Richard Berry "LOUIE LOUIE" 1989 in Mt. View, CA

The time was November 17, 1989. The place was JJ's Blues Cafe in Mountain View, California. Singer-songwriter Richard Berry was in town for a special performance. Richard's son Marcel Berry played bass, and sax player Michael Rivinius brought his band The Simplistics to back up this musical legend.

This footage was shot by Eric Predoehl for the upcoming documentary THE MEANING OF LOUIE under less-than-ideal situations. The lighting was terrible, and the camera wasn't very forgiving.

Nonetheless, we've got a very rare performance of LOUIE LOUIE by the man who actually wrote this song. What makes this particular clip so special is the audience interaction. Richard walked around the club with a microphone, inviting audience members to sing LOUIE LOUIE with him. One gentlemen did some really great yodeling.

If you are the "mystery yodeler" or know who this person is, please send me a private message to LOUIE at LouieLouie.net.

This footage is copyright LouieLouie.net / Octalouie LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

For more information, log onto:
http://www.louielouie.net

Category:

Music

Tags:

• louie-louie
• Richard
• Berry
• Kingsmen
• garage
• rock

[triso666]

Great stuff! Have they ever found out who the "mystery yodeler" was?

[eplouie]

The Mystery Yodeler is still mysterious....

[pleasedontask]

cool this is in mt. view?

[eplouie]

This was in Mountain View at a club that no longer exists- near El Camino Real and Highway 85, next to what is now the Comic Collector Shop.

[motordude67]

awesome! this is great!

[coldshot55551]

5 Stars all the way BAYBEE me gotta go!

[lidiabrust]

;) I Hope my love¡¡¡ *** Toda...

[strandwolf]

@naughtmoses Thank you for responding.

[strandwolf]

@eplouie Thanks; I assume that Limax was connected to Berry. At any rate I didn't intend to spread false rumors, so stand corrected. I didn't dream up that tale...someone mentioned it at a record swap or I read it in a music mag perhaps...been carrying that junk around since the 1970s.

[naughtmoses]

@strandwolf I expect eplouie's data is correct, though Johnny may have bought into some =performance= (rather than =publishing=) right. The latter was a fairly new idea in the early '60s. Johnny's rep was "square deal" with almost everyone I ever talked to, at least well into the '70s, and his radio presence in 'Frisco suggested likewise. The Sonics made some dough for whoever had the publishing rights to "Have Love..," that's for sure.

[eplouie]

@strandwolf Johnny did NOT purchase the LOUIE LOUIE publishing rights.  From 1957-early 90's, it was owned by Limax Music.

[strandwolf]

@naughtmoses A story I heard years ago is that Johnny Otis got wind of the Northwest teen rock groups such as The Kingsmen and The Sonics were performing the tune to enthusiastic dancers and bought the song from Berry for $3000, thus garnering all future royalties. Perhaps he only bought the publishing, or maybe the whole yarn is without any merit. I'm sure the Louie scholars can step forward and clear up this issue.

[Bigmoma2010]

The original & best.

Great to finally see the original artist perform this legendary song

Think of the contribution this song has made to live music since 1957

[peacehaerted]

he died on my birthday and at the same time too

[thedarkportal1]

lol wow i played this n 8th grade and now in 9thgrade band =O i love this song =] i almost memorized it.

[weldhawk1]

Thanks for posting this great footage!