Rockin Robin Roberts. Louie Louie / Maryann

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  • Regular price $45.00


This is a 45 from 1960 on Etiquette label by Rockin Robin Roberts. 

Rockin Robin Roberts born Lawrence Fewell Roberts II in 1940. Roberts was best known for his performances in the early 1960's with The Wailers (The Fabulous Wailers).

Roberts was best known for his recording of Louie Louie recorded in 1960 and released in 1961.

Roberts was born in New York City, he moved to the Pacific Northwest as a child after his father had passed. He lived with his mother in Tacoma, Washington. While attending Mason Junior High School he started listening to R&B music and buying records in Tacoma's black district. In 1957 at the Puyallup Fair he stood up and began singing Little Richard songs, he was unaccompanied at the time, and was heard by members of a local band, The Bluenotes. He was asked to join the band and he did. Unfortunately the group already had a lead singer but he still performed with them on occasion.  One of the R&B songs he started performing with the band at local dances was Louie Louie which was the B side of one of Richard Berry's songs in 1957. The other song he covered was Rockin Robin by Bobby Day and that was what gave him his stage name. 

In 1959 the Bluenotes and Roberts parted company and he joined another local band known as The Wailers. At that time the Wailers had and instrumental national hit, Tall Cool One. In 1960 he recorded "Louie Louie" with the Wailers,

although for contractual reasons it was released under Roberts' own name on a new record label, Etiquette, established by the band. The record was released in early 1961 and became a local hit in the Seattle area, before being reissued and promoted by Imperial Records in Los Angeles; however it failed to chart. The song finally became a hit for the Portland, Oregon band The Kingsmen in 1963 who for the most part used the arrangement devised by Roberts and the Wailers including Robert's ad-lib  "Okay, let's give it to 'em right now!".  Known for his dynamic onstage performances, Roberts continued to sing with the Wailers, and was one of the singers featured on their live album The Fabulous Wailers at the Castle, recorded in 1961.

In parallel with his singing career, Roberts was a successful student who attended the University of Washington, University of Puget Sound and Oregon State University. Eventually earning a master's degree in biochemistry. He became an assistant professor and served in the United States Marine Corp Reserve from 1962 to 1967. During those years he had pretty much put his music career on hold, however , in 1966 he returned to make his last recording with the Wailers on the single "You Don't Love Me". In July 1967, he moved to San Francisco and began to work as a chemist for Crown Cork and Seal Company. 

Early in the morning of December 22, 1967 we lost Robin Roberts then 27. He was killed in a head-on automobile accident after leaving a party. He was the passenger in a car traveling the wrong way on a divided freeway south of San Francisco and was killed on impact.

This 45 sounds good but does show a little wear.