Louie Louie

"Louie Louie" was written by an R&B singer named Richard Berry in 1955. With his group The Pharaohs, he was also the first to record the song; it got some airplay in some cities in the Western US when it was released in 1957. Various garage bands heard it and started covering the song until it became a phenomenon with the Kingsmen's 1963 version. While much of the song's notoriety comes from the indecipherable lyrics, in Berry's original version the words are quite clear. The song is about a sailor who spends three days traveling to Jamaica to see his girl.

Dwight Rounds, author of The Year The Music Died, 1964-1972, writes: The words to "Louie Louie" are almost impossible to understand, and are rumored to be obscene. No question that this added significantly to the sales of the single. There was probably a leak somewhere that the lyrics were obscene; otherwise no one would have realized it. This was the most ingenious marketing scheme ever. The FBI tried to track down Richard Berry, The Kingsmen, and various record company executives. They were never able to determine the actual lyrics used. The Kingsmen insisted they said nothing lewd, despite the obvious mistake at the end of the instrumental, where Jack Ely started to sing the last verse one bar too soon, and can be heard yelling something in the background. Ely also said that he sang far away from the microphone, which caused the fuzzy sound, and that the notoriety was initiated by the record company. The words sound much more like the official version seen below, especially the word "rose" instead of "bone." The lyrics rumor was a sham. The official lyrics are listed below in plain print, with one of the many alternative versions in italics. Chorus: "Louie, Louie, oh no. Me gotta go. Aye-yi-yi, I said. Louie Louie, oh baby. Me gotta go." "Fine little girl waits for me. Catch a ship across the sea. Sail that ship about, all alone. Never know if I make it home." "Three nights and days, I sail the sea." Every night and day, I play with my thing. "Think of girl, constantly." I f--k you girl, oh, all the way. "Oh that ship, I dream she's there. On my bed, I'll lay her there. "I smell the rose in her hair." I feel my bone, ah, in her hair. "See Jamaica, the moon above." Hey lovemaker, now hold my thing. "It won't be long, me see my love." It won't take long, so leave it alone. "Take her in my arms again." Hey, senorita, I'm hot as hell. "Tell her I'll never leave again." I told her I'd never lay her again.

The FBI launched an extensive investigation into this song after Indiana governor Matthew Welsh declared it "pornographic" in early 1964 and asked the Indiana Broadcasters Association to ban it. The investigation spanned offices in several states, with technicians listening to the song at different speeds trying to discern any obscene lyrics. None were found; the FBI eventually figured out what happened when they contacted the FCC. The report details this correspondence: "She explained that for approximately two years her company has been receiving unfounded complaints concerning the recording of 'Louie Louie.' She advised that to the best of her knowledge, the trouble was started by an unidentified college student, who made up a series of obscene verses for 'Louie Louie' and then sold them to fellow students. It is her opinion that a person can take any 45 RPM recording and reduce its speed to 33 RPM and imagine obscene words, depending upon the imagination of the listener."