One of my ALL - TIME favorite songs by anyone is this song by The Stories. I've loved this song all my life. This was a #1 hit for The Stories in 1973. A song about inter-racial love;

"She was black as the night, Louie was whiter than white
Danger, danger when you taste brown sugar
Louie fell in love overnight

Another cool lyric'

"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, he had a terrible fight
Louie nearly caused a scene
Wishin' it was a dream
Ain't no difference if you're black or white
Brothers, you know what I mean"

Originally done by Hot Chocolate, it was a huge hit for The Stories. I dig Hot Chocolate's version as well. But man, the production on The Stories's version is off the hook. PLEASE listen to that bass line! Man, that shit's bumpin'! Love this song to death, ya'll. Anyone else like this by The Stories?

Gotta add that before I got hip to the fact that Hot Chocolate (another cool ass band) had written and recorded it, As a kid, I always that it was cool that a white cat was singing the line "Brothers, you know what I mean". Later when I realized that Errol Brown wrote it, then the line made more sense. This is something that was definately influenced (lyrically) by The Stones (Brown Sugar), but they sounded much cooler doing it.

I dig this cut.I actually prefer The Stories' remake,it's superior to the Hot Chocolate version,imo.

DavidEye said:

me too...




Hot Chocolate's version is cool,

but I lose interest when it goes into the dialog part of their version.

blackguitaristz said:

You're on the money with this one Black...

Ah yes..Takin' me back. This is a great pick. This song was HUGE back in the day..R&B radio played this one a lot..I even remember seeing a promo clip (that's what they were called back then) for this song.

For some reason, I really like listening to just the music alone without the lyrics.
I don't mind the lyrics, it sounds better (for me) with just the music.

blackguitaristz said:

Wait a minute!! I was just going to start a thread on this song!

Fantastic song. I have it on the Dick sountrack. I knew that the song was written by Anthony Wilson and Errol Brown from Hot Chocolate, but for some reason I thought they recorded it after it became a #1 hit for Stories. The production on the Stories version is fantastic - most of all I love the strings and Ian Lloyd's singing. I don't like Hot Chocolate's version much, but Stories' is excellent.

Hey Spyz and Rip, I know ya'll are KISS fans like me. Here's a connection for ya; Ritchie Wise and Kenny Kerner who produced KISS's first album, also produced this song for The Stories.

funkpill said:

Thanx, pill!

DavidEye said:

Oh, without question. I ran a thread on here a long ass time ago about Hot Chocolate's "Emma". I adore that song, my fave from them.

SPYZFAN1 said:

Yep, I remember this being on black radio as well. Huge crossover song.

blackguitaristz said:

I did know that, but only just prior to my post here. I was reading the All Music review of the song, and they mentioned that:

Song Review by Joe Viglione
"Brother Louie" by Stories is, like the band's name, a fascinating story. The group was a major project by Michael Brown of The Left Banke and it found him just walking away after cutting an album with producer Eddie Kramer entitled About Us. The album was released and the band toured behind it performing in Boston at what would eventually become The Paradise Theater when the lp on the shelves suddenly had to have a 45 RPM inserted into the shrinkwrap. They suddenly had a hit record that wasn't on the record they were promoting! "Brother Louie" was written by another Brown, Errol Brown with Anthony Wilson, the lead singer and bassist, respectively, of the British group Hot Chocolate. Looking at the credits of Kama Sutra single KA577 it would be easy for pop fans who loved Michael Brown's The Left Banke and Montage to think that he had written this hit. After all, Michael's name was on the credits of ten of the original twelve songs on the disc including "What Comes After", the flip side of "Brother Louie". Kenny Kerner and Richie Wise were the producers of this song which became the 13th track to the About Us album after its initial phase as an insert single, the duo finding additional fame making records with Kiss and Gladys Knight & The Pips. Their stunning production here is often not credited for the fine work that it is, Steve Love's eloquent rip of the "Layla" riff over an incessant steal of Richard Berry's "Louie, Louie", the recurring Lou-I phrase giving that away. Wise used to sing in (and produce) a hard rock outfit called Dust and he brought the bassist from that group, Kenny Aaronson, in to perform on this tune. AAronson appeared on a 2000 disc called Mambo Sons by the band Mambo Sons' guitarist/vocalist Tom Guerra. In an interview on www.TomGuerra.com Aaronson discusses how both Dust and Stories shared the same manager and how the post- Michael Brown group " ...went in the studio as session players for the band Exuma and recorded a demo of "Brother Louie" for this other band. And Neil Bogart heard (singer) Ian Lloyd’sscratch vocal, and said ""this is it!…this is going to be a number one hit for you!"" And it was! So we went in and recorded it as Stories,and they re-released the second album with it on it and it shot up the charts."

Stories' rendition was used in the 1999 comedy film on Watergate entitled Dick, and remains the one that's most familiar, but there are lots of covers of this innovative song (not to be confused with a Hollies compostion which goes by the same name)from bands such as Undisputed Truth, a reggae version by Matumbi, The Quireboys with their 1990's re-working produced by

Chris Kimsey on 12" red vinyl, a 1993 take by club/dance artist Louie Louie with the Stories hit appearing on a compilation album entitled Good Morning Vietnam (not the soundtrack) along with The Kingsmen classic with a similar name. The three minute and fifty five second tune went up to #1 and stayed there for quite some time in 1973. And to think Janis Ian got censored for singing the reverse just six years earlier, a white gal dating an African American male in the song "Society's Child". The unnamed girlfriend in the Hot Chocolate tune was "black as the night" while Louie was whiter than white. Though Ms. Ian couldn't see her love anymore and was quickly removed from the airwaves in some cities, Louie fell in love overnight to land at #1 on the charts.
[Edited 2/23/06 13:21pm]

Dag! Go 'head, B! Richie Wise and Kenny Kerner produced that song? Never knew that!

SPYZFAN1 said:

That's some cool shit, huh?

RipHer2Shreds said:

Whew! Cool post, Rip.