There is a boat load of books, news and history about the song "Louie Louie". Did you know that 'Louie' was investigated by the FBI ? That legislation was passed to make it the state song of Washington ? ...and more !.!.!

AND we owe it all to Richard Berry and the fabulous WAILERS for making it the Rock 'n' Roll song of the galaxy.

From a tribute CD to
Richard Dangel, guitarist,
founding member of the
the Wailers, and an
originator of the rock
version of 'Louie Louie'

Recorded Live at the
Wailers 40th Anniversary
Showbox, Seattle
12-12-1998
(5:53)

(1 minute excerpt)
WMA   MP3

The very first release of
'Louie Louie' by
the fabulous Wailers
in 1961
Etiquette Records #001
Rockin Robin, vocals
(2:55)

(1 minute excerpt)
WMA   MP3

 

By Alison Basye (Seattle Magazine)

Before Nirvana and Pearl Jam introduced grunge rock to the world in the early 1990s the Northwest had The Fabulous Wailers, pioneers of garage rock and the original Seattle Sound " The Boys from Tacoma" hit number 36 on the Billboard magazine chart with "Tall Cool One" in 1959, while they were still in high school, landing them appearances on American Bandstand and The Allan Freed Show.

Now, the members of the band that  rearranged the classic "Louie Louie"  and influenced a generation of rock groups - including the Beatles - are  finally getting recognition.



Your music is four decades old, but it sounds so modern.

We recorded "Out of Our Tree" in 1964, and in 1999, it became the number-one song on WFMU-FM in the New York area. Norton Records had re-released and re-mastered a bunch of our songs, and everyone thought it was a new song. Last October, we headlined at  the Las Vegas find-a garage band convention-and it blew my mind to see  all these kids with tattoos, green hair and body piercing singing the words to our songs. They were right up front like in the old days, dancing and bobbing their heads.

Our music is deeply rooted in rhythm and blues. That stuff never gets stale. We used to watch Little  Richard and Ray Charles and James Brown at the Evergreen Ballroom in Nisqually.  We learned R & B from them, added some of our own stuff, and that  was our sound - no on had used the term "rock 'n' roll" yet.  Then other bands, like the Sonics and the Ventures, picked up on it.


What's the story behind "Louie Louie"?



Richard Berry wrote it, but  he got the guitar riff from a Mexican mariachi band. In 1960, our singer  Rockin' Robin Roberts found the song in a 10-cent record bin. We liked it, but we rearranged Berry's calypso version into our own rock 'n' roll  style. When we released it, it went to number one in the Northwest. In  1963, the Kingsmen recorded our version of "Louie"  and it became a national hit, and they sold 12 million copies. Of course,  now, it's considered the anthem of rock 'n' roll. We didn't write it, but we did arrange it, and now there're more than 5,000 versions of it. That's kind of cool.

Weren't you bitter that the  Kingsmen made "Louie" a number-one hit and not the Wailers?


No, it wasn't like that. But we did start our own record label, Etiquette Records, so we could record whatever songs we wanted, and not be controlled by an East Coast corporation. After we played a gig with the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson came up to me and  said, "That's a pretty neat song. You write it? I said, foolishly,  "No, but it's going to be our next big hit." About one and a  half weeks later, they came out with it, and boom! It hit number one.

How important are the Wailers  to rock 'n' roll?


It's only been during the  last couple of years that we learned that people we admired were fans of the Wailers. The Beatles said they wanted to meet us when the came to Tacoma in the '60s, because they used to play our set list before they made it big. Van Morrison said that the first song he ever learned was "Tall Cool One." We never really made it big time, but it's  nice to know we influenced a lot of people.