Day After Day #304: Brother Louie

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Brother Louie (1973)

As a young kid in the 1970s, I listened to a lot of AM pop radio thanks to my parents having it on constantly. I can remember hearing countless hours of schmaltzy stuff by Englebert Humperdinck and Paul Anka, soft rock from the likes of 10CC and Wings, pure pop from the Carpenters and Cher, and light funk from War and the O'Jays. Another big part of that era was the one-hit wonders, the songs from bands who were unable to capitalize on their fleeting fame.

Years later in the late '80s, I was working as a news editor at the University of New Hampshire school newspaper, which published two editions each week. I would work one of the two long production nights, every Thursday, which would often see us pulling all-nighters. We usually had music on and sometimes would listen to Barry Scott's retro radio show "The Lost 45s," which highlighted a lot of those one-hit wonders from the '70s that I grew up listening to. One of those songs was "Brother Louie," which was originally released by the British funk outfit Hot Chocolate in 1973 (who had big hits with "You Sexy Thing" and "Every 1's a Winner"), but six months later was covered by the American band Stories.

The Hot Chocolate version of "Brother Louie" was a hit in the U.K., going to #7 on the singles chart, but in the U.S., the Stories version went to #1 on Billboard Hot 100 (and #1 in Canada, where I was hearing it in the summer of '73). The song told the tale of an interracial love affair between a black man and a white woman whose families object to it. Was the Stories version more successful in the U.S. because it was sung by a white rock band instead of a mixed-race band from the U.K.? Perhaps. But the Stories is entertainingly cheesy, with singer Ian Lloyd's over-the-top vocals providing the appropriate amount of melodrama.

"She was black as the night/Louie was whiter than white/Danger, danger when you taste the brown sugar/Louie fell in love overnight/Nothing bad, it was good/Louie had the best girl he could/When he took her home to meet his mama and papa/Louie knew just where he stood/Louie Louie Louie Louie/Louie Louie Louie Lou-I/Louie Louie Louie Louie/Louie Louie you're gonna cry."

Stories was formed in 1972 when bassist-singer Lloyd and keyboardist Michael Brown, formerly of the pop group the Left Banke, set out to create a Beatles-sounding band. They added guitarist Steve Love and drummer Bryan Madey and released their self-titled debut in 1972. The band's second album, About Us, came out in 1973, but it didn't have "Brother Louie" on it at first. They covered the song with Kenny Aaronson providing a funky bassline and added it to later pressings of the album.

"There he stood, in the night/Knowing what's wrong from what's right/He took her home to meet his mama and papa/Man, they had a terrible fight/Louie nearly caused a scene/Wishing it was a dream/Ain't no difference if you're black or white/Brothers, you know what I mean, come on/Louie Louie Louie Louie/Louie Louie Louie Lou-I/Louie Louie Louie Louie/Louie Louie you're gonna cry."

The song spent two weeks at #1 and was on the Hot 100 chart for 18 weeks. Brown left the band after the second album, with Aaronson and keyboardist Ken Bichel taking his place, and Lloyd stuck around for one more album before leaving. The new lineup had two songs crack the bottom half of the Hot 100, "Mammy Blue" and "If It Feels Good, Do It." Stories broke up not long afterward.

Lloyd released several solo albums and worked with Foreigner, Bryan Adams and Peter Frampton. Brown formed the Beckies and Madey played in the Earl Slick Band. Aaronson had a long career, going on to play with Rick Derringer, Bob Dylan, Billy Idol, Billy Squier, Joan Jett, Sammy Hagar and others. 

"Brother Louie" was later covered by a number of artists, including Bon Jovi and the Quireboys. A cover of the Stories version became the theme song for Louis C.K.'s hit show Louie, with Lloyd himself providing the vocals. 

During those production nights, when "Brother Louie" would come on, I would belt out the vocals, which were somehow ingrained in my brain. About a decade later, when me and a bunch of my UNH buddies formed the band Bea Arthur's Revenge to play at a Halloween party, we chose "Brother Louie" as one of the covers we did. As goofy as it is, it's a lot of fun to sing.