The Original Version of "Louie Louie"

[MilesColtrane]

Richard Berry's version absolutely destroys the Kingsmen's version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxedxkx88t0

[progressoid]

1. Hey, you can almost understand the words!

[Amerigo Vespucci]

2. Hey, look what I found...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adez4kZrPMw

Richard Berry & Shockwaves "LOUIE LOUIE" 1988 San Francisco

On May 2, 1988, songwriter Richard Berry participated in a special LOUIE LOUIE Parade in San Francisco, California. While there had been other LOUIE LOUIE parades in America, this was the first one that featured the man who wrote the song. This event was assembled as a fun(d)raiser for the Leukemia Society of America. Hundreds of people walked the streets of San Francisco, performing LOUIE LOUIE with guitars, trombones, trumpets, tubas, drums, boom boxes, and a whole lot of kazoos.

For the big finale, Richard Berry performed at the Justin Herman Plaza, backed by a local surf band known as the Shockwaves. This is a rather unique rendition of LOUIE LOUIE, as the tempo is very different from the arrangement on the original 1957 recording of Richard Berry & the Pharaohs. It doesn't sound like any other Richard Berry recordings, and it certainly doesn't sound like the version made popular by the Kingsmen in 1963.

Those that know the history of Richard Berry know that he had physical disabilities due to some childhood injuries. He took up music partially because of his disabilities. In this video, you can see him DANCING, and that's a wonderful thing!

The Shockwaves were a popular surf band in the SF Bay Area, led by drummer Jeff "Stretch" Riedle, who was also directly responsible for the legendary KFJC radio "Maximum LOUIE LOUIE" marathon of 1983, which played over 800 unique versions of the song, lasting for 63 hours nonstop. Exactly why the Guinness World Records organization continues to deny this existence of this historic event is truly a mystery, but perhaps someday this event will be properly acknowledged...

Besides Stretch, other members of the Shockwaves included Randy Hyden on bass, as well as Frank Novicki and Roger Rush on guitars.

The master of ceremonies for this particular event was KFOG radio disc jockey M. Dung, who used to have a Sunday night program called the Idiot Show. Mr. Dung retired from the broadcast industry, but he now has a website - http://www.Idiotshow.net where he shares his new podcasts.

This LOUIE LOUIE parade was quite a success, which led to a second one in San Francisco the next year on April Fool's Day. There are still a wide variety of LOUIE LOUIE events that continue to take place, including International LOUIE LOUIE Day, which is celebrated all over the world on April 11.

This video was produced by Eric Predoehl and Jesse Block for the upcoming documentary THE MEANING OF LOUIE, which has an official website at http://www.louielouie.net.

If you participated in this or any other LOUIE LOUIE events, please feel free to leave comments! We'd love to hear from you!

me gotta go now,
E.P.