Hot Chocolate was an interracial (four black members, two white) group from London who had a hit in 1975 with "You Sexy Thing." Written by their lead singer Errol Brown and bass player Tony Wilson, "Brother Louie" is about a romance between a white man and a black woman.
Errol Brown was born in Jamaica and raised by a single mother, who moved him to England when he was young. He told Melody Maker that this song was inspired by real-life experience. "That comes from early dating in a place where there's a majority of white people," he said. "That was fine for us because we grew up and rubbed shoulders with other nationalities so it wasn't a heavy thing. But in those days a lot of white parents never had anything to do with black people. It was understandable – they just didn't know what was going on, apart from what they read in books or saw on TV: jungle scenes."
The spoken interludes in this song were performed by the British blues musician Alexis Korner. It was pretty controversial stuff, as Korner said, "I don't want no honky in my family" and "I don't want no spook in my family."
See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.
Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.