Stories ~ Brother Louie 1973 Soul Purrfection Version

Michael Brown was a founding member of 60’s band Left Banke which pioneered the “baroque pop“ sound of their hit single “Walk Away Renee“ a #5 hit in 1966. After a few more singles, Brown left the band and met singer Ian Lloyd. Assembling a Beatlesque band, he hired drummer Bryan Madey and guitarist Steve Love to complete them and signed with Kama Sutra records in 1972. Their first hit was “I’m Coming Home“ a #42 hit that same year. Brown then left the band who went on to add bassist Kenny Aaronson and keyboardist Ken Bichel. They began to record their second LP adding a cover of little known tune called “Brother Louie“ that had been written by Errol Brown and Tony Wilson and performed by UK band Hot Chocolate. The song was about a white man bringing his black girlfriend home to meet his parents who turn out to be racists. The message was timely and the association of the repeated “Louie Louie Louieee“ chorus paid tribute to the rock chestnut “Louie Louie“ by the Kingsmen brought them instant recognition and a #1 pop hit for two weeks. Stories went on to record two more singles that failed to rival “Brother Louie“ and the band broke up over the squabbles over the direction they should take. Ian went solo, his only hit being the Ric Ocasek written “Slip Away“ that spent nine weeks on the chart, peaking at #50 in 1979. A couple of interesting footnotes to this story is that at a 1976 Lloyd recording session, Mick Jones and Ian MacDonald met and went on to find Lou Gramm to rock the pop charts as Foreigner. The second is when Gladys Knight heard “Brother Louie“ she had Neil Bogart approach Stories producer Richie Wise and Kenny Kerner to produce “I’ve Got To Use My Imagination“. She loved the sound they came up with and it resulted in a #4 pop and #1 R&B hit for her and her Pips.