Louie Louie was conceived in Holland in 1991, but it took almost six years before the Kings tried a full night of Louie Louie live on stage at Denver’s Swallow Hill Festival in 1997. According to Chris, the concept came to him after playing at the Queen’s Birthday festival in Holland. At a wild party in a second floor apartment in The Hague, kind of like a 1940′s rent party, Daniels asked Big Al, the king of Dutch radio, about an idea Chris had for an acoustic Kings record. Chris wanted to use the music of Louie Jordan, Louie Prima, and Louie Armstrong to celebrate the complexity and fun the Kings were famous for.
As Daniels tells it, “Al looked at me and said… ‘It’ll be fuckin great but nobody will buy it. Who want to hear swing?” Five years passed, but the endorsement of the legendary Dutch DJ stayed with Daniels. Suddenly, in the latter part of the 1990′s, swing is hip again and the time seems right for Louie Louie.
