Brother Louie was a Billboard number one hit in 1973 for Stories. It’s hard to have a number one hit. It’s usually an equal mixture of luck and talent.
The keyboard player in Stories was also in The Left Banke, which had another big hit with Walk Away Renee. Some people are like that. They cultivate the right friends, and drift from one success to another. But I find it interesting that Stories originally left Brother Louie off their album, because they didn’t like how it sounded. Or more to the point, they thought it sounded like someone else, and they didn’t think they wanted to — or could– sound like that all the time. Of course someone at the record company with more sense and cupidity re-released the album with the hit single on there. And we never heard from Stories — sounding the way they wanted to, or the way the record company wanted them to sound –again.
12 Responses
1 hit wonders, they are called.
I had to look up WARenee. Okay, I remember that.
The name meant nothing to me; the opening chords brought it back.
Hollies, check.
Rod Stewart, check.
Brother Louie? I got nuttin'…
Maybe the worst haircut in history.
I'm not sure i remember them, but the singer reminded me of Rod Stewart. Thanks for sharing.
Poor bassplayer's doing a yeoman's work, but he only gets like 2 seconds of screentime.
Of course I can dance
Are you sure the guitar player isn't really Gram Parsons? If you watch the Hot Burrito #1 vid they look separated at birth
Same intro is "It's too Late" by Carole King
OMG. You're killin' me.
I'd forgotten this song/band totally, but I remember those opening lines — "she was black as the night/Louie was whiter than white" or something like that —
for the time, trust me, dangerous lyrics… but also showing a society changing rapidly….
anyway, I'm much older than you. I'm sure you were a tyke or not even born…
And what made you think of this one? Or do you just go scuttling?
Ugh.
I mean scavenging.
'Bout the same time Quaaludes got popular
The Stories played an ugly inferior cover to the original UK hit. The title was written and sung by Errol Brown and Tony Wilson of the group Hot Chocolate, and was a Top 10 hit in the UK Singles Chart for the band in 1973, produced by Mickie Most. Alexis Korner has a spoken word part in this version of the song. Hot Chocolate were a superlative hit machine from that era.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiM6hF1naXE