him.
The second thing is that the song is profane. They missed it completely on the multiple listening. just under a minute into the song the drummer either drops a drumstick or hits the rim of a drum depending on which account you read. Realising his mistake you hear him shout an F-bomb. It’s distant but you can hear it. Clearer than most of the lyrics.
With the misheard lyrics and the rumours of what they could be, the song rocketed up the charts. It became the biggest hit of their career and would become the second most covered song in music following the Beatles hit Yesterday (The Beatles were about to change the world a couple of weeks later with a US TV performance)
What of Richard Berry? The original composer didn’t get any royalties for the song during its heyday. Due to selling the rights to his music for an engagement ring before the Kingsmen recording, he didn’t get to reap the rewards for the song he wrote. He did finally get some recognition in the 1980s when an advertisement for Wine Coolers wanted to use the song. He sued for the rights back and won 75% of his royalties for the song from then to his death in 1997.
The Beat Marches On is a music blog written by Jimmy Whitehead. Jimmy has been blogging for six years specialising in Sports (especially American Football). If you want to follow Jimmy on Twitter: @Jimmy_W1987
The Beat Marches On has a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/The-Beat-Goes-On-Blog-107727714415791 and a Twitter page: @TheBeatGoesOnB1
If anyone reading this would like to read more about this story, the website with a copy of the FBI investigation is:
‘Louie Louie’: Indecipherable, Or Indecent? An FBI Investigation : NPR
Other websites used for research were:
Bad recording technique led FBI to investigate “Louie Louie” | Offbeat Oregon History | #ORhistory
Is This the Dirtiest Song of the Sixties? | The New Yorker
The Podcast Lost Notes was also used for research.
If you want to request a story for The Beat Marches On blog, then you can contact jwhiteheadjournalism@gmail.com. We cannot guarantee that the story will be published but will be considered.