10 Rock Cover Songs Better Than The Original
8. Iggy Pop: Louie Louie (Richard Berry)
Louis Louis has become a rock standard, covered by everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Patti smith, Otis Redding and Black Flag. The most recognised rendition was the 1963 hit by the Kingsmen. They turned it into a rock n' roll classic, as part of the first wave of surfer rockers to bastardise classic blues numbers. Richard Berry's original recording in 1955 was a far smoother version, in the style of rhythm and blues.
Iggy Pop had been performing the the track since the early '60s, both with his high school group and the Stooges. His rendition was dubbed the 'dirty version' for his insistence on including profanity whenever he sang the lyrics. Although a number of live version exist, the 1993 studio rendition is the one you want.
Pop gave it the punk make over, with grungy guitars driving the melody and dirtbag vocals delivering the attitude. Apart from the chorus, Pop wrote original lyrics to the track, which included references to the fall of the Soviet Union, the AIDS crisis, America's political class and the rise of capitalism.