Richard Berry (musician)

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Richard Berry
Richard Berry publicity still.jpg
Background information
Birth nameRichard Berry, Jr.
Also known asRicky, Jasper Woods [1]
Born(1935-04-11)April 11, 1935
Extension, Louisiana, United States
Origin Los Angeles, California, United States
DiedJanuary 23, 1997(1997-01-23) (aged 61)
Inglewood, California
Genres Doo-wop, R&B
Occupation(s)Musician, composer
Instrument(s)Piano, vocals
Years active1950s–1996
Labels Modern (Flair, RPM, Crown), Flip, Happy Tiger, Smash, others [1]

Richard Berry, Jr. (April 11, 1935 – January 23, 1997) was an American singer, songwriter and musician, who performed with many Los Angeles doo-wop and close harmony groups in the 1950s, including The Flairs and The Robins.

Contents

He is best known as the composer and original performer of the rock standard "Louie Louie". The song became a hit for The Kingsmen and others, and it is one of the most recorded songs of all time; however, Berry received little financial benefit for writing it until the 1980s, having signed away his rights to the song in 1959. In the same year, he wrote and released "Have Love, Will Travel", which has been recorded by many other artists.

Early life

Berry was born in Extension, south of Monroe, Louisiana, and moved with his family to Los Angeles as a baby. As a child, he suffered a hip injury and had to walk on crutches until he was six. [2] His first instrument was the ukulele, which he learned when attending a summer camp for crippled children. [3]

Berry attended Jefferson High School in Los Angeles, and with many other pupils practiced singing vocal harmonies in the corridors. [4]

Musical career

He began singing and playing in local doo-wop groups, recording with a number of them including The Penguins, The Cadets and the Chimes, the Crowns, the Five Hearts, the Hunters, the Rams, the Whips, and the Dreamers, an otherwise all-female quartet from Fremont High. [5] He then joined The Flairs (who also recorded as the Debonaires and the Flamingoes) in 1953.

With the Flairs

The Flairs' 1953 record "She Wants to Rock" on Modern Records featured Berry's bass vocals, and was an early production by Leiber and Stoller. A few months later, when the producers needed a bass voice for The Robins' "Riot In Cell Block #9" on Spark Records, they recruited Berry to provide the menacing lead vocal on the song – uncredited because he was contracted to Modern. [6] The Robins later split. Three members remained with the Robins and two went to New York with Leiber & Stoller to form the Coasters. The Robins continued to record (with two new members) in California for other labels, including Whippet, Lavender, Arvee, and others.

Berry's voice was used at Modern, again uncredited, as the counterpoint to Etta James on her first record and big hit "The Wallflower (Dance with Me, Henry)" and several of its less successful follow-ups. [6] Berry also recorded with several other groups on the Modern and Flair labels, including Arthur Lee Maye and the Crowns, and the Dreamers (who later became The Blossoms). [1] By the end of 1954, Berry left the Flairs to form his own group, the Pharaohs, as well as continued to work with other groups as a singer and songwriter.

"Louie Louie"

One of the groups Berry played with after leaving the Flairs was Rick Rillera and the Rhythm Rockers, a Latin and R&B group. In 1955, Berry was inspired to write "Louie Louie", [6] a calypso-style song, based on the Rhythm Rockers' version of René Touzet's "El Loco Cha Cha", as well as influenced by Chuck Berry's "Havana Moon". Berry also stated he had Frank Sinatra's "One for My Baby" in mind when writing the lyrics. One night waiting backstage at the Harmony Club Ballroom, Berry took the rhythm of "El Loco Cha Cha" and began to add lyrics, writing them on toilet paper. [7]

Richard Berry and the Pharaohs recorded and released the song as the B-side to his cover of "You Are My Sunshine" on Flip Records in 1957. [8] It became a minor regional hit, selling 130,000 copies. It was re-released as an A-side, and when the group toured the 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 national and international hit in 1963. [6] Paul Revere & the Raiders also recorded the tune in the same studio the week after the Kingsmen, but their version was not a hit. 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. [6]

The song has been recorded over 1,000 times. However, Berry received little financial reward for its success for many years, having sold the copyright for $750 in 1959 to pay for his wedding. Berry said in 1993 "Everybody sold their songs in those days. I never was bitter with the record companies. They provided a vehicle for five young black dudes to make a record." [9]

Berry continued to write and record into the early 1960s, including "Have Love, Will Travel" (which later became a local hit for The Sonics), but with little commercial success, and also continued as a performer. Other songs included "Crazy Lover", recorded by the Rollins Band and "Oh! Oh! Get Out of the Car", covered by The Treniers.

