Richard Berry & the Pharaohs

Richard Berry & the Pharaohs

Genres: rockabilly, Garage Rock, rhythm and blues, singer-songwriter, doo wop

Similar artists via Last.fm

The Tune Rockers Alfred E. Neuman Bill Allen & The Backbeats Mel Smith & The Night Riders Kai Ray

About Richard Berry & the Pharaohs

Richard Berry & The Pharaohs was a short-lived American band led by Richard Berry (1935-1997) that Berry formed at the end of 1954 after he left the Flairs to form his own group. In 1955, Berry was inspired to write a new calypso-style song, "Louie Louie". He took inspiration from a version of René Touzet's "El Loco Cha Cha" that Berry heard being played by a local Californian band called Ricky Rillera and the Rhythm Rockers, and he was also influenced by Chuck Berry's "Havana Moon". Richard Berry & the Pharaohs recorded and released the song on Flip Records in 1957, originally as a B-side. It became a minor regional hit in the US, and, when the group toured the US Pacific Northwest, several local R&B bands began to adopt the song and established its popularity. "Louie Louie" finally became a major hit when The Kingsmen's raucous version – with little trace of its calypso-like origins other than in its lyrics - became a US national, and then international, hit in 1963. The nearly unintelligible (and innocuous) lyrics were widely misinterpreted as obscene, and the song was banned by radio stations and even investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The song has been recorded over 1,000 times, but, because Berry sold its copyright cheaply in 1959, he received little financial reward for its success for many years. While the title of the song is often rendered with a comma ("Louie, Louie"), in 1988 Berry told Esquire magazine that the correct title of the song was "Louie Louie", with no comma. The song has been ranked as the second most-recorded song of all time, and was ranked at #55 on Rolling Stone magazine's "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Berry continued to record in the late 1950s, but with little commercial success, and also continued as a performer. During the 1980s, "Louie Louie" received a number of unprecedented accolades, with hundreds of cover versions being issued on CD compilations and played on radio marathons. In 1986, and again in 1993, Berry finally received substantial financial benefits for writing the song. In February 1996, he performed for the final time, reuniting with his bands, The Pharaohs, and The Dreamers, for a benefit concert in Long Beach, CA.

Taken from Last.fm

7,306 listeners  ·  32,519 plays via Last.fm