I’ve mentioned that I saw The Kingsmen perform as a 15 year old kid. The event was at a large venue, maybe a public auditorium in Jacksonville, Florida.
That was my first experience to attend and hear music in a large concert setting like that. I’d attended little teen community centers that had a band, which was still a cool experience.
This was before I had my first drumset. I was patiently studying these teenage drummers, thinking I could play as well as them, if given the opportunity.
I posted earlier The Kingsmen’s first 1964 hit, Louie Louie. Money, was written by Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford. Barrett Strong recorded it in 1959. The Beatles also recorded a version and performed it in their US tours.
I heard teenage bands play this tune a lot. When I became a lounge lizard nightclub drummer, I played it many times. I liked playing it. The song had something different about it, and I didn’t know what it was at the time.
Now I do. The song is a basic 12 bar blues form. What made me a very good music drummer in my first year as a professional drummer was my ingrained natural knowledge of style and form.
I didn’t know music theory but I recognized and played each song very musically as a 16 - 17 year old kid. This came from my years as a listener to really good music on the radio.
The songs that were being produced in the mid 60s were phrased in 8 and 16 bars. These were verse verse chorus verse. Usually. There were also varieties of 16 bar songs. Of coarse tunes by Burt Bacharach or others created their original style.
But, Money is a basic 12 bar blues form. My first experience playing it, I didn’t know the theory behind it, but I liked it. Later in years I’ve worked with established Blues artist and their complete repertoire is based on the 12 bar form.
The Kingsmen version reached number 86 of 100 on the Billboard charts.
The original singer of Louie Louie was Jack Ely (1943-2015) Louie Louie and Money were both released as 45 singles on the Wand label.
Before the release and success of Louie Louie, leader - band egos caused vocalist Jack Ely to quit the group before it became a hit.
Drummer, Lynn Easton (died 2020) and his mom seemed to own the Kingsmen name and controlled the group. The group hired a new drummer and Lynn Easton became the lead singer, sax player. He’s in all of the Kingsmen videos.
The music business, legality’s of the Louie Louie situation was eventually settled that original vocalist, Jack Ely, could not present himself with the band called The Kingsmen.
Lynn Easton, could not lip sync to Ely’s vocals. Thus, the business of music.
The history of this Portland band is interesting. I think The Kingsmen version of Money is quite lame, so I’m posting the original by Barrett Strong.