Jack Ely, Kingsmen singer who made 'Louie, Louie' famous, is dead at 71

Jack Ely, singer of &quot;Louie, Louie,&quot; is dead at 71

(Image credit: Twitter/@eonline)

published 29 April 2015

The Kingsmen didn't write the song "Louie, Louie" — that would be Richard Berry — but they recorded the only version that really counts, at a recording studio in Portland, Oregon, in 1963. Jack Ely, the singer who unintelligibly shouted out the lyrics, died Tuesday at age 71 at his home outside Bend, Oregon. His son, Sean Ely, confirmed the death to The Associated Press, and said he didn't know what illness his father died of, "because of his religious beliefs."

The recording that made Ely's garage band famous, as well as the song they covered, was a quirk of fate. The Kingsmen were going to record it as an instrumental, but "at the last minute I decided I'd sing it," Ely said, according to his son. The garbled vocals are due to the fact that he'd had his braces tightened that day, and the recording engineer put the microphone a few feet above Ely's head, so he had to stand on his toes, lean his head back 45 degrees, and shout out the lyrics.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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