Fifty-four seconds in, Lynn Easton botches a fill, drops his sticks and shouts “fuck!” The profanity made it onto the record. Thanks to a shoestring budget, however, it sounds like little more than a shriek or grunt, and thus not at all out of place on a garage rock single of the era.
There was, apparently, little thought given to a second take. “Louie Louie” was intended to be a warm up for the recording session — a cover of a cover they’d heard on a jukebox at a local all-ages club.
The full session cost $50 to record. The fee was split between the band members, none of whom were particularly happy with how the it turned out. The song was still new to the band. And in spite of having played a 90-minute version of the track the night prior to recording, the two minute, 42-second track is riddled with mistakes.
Front man Jack Ely incorrectly transcribed the beat for what was supposed to be a faithful cover. His vocals came in too early on a verse, causing him to stop short. And throughout the session, he didn’t so much sing as shout at the microphone, which was dangling from the ceiling above his head.
It was a giant hit.
The Kingsmen cover spent two weeks at the top of the now-defunct Cashbox chart in early 1964, the last song to hit number one before The Beatles broke through in America with “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
The following month, an enraged parent wrote to then-U.S. Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy. “Who do you turn to when your teen age daughter buys and brings home pornographic or obscene materials being sold along with objects being directed and aimed at the 'teen age market' in every City, Village, and Record Shop in this Nation?”
The letter, which concluded “How can we stamp out this menace???,” helped launch investigations by the FCC, Department of Justice and the Post Office, finally landing at the FBI. The bureau later noted, “All three governmental agencies dropped their investigations because they were unable to determine what the lyrics of the songs were, even after listening to the records at speeds ranging from 16 RPM to 78 RPM.”
At the heart of the investigation is an attempt to decipher Ely’s vocals, which, in addition to being muffled from poor production and bad mic placement, were slurred by the 19-year-old singer’s braces. He had also forgotten many of the original lyrics during the recording.
These factors, combined with overactive teenage minds, launched a million interpretations, many of which were handwritten or typed and circulated in junior highs and high schools around the country. The subject matter is generally more befitting a GG Allin track, laden in four-letter words and references to sex during menstruation. One of the less offensive verses contained in a DIY lyrics sheet confiscated by a Sarasota-area principal is as follows,
Hey yes bitch. Hey lovemaker now bald my
bone, it won't take long so leave it alone
Hey Senorita I'm hot as hell I told her I'd
never lay here again.
Prior to The Kingsmen’s fluke success, “Louie Louie” seemed destined for relative obscurity. Songwriter Richard Berry based the iconic riff around "El Loco Cha Cha,” a Latin R&B track that found some success by way of an arrangement by Cuban band leader, René Touzet. Berry’s lyrics were heavily-influenced by the language of calypso, with lines like,
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
Recorded in 1957, Berry’s version never grew beyond a regional hit on the West Coast. The singer ultimately sold his publishing and songwriting rights to his record label for $750. A cover, recorded by Tacoma’s The Fabulous Wailers also achieved modest regional success, ultimately inspiring The Kingsmen to attempt a faithful cover, albeit with the sax riff swapped out for guitar.
During the 31-month investigation of the song, neither Berry nor Ely were interviewed by the FBI. Instead, the bureau obtained a copy of the lyrics from a Tampa-era radio station, which, in turn, had received them from the publishing company that owned “Louie Louie.”
Speaking to the FBI, the National Association of Radio Broadcasters rightly noted, "The phonetic qualities of this recording are such that a listener possessing the 'phony' lyrics could imagine them to be genuine.”
The broadcasting trade association added, “The Code staff has listened to the record on all standard RPMs and has found nothing objectionable in it. In the Code staff's opinion, the lines, delivered in rock and roll and calypso style, would be unintelligible to the average listener.”
The FBI Laboratory concurred, detailing the fact in a moderately-redacted 119-page report that ultimately labelled the song, “unintelligible at any speed.”
Sources:
FBI Vault https://vault.fbi.gov/louie-louie-the-song/louie-louie-the-song/view
“Is This the Dirties Song of the 60s?” https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/jack-ely-louie-louie-the-dirtiest-song-of-the-sixties
“The FBI Laboratory weighs in on the “dirty” lyrics of “Louie Louie”” https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-fbi-laboratory-weighs-in-on-the-dirty-lyrics-of-louie-louie
Louie Louie: The History and Mythology of the World's Most Famous Rock 'n' Roll Song by Dave Marsh