INTERNATIONAL LOUIE LOUIE DAY
April 11 is celebrated as International Louie Louie Day and is promoted by the Louie Louie website
Louie Louie was written by R&B singer Richard Berry in 1955. His band, “The Pharaohs,” recorded and released it in 1957. It got some airplay on the band’s home turf around San Francisco and became popular in the pacific northwest. It was covered by other garage bands and became a somewhat popular party tune in the western states.
The Kingsmen’s recording was the subject of an FBI investigation about the supposed, but nonexistent, obscenity of the lyrics The investigation ended without prosecution. In Berry’s original recording the lyrics are quite clear; It’s a song about a sailor who spends three days traveling to Jamaica to see his girl. The story is told to a bartender named Louie. Nothing even remotely obscene in that original version.
Google Lyrics:
Louie Louie, oh no, you take me where ya gotta go, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, baby
Louie Louie, oh baby, take me where ya gotta go
A fine little girl, she waits for me
Me catch the ship across the sea
Me sailed the ship all alone
Me never think I’ll make it home
Louie Louie, oh no no no, me gotta go, oh no
Louie Louie, oh baby, me gotta go
Three nights and days I sailed the sea
Me think of girl constantly
On the ship, I dream she there
I smell the rose in her hair
Louie Louie, oh no, me gotta go, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, baby
Louie Louie, oh baby, me gotta go
Okay, let’s give it to ’em right now
Me see
Me see Jamaica, the moon above
It won’t be long me see me love
Me take her in my arms and then
I tell her I’ll never leave again
Louie Louie, oh no, me gotta go, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, baby
Louie Louie, oh baby, me gotta go
I said me gotta go now
Let’s hustle on out of here
Let’s go
HOW TO OBSERVE
is the official Louie Louie website https://www.louielouie.net/01-welcome.htm
Follow on social media. #louielouie
HISTORY
In 2003, Louie Louie fans discussed Richard Berry’s birthday and decided April 11 should be Louie Louie Day each year. In 2007, the Louie Louie Advocacy and Music Appreciation Society began promoting the day as well.
A list of “Louie Louie”-related dates in April:
April 6, 1963 – The Kingsmen recorded the version that made “Louie Louie” famous.
April 13, 1963 – Paul Revere and the Raiders recorded their competing version in the same studio.
April 1, 1985 – First annual WMMR Louie Louie Parade in Philadelphia (canceled in 1989 due to excessive rowdiness).
April 12, 1985 – “Louie Louie Day” proclaimed by the state of Washington.
April 14, 1985 – “Louie Louie Day” proclaimed by the mayor of Seattle.
April 2, 1986 – “Louie Louie Day” proclaimed by the state of Oregon.
And if this story creates an earworm of the song Louie Louie, repeated endlessly in your mind, know this:
Ohrwurm, the German word for earwig and is literally translated as ‘earworm,’ an actual type of small nocturnal insect.
