The Kingsmen: Up and Away (1966)

BAND INFO (am)

A rock & roll band from Portland, Oregon, the Kingsmen's one big hit "Louie, Louie" defined the garage-band style and became one of the all-time classics. The original lineup included Jack Ely (lead singer and guitar), Lynn Easton (drums), Mike Mitchell (lead guitar), Bob Nordby (bass), and Don Galucci (piano). After Ely had "incorrectly" taught the rest of the band the Wailers version of Richard Berry's "Louie Louie" (thus altering the basic rhythm into the now famous duh-duh-duh, duh-duh, duh-duh-duh, duh-duh riff that has become the only way anyone has played it since), they recorded it for fifty dollars at a primitive local recording studio with only three mikes, Ely hollering the lyrics into an overhead boom mike suspended ten feet in the air. Released on a local label, the record went nowhere after Paul Revere & the Raiders quickly covered it in the Northwest market, although it had quickly become a standard for all teen bands in that area. In 1964, the record started to break nationally, causing the breakup of the original lineup when Easton copyrighted the group's name, informing the other members that he was now sole owner of the Kingsmen and its new lead singer. Ely formed his own Kingsmen, touring at the same time as Easton, who was lip-synching the record whenever possible. Only Easton and Mitchell were left from the original lineup, but they kept scoring big with frat-band versions of "Money" and "Little Latin Lupe Lu," reaching their peak with "The Jolly Green Giant," while Ely languished in relative obscurity and Gallucci formed Don & the Goodtimes. By the early '90s, history had redressed itself somewhat. While replacement members from the Easton version of the band toured as the "original" Kingsmen, Jack Ely finally received some of his due, headlining the 30th Anniversary Louie Louie tour. Though the song itself has been covered repeatedly, the version by Ely and the original lineup remains definitive.

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They became the #1 touring band in the United States. In 1965, during a series of one-nighters, they set fifty-six consecutive attendance records in colleges, ballrooms, arenas, state fairs, and community dances. Many promoters used the Kingsmen as a promotional gimmick to "repel" the British Invasion (a joke to the band, as they loved that music). They appeared in concert and on television with the Rolling Stones, Zombies, Kinks, Searchers, Peter and Gordon, Chad and Jeremy, Dusty Springfield, and others; and North American acts such as the Beach Boys, Righteous Brothers, Four Seasons, Isley Brothers, Guess Who, Turtles, Shangri-Las, Byrds, Lovin' Spoonful, Kinckerbockers, and all their Scepter/Want label mates. They were featured on the top TV music shows including Shindig, Hullabaloo, American Bandstand, Lloyd Thaxton, Action; and in the beach party movie, "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini."

Up and Away (Wand WDM/WDS-675) 1966
Trouble/If I Needed Someone/Grass Is Green/Tossin' and Turnin'/Under My Thumb/ Wild Thing/ (I Have Found) Another Girl/Daytime Shadows/Shake a Tail Feather/Children's Caretaker/ Land of 1000 Dances/Mustang Sally/Little Sally Tease/Hush-A-Bye/Killer Joe

ANOTHER GREAT ALBUM BY THE MASTERS.... IT`S NOT THAT WILD AND RAW IN COMPARISSON OF PREVIOUS ALBUMS ... BUT ITS SO GREAT... LIKE ALL THEIR ALBUMS ... IT`S PRICELESS ! ! ! ... HIGHLY RECOMMENDED...
GREAT SONGS AND COVER... GREAT LYRICS TOO... JUST... AMAZING ALBUM ...YOU LL FIND HERE MODERN INFLUENCES OF THE ERA... 1966... BECOMING OF PSYCH ... IT DOESN`T SOUND THAT OLD SCHOOL GARAGE... LIKE THEIR EARLY YEARS ...

LINK: HUSH-A-BYE