The Louie Report

On Sunday night in California, Monday afternoon in Australia, a very special interview took place for the LOUIE documentary project. For years, I’ve been in touch with Ross Wilson. I knew about his history with him being one of, if not THE first musician in Australia to record Richard Berry‘s now-iconic melody. Ross was 16 [...]

This week, I’d like to introduce the world to someone that was closely involved with the 1983 Rhino record known as THE BEST OF LOUIE LOUIE, a release that was one of the catalysts, along with the KFJC radio marathon, that directly inspired behind this LOUIE LOUIE documentary project. It was the synergy of a [...]

Back in 1963, LOUIE LOUIE by the Kingsmen was very close to becoming a #1 Billboard hit. There was one song that stopped LOUIE LOUIE from reaching that special destination. “Dominique” by the Singing Nun was the big roadblock that stood in the way of LOUIE LOUIE. As it turns out, there’s now a new [...]

This week’s LOUIE isn’t Richard Berry‘s classic melody, but the song “Brother Louie,” which is often mistaken for LOUIE LOUIE. Originally written by Errol Brown and Tony Wilson of the group Hot Chocolate, this song was a top 10 UK chart hit for the band in 1973, but it didn’t become a hit in States [...]

Mitch Miller, the man who popularized sing-along performances before the invention of karaoke, has passed away at the age of 99 years old. He was was an American musician, singer, conductor, record producer, A&R man and record company executive. He was considered one of the most influential figures in American popular music during the 1950s [...]

This has absolutely NOTHING to do with Richard Berry‘s famous song, but a guy named LOUIE recently made news this week. A 71-year-old LOUIE Sulcer of Woodstock, Ga., bought “Guess Things Happen That Way” by Johnny Cash at the Apple iTunes store, which turned out to be the 10 Billionth iTunes sale. To celebrate this [...]

We just lost another musician. Willie Mitchell died on Tuesday, January 5, 2010. The All Music Guide provides a nice overview of his career, of which I’ll share the first paragraph: Best known as the man who signed Al Green to Hi Records and as the producer of Green’s most popular records, Willie Mitchell had [...]

As 2009 can now be considered history, I’d like to pause and reflect on those that we lost last year… First, there’s the artists that were a direct influence on this ongoing LOUIE documentary project… Drake Levin It was somewhat ironic that the guitar player for “America’s answer to the Beatles” died on July 4th [...]

Our friend John “Kando” Kandarian got some attention in the “back-from-hibernation” Lance Monthly. He’s featured in the latest issue- December 2009, so if you want to read it or download it, do it now if you want to read it for free. John’s a roadie veteran that I met via his work with the Kingsmen. [...]

This week’s LOUIE of the Week has a lot of different things going for it. FIrst, it’s a rare, semi-unreleased version of the song, which as far as I know was only heard ONCE during the KFJC Maximum LOUIE LOUIE marathon of 1983. Second, this version is by The Suburban Kids, the first band that [...]