Richard Berry

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Richard Berry, Jr. (April 11, 1935 – January 23, 1997) was an African-American singer, songwriter, and guitarist who performed with many Los Angeles doo-wop and close harmony bands, including The Flairs and The Robins. He is best known as the original performer and composer of the rock standard "Louie Louie."

The song became a hit for The Kingsmen and it is one of the world's best-selling songs; however, Berry received no compensation for writing it until the 1980s; after giving up his rights to the song in 1959, it is not released.

"Have Love, Will Travel" was written and published by him in the same year as many other musicians' "Have Love, Will Travel."

Early life

Berry was born in Extension, Louisiana, and he and his family immigrated to Los Angeles as a child. He suffered a hip injury as an infant and was unable to walk on crutches until he was six years old. He learned the ukulele while attending a summer camp for disabled children.

Berry attended Jefferson High School in Los Angeles, and with many other students, they learned how to sing vocal harmony in the corridors.

Personal life

Dorothy Adams, a girl with whom he attended high school in 1957, married Dorothy Adams, and the couple had two children, Pam and Marcel. In 1968, the couple wed. Dorothy embarked on a music career, recording for Garpax Records, Challenge Records, Little Star Records, and Tangerine. She was a Raelette for Ray Charles until the early 1980s.

Pamela, Richard Marcel, Stephani, Karen, Linda, and Christy were all six children in total, including Pamela, Richard Marcel, Manuel Manuel, Tracy, Linda, and Christy. Christy, who was born in 1969, did not complete his education in his later years. In the 1980s, Marcel played bass with his father on stage.

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Musical career

He started singing and playing in local doom bands, including The Penguins, The Cadets, and the Chimes, the Crowns, the Five Hearts, the Hunters, the Whips, and the Dreamers, an all-female quartet from Fremont High. In 1953, he joined the Flairs (who also appeared as the Debonaires and the Flamingoes).

Berry's bass vocals appeared on Modern Records' 1953 album "She Wants to Rock," which was an early experiment by Leiber and Stoller. Berry was hired by the producers to sing "Riot In Cell Block #9" on Spark Records a few months earlier, but he was uncredited because he was not paid to Modern. The Robins later split. Three members stayed with the Robins, while two others joined Leiber & Stoller in New York to form the Coasters. The Robins continued to record (with two new members) in California for other brands, including Whippet, Lavender, Arvee, and others.

Berry's voice was used at Modern, a female counterpart to Etta James on her debut and big hit "The Wallflower (Dance with Me, Henry)" and several of its less popular sequels. Berry has worked with many other bands on the Modern and Flair label, including Arthur Lee Maye and the Crowns and the Dreamers (who later became The Blossoms). Berry left the Flairs to form his own band, the Pharaohs, by the end of 1954, as well as continuing to perform with other groups as a singer and songwriter.

Rick Rillera and the Rhythm Rockers, a Latin and R&B band, were one of Berry's groups after leaving the Flairs. Berry was inspired to write "Louie Louie," a calypso-style song based on René Touzet's "El Loco Cha Cha," as well as "Havana Moon" by Chuck Berry in 1955. When writing the lyrics, Berry also said he had Frank Sinatra's "One for My Baby" in mind. Berry, who was one night on a backstage at the Harmony Club Ballroom, began to write lyrics on toilet paper, noting them on toilet paper.

Richard Berry and the Pharaohs recorded and released the song as the B-side to his 1958 hit "You Are My Sunshine" on Flip Records. It was a minor regional hit, with 130,000 copies sold. When the band toured the Pacific Northwest, many local R&B bands began to perform the song and established its fame, it was re-released as an A-side. When the Kingsmen's raucous version – with no trace of its calypso-like origins other than in its lyrics – became a national and international hit in 1963. Louie Louie "Louie Louie" became a big hit. The Kingsmen's version of Paul Revere & the Raiders was also recorded in a joint studio the week before, but it wasn't a hit. The nearly unintelligible (and harmless) lyrics were widely misinterpreted as offensive, and radio stations and even the Federal Bureau of Investigations had banned the song from being broadcast and even investigated.

Over 1,000 times have been played the song. However, Berry didn't receive any money for his many years, after selling the copyright for $750 in 1959 to pay for his wedding. "Everybody's songs were selling in those days," Berry said in 1993. I never was bitter with record companies. They set up a record for five young black dudes."

Oh!

Berry's 1983 "The Best of Louie" collection of "Louie Louie" was released as a note-for-note re-recording of "Louie Louie" since permission could not be obtained for the original version. Big Daddy, a doo wop revival group, had backup vocals. The initial version was not officially launched until the Ace Records Love That Louie collection in 2002.

Berry was on welfare at his mother's house in South Central Los Angeles in the mid-1980s. California Cooler wanted to use "Louie Louie" in a commercial but found that Berry's signature would be needed to use the song. Berry was consulted by the Artists' Rights society to locate him, and a solicitor visited Berry. Berry could take action to obtain the rights to his song, according to the prosecutor. Berry was named a millionaire by the publishers after he was ruled out of court.

Berry performed a duet with his ex-wife Dorothy titled 'The World Needs Peace' in the early 1980s. In a gospel version retitled "What We Want," he recorded it a few years later, with his six children providing backup harmony vocals.

"Louie Louie" gained a number of awards during the 1980s, including hundreds of cover versions on CD compilations and appearing on radio marathons. He continued to perform, and in 1993, he appeared in two sets at the 100 Club in London.

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