Songs, which transcend time: Candle on The Water and Louie, Louie

Candle On the Water/Pete's Dragon 

I'll be your candle on the water
My love for you will always burn
I know you're lost and drifting,
But the clouds are lifting,
Don't give up, you have somewhere to turn.

I'll be your candle on the water
Till every wave is warm and bright
My soul is there beside you,
Let this candle guide you
Soon you'll see a golden stream of light.
A cold and friendless tide has found you
Don't let the stormy darkness pull you down
I'll paint a ray of hope around you
Circling in the air, lighted by a prayer.
I'll be your candle on the water
This flame inside of me will grow
Keep holding on, you'll make it
Here's my hand, so take it
Look for me reaching out to show
As sure as rivers flow,

I'll never let you go
I'll never let you goI'll never let you go

Written by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn

One of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard was in a movie called Pete's Dragon, made by Walt Disney in the 1970's. The song was "Candle On The Water". I bought the album and played it so much that I eventually wore it out. I would tape record this song and send it anonymously to friends of mine who were having a rough time of it. I always figured that it was better to find out that you had an anonymous friend, than to find out you had an anonymous enemy. I think some of the most beautiful expressions of love and hope are included in this songs lyrics.

An interesting footnote: when Pete's Dragon came out on video, I bought a copy of it. I remember it was very expensive: $69, a lot of money at the time. Can you imagine how stunned I was when I got home and found that Disney had cut the song when they released it on video. Sometimes people can be incredibly shallow..., even at Walt Disney. But then again, when The Wizard of Oz was released some executives at MGM felt that it ran too long, so the first thing they wanted to cut was "Somewhere Over The Rainbow". When Breakfast At Tiffany's was released, an audience test said that movie was too long too. So the studio executives wanted to cut Audrey Hepburn singing Moon River. That was stupid. Marnie Nixon sang for Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. And certainly Marnie Nixon has a beautiful voice. But in Breakfast At Tiffany's it the was fact that Holly couldn't sing that made the song beautiful. It was about love, ideas and feelings, not talent. We all have those, whether we can sing or not. Audrey Hepburn gave one of the most wonderful performances of all time. I wouldn't change anything. I'm glad that someone had the common sense to make the argument; and we are all the better for it.

When Disney's Pete's Dragon came out in 1977, it was nominated for an Oscar as Best Song. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences REFUSED to let Australian singer Helen Reddy sing the song on stage, even though she had sung the song so beautifully in the film. It was a huge scandal. A great many thought that was unfair. I am one of them. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGbsrrkZm0s

Louie, Louie by The Kingsmen 

Two friends from childhood, Jack Ely and Lynn Easton, would form a singing group in their late teens in Portland Oregon, The Kingsmen, achieving little to no success, until serendipity and a critical radio DJ thumbs down review would intervene and give them unbelievable fame and success. 

The original song written by Richard Berry achieved moderate success selling 40,000 copies. Listen to his version, much, much different than the later The Kingsmen version. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-2CKsaq5r8

Portland Oregon teen band The Kingsmen ran across a 1955 Richard Berry song, "Louie, Louie," which had never gotten much of an audience. They were broke, but scraped up enough money, $36.00, for one SHORT recording session. They didn't have enough money to re-record the song, after the lead singer Jack Ely made a mistake in the lyrics. When they released the song on August 8, 1963 it got hardly any play outside of Portland and only sold 600 copies.  

Then a miracle happened, Boston DJ Arnie “Woo Woo” Ginsburg heard the Kingsmen’s version by chance and hated it. He featured it on his show, "Worst Song of the Week". Little did he know, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Boston College, University of Massachusetts and Brandeis University kids LOVED IT. Local record stores were flooded with requests for the 45, they in turn flooded Portland Oregon record stores with orders for the sudden smash hit.

The deal the record company made with the boys meant they got hardly any money from their sudden smash hit. Wand Records sensing a hit, bought nationwide distribution rights and made a killing. 

 

The BBC Radio British Music Critic said the song showed explosive enthusiam, which overcame any difficiencies the boys had in playing their instruments. He ranked The Kingsmen's Louie, Louie 11th on the all time 1000 greatest records, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Louie, Louie 54th Greatest record and 4th most influential song of all time. After selling only 600 copies before Ginsburg, The Kingsmen sold 12,000,000 copies in 1964 alone.  

On 9 November 1998, after a protracted lawsuit that lasted five years and cost $1.3 million, the Kingsmen were awarded ownership of all their recordings released on Wand Records, including "Louie Louie". They had not been paid royalties on the songs since the 1960s. It is estimated the Kingsmen's version of Louie, Louie has been played 100,000,000's of times on the Radio and TV. Even today, the song sells 100,000's of copies through Apple iTunes and streaming services.   

Since the group appeared slightly inebriated during their recording session, with lyrics slurred and stammered, it was investigated by the FBI, after Evangelical Preachers from the Bible Belt claimed it contained obscene lyrics. Actually, the group had an all night gig the night before their recording session and were exhausted. Jack Ely, decided to play up the fact the song was supposed to be a man explaining to a bartender buddy named Louie how much he missed his girlfriend back in Jamaica, after he had a few too many drinks  

Jack Ely also said the recording session was weird because a new sound engineer had raised the microphone to 12 ft off the ground to capture all the band members and their instruments, so he had to stand on his toes to sing the song loud enough to be heard. True SERENDIPITY! 