For Rhino's 1983 The Best of Louie, Louie compilation album, [10] Berry created a note-for-note re-recording of "Louie Louie" because licensing could not be obtained for the original version. [11] [12] Backup vocals were provided by doo wop revival group Big Daddy. [13] The original version was not legitimately re-released until the Ace Records Love That Louie compilation in 2002. [14]

Settlement of rights to "Louie Louie"

In the mid-1980s, Berry was living on welfare at his mother's house in South Central Los Angeles. Drinks company California Cooler wanted to use "Louie Louie" in a commercial, but discovered it needed Berry's signature to use the song. The company asked the Artists' Rights society to locate him, and a lawyer visited Berry. The lawyer mentioned the possibility of Berry's taking action to gain the rights to his song. The publishers settled out of court, making Berry a millionaire. [9]

Later years

In the early 1980s, Berry recorded a duet with his ex-wife Dorothy titled 'The World Needs Peace'. He re-recorded it a few years later in a gospel version retitled "What We Need", with his six children providing backup harmony vocals. [15]

During the 1980s, "Louie Louie" received a number of accolades, with hundreds of cover versions issued on CD compilations and played on radio marathons. He continued to play shows and in 1993 played two sets at the 100 Club in London. [4]

Death

In February 1996, Berry performed for the final time, reuniting with the Pharaohs and the Dreamers for a benefit concert in Long Beach, California. His health declined shortly after this, and he died of heart failure in 1997. He was interred in the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.

Songwriting legacy

"Louie Louie" is the most recorded rock song of all time, [16] and was ranked at No. 54 on Rolling Stone magazine's "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". [17]

Personal life

Berry married Dorothy Adams, a girl with whom he attended high school, in 1957, and they had two children, Pam and Marcel. They divorced in 1968. Dorothy pursued 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. [15]

Berry had six children in total, Pamela, Richard Marcel, Stephani, Karen, Linda and Christy. [18] Christy, who was born in 1969, handled his career in his later years. Marcel played bass on stage with his father in the 1980s.

Partial discography

Albums

Singles

Recordings with Richard Berry credited as the main artist

Recordings where Richard Berry appears uncredited or as part of a group With the Flairs

With Arthur Lee Maye & The Crowns

With The Robins

With Jennell Brown (Ricky and Jennell)

With the Rams (Richard Berry, Arthur Lee Maye and Johnny Coleman

With Etta James

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louie Louie</span> 1955 song by Richard Berry

"Louie Louie" is a rhythm and blues song written and composed by American musician Richard Berry in 1955, recorded in 1956, and released in 1957. It is best known for the 1963 hit version by the Kingsmen and has become a standard in pop and rock. The song is based on the tune "El Loco Cha Cha" popularized by bandleader René Touzet and is an example of Afro-Cuban influence on American popular music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Kingsmen</span> 1960s American rock band

The Kingsmen are a 1960s rock band from Portland, Oregon, United States. They are best known for their 1963 recording of R&B singer Richard Berry's "Louie Louie", which held the No. 2 spot on the Billboard charts for six weeks and has become an enduring classic.

<i>Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968</i> 1972 compilation album by various artists

Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era is a compilation album of American psychedelic and garage rock singles that were released during the mid-to-late 1960s. It was created by Lenny Kaye, who was a writer and clerk at the Village Oldies record shop in New York. He would later become the lead guitarist for the Patti Smith Group. Kaye produced Nuggets under the supervision of Elektra Records founder Jac Holzman. Kaye conceived the project as a series of roughly eight LP installments focusing on different US regions, but Elektra convinced him that one double album would be more commercially viable. It was released on LP by Elektra in 1972 with liner notes by Kaye that contained one of the first uses of the term "punk rock". It was reissued with a new cover design by Sire Records in 1976. In the 1980s, Rhino Records issued Nuggets in a series of fifteen installments, and in 1998 as a 4-cd box set.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music history of the United States in the 1950s</span>

Many musical styles flourished and combined in the 1940s and 1950s, most likely because of the influence the radio had in creating a mass market for music. World War II caused great social upheaval, and the music of this period shows the effects of that upheaval.

