Here’s a catchy little song by Hadda Brooks that feeds in the LOUIE consciousness as a Pre-LOUIE composition that may or may not have contributed to the inspiration of LOUIE LOUIE. “Bully Wully Boogie” was a 1946 recording that was originally released on the Modern Records label. It starts off as a standard piano boogie-woogie type song, and somewhere after the 30 second mark, we hear Hadda sing the phrase “Bully Wully,” which flows a bit off the tongue like LOUIE LOUIE, and of course “Wooly Bully” by Sam the Sham.
I’ve been informed that this song may have been recorded 70 years ago today in 1946, but I don’t have a definitive confirmation on that.
Both Hadda Brooks and Richard Berry were signed to Modern Records, but not at the same time. Hadda left Modern in 1950 to pursue bigger dreams in the entertainment industry, and became second African-American woman to host her own television show with “The Hadda Brooks Show” in 1957… the year LOUIE LOUIE was released.
She was considered the “Queen of the Boogie” and had quite a interesting career, appearing in various movies, tourng around the world including a performance for the Queen of England and a private audience with Pope Pius XII.
In 1995, at the age of 79, 50 years after making her first recording with Modern, she returned full-circle by signing with Virgin, the record label that had acquired the Modern masters. In 1996 she released a CD of new recordings, followed by a double-CD retrospective of her work in 1998.
She passed away at the age of 86 years in 2002.
Here’s another clip of Hadda Brooks that I really enjoyed – she performs “I Hadn’t Anyone ‘Til You” for a somewhat distracted Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame in the 1950 feature film “In A Lonely Place,” directed by Nicholas Ray.
Reference Links:
Wikipedia on Hadda Brooks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadda_Brooks
45 Worlds.com on Hadda Brooks Trio’s Bully Wully Boogie
http://www.45worlds.com/78rpm/record/nc465839us
VocalGroupHarmony.com on Hadda Brooks
http://www.vocalgroupharmony.com/4ROWNEW/BewilderedHadda.htm