Mike Mitchell, founding member of the influential rock band The Kingsmen from the 60s, and guitarist on their hit single “Louie Louie”, has passed away. The group’s drummer, Dick Peterson, confirmed the news Rolling clip, and declared Mitchell deceased on Friday (April 16), his 77th birthday. No cause of death was revealed, but Peterson said RS that Mitchell ‘died peacefully’.
The Kingsmen started in 1959 in Portland, Oregon. In 1960, Mitchell and bassist Bob Nordby joined then-drummer Lynn Easton and singer Jack Ely (who died in 2015). In 1963, the band recorded their famous version of Richard Berry’s 1957 track “Louie Louie”. The song topped the Billboard singles chart and spent six non-consecutive weeks at number two on the Hot 100.
The Kingsmen version of ‘Louie Louie’ was a proponent of garage rock styling at the time – it was far more distorted and tough than Berry’s melodic original. Mitchell’s iconic guitar solo and Ely’s outspoken singing intrigued listeners, and even the FBI, which famously launched an investigation to determine whether or not Ely’s lyrics were riddled with obscenities. Eventually, they decided that the song was “incomprehensible at any speed.” The controversy did not hurt – Ely once said Rolling clip sales of the single rose when it was banned in the state of Indiana in 1964.
Although Ely and Nordby left the group in 1963, Mitchell was the last founding member left in the Kingsmen. He played guitar with a spinning series for 62 years, and he cut six albums between 1963 and 1966 and played countless live concerts. In addition to ‘Louie Louie’, Mitchell also played on the Kingsmen’s recordings of ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’, ‘Little Latin Lupe Lu’ and more.
In his statement to Rolling Stone, Dick Peterson said he was “deeply saddened” by Mike’s death, adding: “He was the friendliest and most generous man on the planet.”