In case you can't figure it out, Louie is a bartender and the singer is a sailor telling him how much his misses his girl. The 60 year debate about what Louie, Louie means is captured best by the movie "Coupe de Ville" (1990). 

Three brothers are driving their dad's Coupe de Ville from Michigan to Florida.

When Louie, Louie comes on the radio, they discuss what the lyrics mean:

Brother #1,played by Arye Gross, opines "Got you way down low...it is a hump song"

Brother #2, played by Patrick Dempsey, opines "It is a dance, do the Louie, Louie"

and finally, correctly,

Brother #3, played by Daniel Stern, opines "it is a sea shanty...it is about a guy going to sea and leaving his girl, which he laments, slightly inebriated, to a bartender buddy of his". 

Tacoma Washington's Rockin Robin Roberts, real name:  Lawrence Fewell "Rockin' Robin" Roberts II (1940-1967), a moderately successful singer of the late 1950's and early 1960's, recorded Louie, Louie in 1961 to modest success. But it is his tempo and style that would be imitated by Jack Ely and The Kingsmen. The only difference, Rockin Robin Roberts sang clearly ennuciating the lyrics.  Rockin Robin started as a solo act, this photo of from 1958, later joining The Wailers. Rockin Robin Roberts was killed in a traffic accident on December 22, 1967 in California. The only thing missing was Jack Ely's slightly inebriated singing style which would go on to produce a monster hit. Rockin Robin Roberts deserves as much credit as Richard Berry for The Kingsmen's success.

Rockin Robin Robert's version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihpGNoCreyg

The eclectic history of the song, Richard Berry wrote the song in 1955, recorded it in 1957, to a very slow straight tempo, sold 40,000 copies. He would sell the song rights for $750 to pay for his wedding. Young singer Rockin Robin Roberts was rummaging through a discount bin at his local record store and stumbled across Richard Berry's song and decided to incorporate into his repetoire. One night while at a club, the boys who made up The Kingsmen noticed that kids repeatedly replayed Rockin Roberts version of Louie, Louie in the jukebox. They decided to add it to their song portfolio and the rest is history. 

Other groups, including the original version by Richard Berry (1957), The Beach Boys (1964) and Paul Revere and the Raiders (1965) all sang the song straight, while the Kingsmen captured the lament of a slightly inebriated man comiserating with his buddy, a bartender. It was that version which Arne "Woo Woo" Ginsburg hated and kids loved.

Whenever the Kingsmen performed the song on local Portland TV or in concert, Jack Ely made sure to make the same mistake and sing in the same inebriated style, which kids seemed to love. After the song became a hit, his buddy since childhood, drummer and co-founder of the group, the man who had appropriated the name, "The Kingsmen," from a recently disbanded/defunct group from Portland. Out of jealousy, Lynn Easton, forced Ely to become drummer, then taking over the job as lead singer himself. Jack was a rank amateur drummer and Easton a barely passable singer. Eventually, Easton forced Ely out of the group, because he was jealous of all the attention Jack got from "Louie, Louie." After that The Kingsmen faded into obscurity. 

Jack Ely the iconclastic singer of of Louie, Louie was born September 11, 1943 in Portland, Oregon and died April 28, 2015. This page is dedicated to his memory.

Here are the original lyrics as written, Jack Ely swore that is what he sang, however exhausted or inebriated he was at the recording session and mimic forever afterwards. One interesting footnote, barely noticeable in the recording, totally missed by the FBI and parents, there is one cuss word, when Lynn Easton the drummer accidentally hits his drumsticks together, a barely audible "F***" is recorded. 

                               

Louie Louie, oh no, you take me where ya gotta go

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, baby

Louie Louie, oh baby, take me where ya gotta go

                                             

A fine little girl, she waits for me

Me catch the ship across the sea

Me sailed that ship all alone

Me never think I'll make it home

Louie Louie, oh no no no, we gotta go

Oh no

Said Louie Louie, oh baby, me gotta go

Three nights and days I sailed the sea

Me think of girl constantly

On that ship, I dream she there

I smell the rose in her hair

Louie Louie, oh no, me gotta go

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, baby

Louie Louie, oh baby, said we gotta go

Okay, let's give it to 'em right now

 

Me see (THE MISTAKE, JACK ENTERED TOO EARLY)

Me see Jamaica, the moon above

It won't be long me see me love

Me take her in my arms and then

I tell her I'll never leave again

Louie Louie, oh no, we gotta go

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, baby

Louie Louie, oh baby, said we gotta go

I said we gotta go now

Let's hustle on out of here

Let's go

The Kingsmen/Jack Ely version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfRZNNyQoF0

There can be no doubt that it was Jack Ely's slurred lyrics are what made "Louie, Louie" unique and helped it become a timeless classic. Jack died in 2015 at the age of 71. 

Lynn Easton and Jack Ely started performing at an early age in local newspaper-sponsored revues with the Journal Juniors and the Young Oregonians, respectively. In 1957, they started performing together, with Ely singing and playing guitar and Easton on the drum kit. The two teenagers had grown up together, as their parents were close friends Easton and Ely performed at local parties and events, and eventually adding Mike Mitchell on guitar and Bob Nordby on bass to round out the band. They called themselves the Kingsmen, taking the name from a recently disbanded group.The Kingsmen began their collective career playing at fashion shows, Red Cross events, and supermarket promotions, generally avoiding rock songs on their setlist. In 1962, Don Gallucci, a high school freshman at the time, was recruited from another local group, the Royal Notes, to play keyboards. Wikipedia