Flair Records was an American record label owned by the Bihari brothers, launched in the early 1950s. It was a subsidiary of Modern Records. Its most famous artist were Elmore James, who released ten singles with this label, Richard Berry, and Ike Turner who was a session musician and also released a single on the label. Flair is believed to have issued 80 singles total between 1953 and 1955.

The Flairs were an American doo-wop group known for their 1961 hit "Foot Stompin', Pt. 1." Based in Los Angeles, they went through several lineup changes during their existence. Their notable members included Richard Berry and Cornell Gunter, who would go on to be a member of the Coasters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee Maye</span> American baseball player

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Have Love, Will Travel</span> 1960 single by Richard Berry

"Have Love, Will Travel" is a 1959 song written and recorded by Richard Berry. While the song may have been recorded before the end of 1959, the correct release date appears to be January, 1960. The title is based on a popular television/radio western serial Have Gun, Will Travel.

Richard Barrett, also known as Richie Barrett, was an American singer, record producer, and songwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gee (The Crows song)</span> 1953 single by The Crows

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Jack Brown Ely was an American guitarist and singer, best known for singing the Kingsmen's version of "Louie Louie". Classically trained in piano, he began playing guitar after seeing Elvis Presley on television. In 1959, he co-founded the Kingsmen and with them recorded "Louie Louie" in 1963; Ely's famously incoherent vocals were partly the result of his braces and the rudimentary recording method. Before the record became a hit Ely was forced out of the group and began playing with his new band, the Courtmen. Ely died in Terrebonne, Oregon, on April 28, 2015 at age 71.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Predoehl, Eric (September 19, 2001). "Richard Berry Discography" (PDF). LouieLouie.net. Octalouie, LLC. Retrieved January 2, 2010.
  2. ↑ "Louise History", The Louie Louie Pages, accessed 2009-11-11
  3. ↑ Predoehl, Eric. "Richard Berry, the man who wrote Louie Louie". louielouie.net. octalouie, llc. Archived from the original on 1 October 2011. Retrieved 8 September 2011.
  4. 1 2 Perrone, Pierre (31 January 1997). "Obituary: Richard Berry". The Independent. Retrieved 8 September 2011.
  5. ↑ Thomas, Bryan. "The Flairs". Allmusic.com. rovi corporation. Retrieved 8 September 2011.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Colin Larkin, ed. (1997). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music (Concise ed.). Virgin Books. p. 127. ISBN   1-85227-745-9.
  7. ↑ Williams, Richard (27 June 1993). "Louie Louie: written on lavatory paper". The Independent. Retrieved 13 September 2011.
  8. ↑ 45 Discography for Flip Records, Global Dog Productions.info, accessed 2009-11-11
  9. 1 2 Kelner, Martin (21 October 1993). "Louie, Louie. Oh, oh . . .: Until a soft drinks company tracked him down, Richard Berry was living on welfare in the slums of LA". The Independent, 21 October 1993. independent.co.uk. Archived from the original on January 25, 2012. Retrieved 8 September 2011.
  10. ↑ Hamilton, Andrew. "Various artists: The Best of Louie Louie, Vol. 1 - Review". AllMusic . Retrieved September 21, 2013.
  11. ↑ Marsh 1993, p. 41.
  12. ↑ Marcus, Griel (2015). Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music. New York: Plume. p. 362. ISBN   978-0142181584.
  13. ↑ Warner, Jay (1992). The Da Capo Book of American Singing Groups: A History 1940-1990. Boston: Da Capo Press. p. 522. ISBN   0-306-80923-0.
  14. ↑ "Love That Louie - The Louie Louie Files (CD)". Bear Family Records. 2002.
  15. 1 2 Predoehl, Eric. "Dorothy Berry- the world needs peace". louielouie.net. OCTALOUIE, LLC. Archived from the original on 14 November 2011. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  16. ↑ Blecha, Peter (April 1, 2007). "Garage Rock Anthem "Louie Louie" Turns 50". The Seattle Times . Retrieved December 31, 2017.
  17. ↑ "500 Greatest Songs of All Time: The Kingsmen, 'Louie Louie'". Rolling Stone. 11 December 2003. Retrieved 2013-09-24.
  18. ↑ "Richard Berry". NNDB- tracking the entire world. Soylent Communications. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  19. ↑ "Review of New R&B Records" (PDF). Billboard. December 3, 1955. p. 64.
  20. ↑ Hoppula, Pete. "Richard Berry discography". Wang Dang Dula. wangdangdula. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
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