| "Louie Louie" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Richard Berry | ||||
| A-side | You Are My Sunshine[1] | |||
| Written | 1955 | |||
| Released | April 1957 | |||
| Recorded | April 1956 | |||
| Studio | Hollywood Recorders | |||
| Genre | Rhythm and blues | |||
| Length | 2:09 | |||
| Label | Flip 321 | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Richard Berry | |||
| Richard Berry singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Louie Louie" is a rhythm and blues song written and composed by American musician Richard Berry in 1955, recorded in 1956, and released in 1957. It is best known for the 1963 hit version by the Kingsmen and has become a standard in pop and rock. The song is based on the tune "El Loco Cha Cha" popularized by bandleader René Touzet and is an example of Afro-Cuban influence on American popular music.
"Louie Louie" tells, in simple verse–chorus form, the first-person story of a "lovesick sailor's lament to a bartender about wanting to get back home to his girl".[2]
- ^ Flip 321 was re-released in 1961 with "Louie Louie" as the A-side and "Rock, Rock, Rock" as the B-side. The reissue was covered in the April 10, 1961 issue of Billboard magazine (p. 38) and reviewed in the April 15, 1961 issue of Cash Box magazine (p. 10).
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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