The well-loved and respected soul singer Ben E. King died yesterday; he was 76. King began his career in the mid ’50s with vocal group the Five Crowns. In 1958, they were hired to replace the Drifters, all of whose members had been fired by their manager, George Treadwell. While in the (New) Drifters, King sang lead on the group’s solid run of classic rock-and-roll sides: “Save the Last Dance For Me,” “This Magic Moment,” and “There Goes My Baby.” Then, in 1960, King quit the Drifters when Treadwell denied him a raise/cut of the royalties and went solo. By the end of the year, as he was paired with writers Leiber & Stoller and produced by Phil Spector, he’d made the Top 10 with his side “Spanish Harlem.” His next hit earned him his forever spot in music history—y’all might recognize his classic “Stand by Me.” Following his success with “Stand by Me” King remained popular, and his records stayed in the charts. It was only after pop-music tastes changed in the mid ’60s that he was kinda tilled under. Still, he continued recording through the end of the ’70s. In fact, his tracks continued to bubble into the Top 40/100. By the mid ’80s, tho’, the hits evaporated; however King continued performing and occasionally recording, but eventually shifted focus to his Ben E. King Stand by Me Foundation charity.
Of his many, many sides, I think my two faves are “I Can’t Break the News to Myself” and “What Is Soul.” When I asked Stranger™ staffers which King songs were their faves, they all somewhat obviously picked his 1975 groover “Supernatural.”
Also passing this week was Jack Ely, a founding member and drummer for the ’60s Portland, Oregon, garage group the Kingsmen. It was Ely’s choice AND his voice singing lead on their one take version of “Louie Louie.” After the track hit, “Louie Louie” set off something of a national revolution, at least among teens, as well as confounding the FBI for a couple years. Because of Ely, “Louie Louie” is one of the most well-known rock songs ever.
I wrote about the deep impact of the Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie” a while back in my yearlong running “Rad Garage Band/GFY” feature.
It seems kinda dumb now, or maybe it’s just been forgotten, but I can’t quite express the huge cultural impact the Kingsmen’s version of “Louie Louie” had when it hit. In mid-1963 there was no Beatles presence in America and the Beach Boys were just beginning to get steady on their surf boards. Aside from some local garage bands, nothing had blown up like this.
Today, “Louie Louie” is rote, everyone has heard it, but in 1963 this goof version made number two on Billboard; this, again, was all before the Beatles. The Kingsmen’s version was actually nicked off’a Rockin’ Robin/the Wailers 1961 arrangement, who had taken the song from Richard Berry, and arranged it in their style. Berry’s version of “Louie Louie” is based on an arrangement of René Touzet’s “El Loco Cha Cha”, which in turn can be traced back to Cuban bandleader Rosendo Ruiz Jr.‘s “Amarren Al Loco”!
In August 1963, since he had aspirations for fronting the band, Ely was fired from his band—and the single became a hit soon after. He then formed Jack Ely and the Courtmen in an attempt to capture some momentum from “Louie Louie.” Tho’ the Courtmen did record a couple 45s, they didn’t take off, and then Ely was drafted. After returning from the service, he all but quit performing. Ely died on April 28 at home in Oregon from an unknown illness. He was 71.