Most Wanted: Louie Louie

This week's odyssey into our rock music herritage begins way back in 1955 when a song writer named Richard Berry wrote a tune called Louie Louie, a Jamaican track about a sailor returning home to his lady love. Then let's fast forward 8 years to 1963 when a band out of Portland, Oregon made the song their own and, in my not always so humble opinion, gave birth to garage rock, opening the door wide for bands like the Bobby Fuller Four, the Swinging Medallions, the McCoys and, of course, Paul Revere & the Raiders.

The Kingsmen took their Louie Louie version to No. 2 on the singles charts, where it would remain for 6 weeks. Proving that music lovers sometimes can't get enough of a good thing, Louie Louie would revisit top 40 radio yet again for another, even if less successful chart run.

Perhaps the most intriguing story surrounding this song is that it was actually considered to merit a full scale FBI investigation, due to claims that it contained obscene lyrics. Really? The FBI? Yup, it must have been a slow crime year because the Feds actually placed Louie Louie under some audio version of a microscope and gave it the most suspicious of listens.

I wonder if they played the 45 record to play on 33 rpm to try and hear the dirt the way the record buying public did. Well at least my friends and I did. So were they really and truly on a nasty words witch hunt or were they just trying to figure out all of the guitar chords.

The investigation, which was proven pointless, did a world of good when it came to record sales. So at least something worthwhile came of it.

One of the coolest things about the Louie Louie 45 is that it actually contained a flip side that was worth a listen. That was at least somewhat extraordinary, because back in the days of those little records with the big holes, side 2 was generally a throw away track. But in the case of this 45, the flip side received a lot of plays on my old mono record player.

So listen to "Haunted Castle", perhaps the lesser known of the two, but well worth checking out.