Other 60's hits with that 'Louie Louie' beat?

[Michelle ggurl]

Originally posted by stoo schultz:

Finally, a question: I think of the cha-cha, frequently cited as a source for the rhythm in question here, as [1 2 3+ 4]. Doesn't that make it more like "Wild Thing" than "Louie X 2" ?

Yep, you're right about that. But LL was based not on a cha cha tune, but on a calypso tune whose intro had a reversed cha cha beat, hence its name "El Loco Cha Cha." So Louie Louie is a crazy cha cha, with the cha cha beat reversed and a little syncopated.

 

It's interesting that the big dance craze before the twist was the "chalypso", a mix of cha cha and calypso that kids on American Bandstand made up. This craze spawned a bunch of "chalypso" songs, including "El Loco Cha Cha."

Huh, this is interesting ... a whole facet of 60s pop I had no idea existed (yeah, it's before my time ...). Thanks for the insight, Stoo.

[stoo schultz]

Well it was before my time too, but I had an older brother and sister and we all grew up in Portland OR, the epicenter of the Louie phenomenon. In those days my sister used to hang out at the Pypo Club in Seaside, where the Wailers, Kingsmen, and Paul Revere and the Raiders all played. I remember her doing a lot of twisting

 

It was an amazing time, when anybody could walk into a recording studio and make a cheap demo that ends up being a hit record. And as Bill H. says above, everybody wanted to be the Wailers.