Louie Louie Rosy Rosy

" ´Should hear our version of "Louie Louie!", were the last words, Joy Division singer Ian Curtis uttered on stage after the band crashed through a pretty rough version of "Sister Ray" as their final encore ever.

"Louie Louie", one of the most covered rock-standards in the long history of rock-standards counts over 1500 different cover-versions according to Wikipedia.

Notorious for being the subject of a long and idiotic FBI-investigation that tried to find out if the lyrics were actually obscene (or if the obscenities could only be heard when the record was played at the wrong speed!), countless versions of the song would then actually invent rude lyrics, securing the basic rock-riff it´s legendary status.


One of the most bizarre cover versions, however was done by a German Vocal-Jazz group, The Rosy Singers.

During the late fifties and into the mid-seventies, the band was a well booked studio-session group, recording vocals for many orchestras and Schlager productions. they also implanted their voices inside the heads of young German movie-goers since they recorded the dubbed songs for most of the Disney movies (eg. Bambi).


By the late sixties the 2 girls/2 guys group would sing in many legendary tv-shows alongside many big-bands.
The Rosy Singers were always a supplement, hardly ever taking centre stage. A reason for this was their typical, laid back, almost ethereal singing style. Cushioned in lush string arrangements, their four-voiced harmonies were so tricky that they actually sounded like a full choir.

But somewhere inside all this fluff, Rosy must have felt the urge to get down and dirty. And what could be better than a German version of Louie Louie in a Rosy-Stylee, to show all those kids that the Rosies were cool?!

Well, I know a few things but they did it anyway.

For pure wonder and sensation (or sedation) enjoy The Rosy Singers: Louie Louie.

Being mostly a studio-act is one of the reasons that pictures of the Rosy-Singers are nearly impossible to find. Please accept these random selections which I think reflect the mood of the song.

This post is for the amazing Leo at Versions Galore, who just recently felt the need to post 73 cover versions of "Das Model". Galore indeed!