"Brother Louie" is a song about an interracial love affair between a white man and a black woman, and the subsequent disowning of the man by his parents because of it. The title was written and sung by Errol Brown and Tony Wilson of the group Hot Chocolate, and was a No. 7 hit in the UK Singles Chart for the band in 1973, produced by Mickie Most.[1]Alexis Korner has a spoken word part in this version of the song,[2] Phil Dennys arrangement of the string section.
"Brother Louie" was covered by the American band Stories (featuring singer Ian Lloyd) about six months after Hot Chocolate's UK hit, and the Stories version made #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US and sold a million plus copies to earn a gold disk.[3]
The recording by Stories was featured in the filmA Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006). The same version also appeared in an episode of the series Nip/Tuck. An alternative rendition of the Stories version of the song was included in the soundtrack of the 2007 film Zodiac. It was also on the soundtrack to the 1999 film Dick and in the 2005 French-Canadian film C.R.A.Z.Y, but the song's first movie appearance was in Wim Wenders' 1974 film Alice in the Cities (7:15 into the movie).
The song, with slightly different wording, is used as the theme song to the television series Louie, a sitcom loosely based on the life of American comedian Louis C.K. The word "cry" was changed to "die" in the second repetition of the chorus. This version was produced by Reggie Watts, with the intro emulating the Hot Chocolate version, and with Stories singer Ian Lloyd reprising his vocals.
References[]
^Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 259. ISBN1-904994-10-5.
