LouieFest is an American music festival featuring the prominent contributions to rock and roll by bands and performers, both emerging and established, from the Northwest region. Organized in 2003 by John 'Buck' Ormsby and Kent Morrill, members of
The Wailers
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
, LouieFest is an annual fundraising event for the Wailers Performing Arts Foundation which provides scholarships, instruments, music lessons and mentoring for youth music education.
The namesake of LouieFest is "
Louie Louie
"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 r ...
", the most recorded rock song in history as documented by music historian
Peter Blecha
Peter Charles Blecha is an American historian, curator, essayist, author, musician, and director of the Seattle-based Northwest Music Archives. He is primarily known for research related to aspects of Pacific Northwest musical history. In additio ...
. According to Blecha's records and research, “Louie Louie” celebrated its 50-year mark in April, 2007 with 1,600 known recordings.
The legacy of this rock and roll song phenomenon is traced directly to The Wailers of
Tacoma, Washington.
Rockin’ Robin Roberts (1940-1967), the unnamed vocalist of The Wailers, collaborated with founding member and lead guitarist, Richard Dangel (1942-2002) to write an arrangement of the
Richard Berry Jamaican sea shanty from the B-side of a 45-single he found in a record store for ten cents. ‘Rockin’ Roberts interjected one single phrase that is said to have changed rock music forever: “Let’s give it to ‘em right now.” This immortal idiom helped launch “Louie Louie” to the top of rock and roll fame, and subsequently inspired countless garage bands the world over.
The Wailers released “Louie Louie” in 1961
on their own label, Etiquette Records, history's first artist-owned label by a garage band. They achieved a huge regional hit with the single.
The Kingsmen
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 ha ...
, and
Paul Revere and the Raiders
Paul Revere & the Raiders (also known as Raiders) were an American rock band formed in Boise, Idaho, in 1958. They saw considerable U.S. mainstream success in the second half of the 1960s and early 1970s. The band was known for including Revolu ...
, are credited with later recordings of “Louie Louie” resulting in chart-topping, national exposure. Etiquette Records also pioneered the career of another notable Northwest garage band,
The Sonics
The Sonics are an American garage rock band from Tacoma, Washington that formed in 1960. Their aggressive, hard-edged sound has been a major influence on punk and garage music worldwide, and they have been named inspirations to the White Str ...
, who expanded the white rhythm and blues sound.
LouieFest celebrates the legacy of the much beloved three-chord sensation by closing every festival with the audience participating as an ensemble, playing “Louie Louie” in unison, rock and roll's eternally youthful anthem of the
Baby Boomer
Baby boomers, often shortened to boomers, are the Western demographic cohort following the Silent Generation and preceding Generation X. The generation is often defined as people born from 1946 to 1964, during the mid-20th century baby boom. T ...
generation.
References
Rock festivals in the United States
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