BERRY, 61, SINGER-SONGWRITER, AUTHORED SONG `LOUIE LOUIE'.Byline: Daily News Staff and Wire Services Richard Berry, the singer-songwriter who penned the famous song ``Louie Louie,'' died in his sleep Thursday at his South Central Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. home, friends said. He was 61. Berry wrote the song in 1956, but it wasn't until the 1960s that it became a Top 40 hit and caused a national clamor. The Kingsmen's version of ``Louie Louie'' in 1963 had uncomprehensible lyrics that initiated rumors that the song contained obscenities. Little did Berry know that the song he wrote and performed years earlier would turn out to elicit an FBI investigation, which concluded that the lyrics were simply unintelligible UNINTELLIGIBLE. That which cannot be understood. 2. When a law, a contract, or will, is unintelligible, it has no effect whatever. Vide Construction, and the authorities there referred to. . Berry's original lyrics told of finding true love in Jamaica: ``Louie Louie, me gotta go. Louie Louie, me gotta go. ``A fine girl, she wait for me. Me catch the ship across the sea. ``I sailed the ship all alone. I never think I'll make it home. ``Louie Louie, me gotta go. . . .'' Racier versions spread by word of mouth. Some schools banned the song and the bands that played it. Iggy and the Stooges recorded a dirty version, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. The Rolling Stone rolling stone Noun a restless or wandering person Illustrated History of Rock & Roll. Berry sold the rights to all his work, including ``Louie Louie,'' in 1956 for $750. ``He was just a tremendously kind and generous man, and he experienced a tremendous amount of hardship,'' John Kim, who collaborated with Berry as a film student at University of Southern California The U.S. News & World Report ranked USC 27th among all universities in the United States in its 2008 ranking of "America's Best Colleges", also designating it as one of the "most selective universities" for admitting 8,634 of the almost 34,000 who applied for freshman admission , told the Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. . ``He was a black man growing up in L.A. in L.A. In is a compilation of studio recording by Various Artists. It was originally released in 1979 as an LP by Rhino Records. Track listing Side One The Kats the 1950s. He had his most famous song taken away for a paltry sum of money.'' Although he recovered about $2 million in royalties in 1986, he continued living in South Central Los Angeles. ``He lived down there because that was his home, that's where he grew up,'' Kim said. ``He was not one of those people who leaves a place just because he made it good.'' Berry - a singer as well as a songwriter - was the uncredited un·cred·it·ed adj. 1. Not having been credited, as on a ledger: an uncredited deposit. 2. Not having been accorded due recognition: an uncredited discovery. lead singer on Leiber & Stoller's ``Riot in Cell Block No. 9,'' recorded by the Robins, which later became the Coasters. He also took another uncredited vocal as Etta James' deep-voiced partner on ``Roll With Me, Henry,'' one of the biggest R&B hits of the mid-'50s. Berry is survived by his mother, Bertha Harris, and six grown children: Pamela, Richard Marcel, Stephanie, Karen, Linda and Christy, who all use the Berry surname. Richard and Christy Berry are also musicians. Funeral arrangements were still being made. |
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