MUMBAI: Singer Jack Ely, best known for his incoherent vocals for the band’s cover of Richard Berry’s ‘Louie Louie’, is dead. He was 71.
The former lead vocalist of The Kingsmen died on Monday at his home in Redmond, Oregon, after a long battle with illness, reports aceshowbiz.com.
His son Sean Ely confirmed the news, saying, “Because of his religious beliefs, we’re not even sure what (the illness) was.”
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Despite being one of the most popular songs of the 20th century, Ely’s incoherent singing also made The Kingsmen’s version of ‘Louie Louie’ one of the misunderstood songs.
The FBI was so intrigued by the hard-to-understand lyrics that it conducted an investigation into whether the song was obscene.
Sean recalled, “Right of his mouth, my father would say: ‘We were initially just going to record the song as an instrument and at the last minute I decided I’d sing it. It’s all of this is in a 10X10 room with one microphone. I’m standing on my tippy toes yelling into the microphone: Louie Louie! Louie Louie! We gotta go!'”
Jack eventually had a fall out with the band shortly after the song was recorded in 1963.
According to Sean, his father later began training horses in Central Oregon while savoring his one-hit wonder.
“He wanted to try on different occasions to pursue other endeavors in the music industry,” Sean shared, “But I think when it was all said and done, he was pretty happy that he did ‘Louie Louie'”.
