‘Louie, Louie’

The Kingsmen
Sometimes, songs are banned for no real reason at all — like in the case of the No. 1 track on our list of the Top 10 Censored Rock Songs. The Kingsmen’s garage-rock nugget was banned from several radio stations, prohibited throughout Indiana (thanks to its governor) and subjected to a 31-month investigation by the FBI. All because some teens somewhere started a rumor that the words singer Jack Ely was howling were about an explicit sexual encounter. In reality, the lyrics (written by Richard Berry in 1957) recounted a sailor’s rather banal ode to his dream girl. But because Ely was singing in pidgin English, screaming at the top of his lungs and wearing new braces, his enunciation wasn’t perfect, and rumors escalated. The FBI then spent a fair amount of taxpayer dollars interviewing almost everybody associated with the recording and listening to the hit single at various speeds in an attempt to decipher the “true” meaning. In the end, the FBI threw their hands up and declared their inability to interpret any of the lyrics. Despite, and because of, its reputation, ‘Louie Louie’ has become one of the most important songs in rock history.