A rock & roll band from Portland, OR,
the Kingsmen's one big hit, "Louie, Louie," defined the garage band style and became one of the all-time classics. The original lineup included
Jack Ely (lead singer and guitar),
Lynn Easton (drums),
Mike Mitchell (lead guitar),
Bob Nordby (bass), and
Don Galucci (piano). After
Ely had "incorrectly" taught the rest of the band
the Wailers version of
Richard Berry's "Louie Louie" (thus altering the basic rhythm into the now famous duh-duh-duh, duh-duh, duh-duh-duh, duh-duh riff that has become the only way anyone has played it since), they recorded it for fifty dollars at a primitive local recording studio with only three mikes,
Ely hollering the lyrics into an overhead boom mike suspended ten feet in the air. Released on a local label, the record went nowhere after
Paul Revere & the Raiders quickly covered it in the Northwest market, although it had quickly become a standard for all teen bands in that area. In 1964, the record started to break nationally, causing the breakup of the original lineup when
Easton copyrighted the group's name, informing the other members that he was now sole owner of
the Kingsmen and its new lead singer.
Ely formed his own
Kingsmen, touring at the same time as
Easton, who was lip-synching the record whenever possible. Only
Easton and
Mitchell were left from the original lineup, but they kept scoring big with frat-band versions of "Money" and "Little Latin Lupe Lu," reaching their peak with "The Jolly Green Giant," while
Ely languished in relative obscurity and
Gallucci formed
Don & the Goodtimes. By the early '90s, history had redressed itself somewhat. While replacement members from the
Easton version of the band toured as the "original"
Kingsmen,
Jack Ely finally received some of his due, headlining the 30th Anniversary Louie Louie tour. Though the song itself has been covered repeatedly, the version by
Ely and the original lineup remains definitive.
–
Cub Koda, Rovi