Rare photos of Jack Ely & Courtmen

Here’s a little test… See how many differences you see between the photo on the right and the photo on the left?

OK, here’s another set of images. How many differences did you see this time?

Both of these sets are near-identical photographs of Jack Ely & the Courtmen, the group created by the original singer of the Kingsmen after he ran into some problems with the other Kingsmen when he toured with a band he called “Jack Ely & the Kingsmen.” Jack had to change the name of his band, so he decided to call it The Courtmen.

I’ve been scanning a lot of images for this upcoming documentary. I’ve collected a lot of photographs, handbills, newspaper clippings, posters, and odd bits of LOUIE-related memorabilia. As I continue to gather images, I often get upgrades of photos I’ve already collected. In some cases, I get some near-identical variations of the same image. I thought this batch of variations was particularly interesting, so I decided to share what I discovered.

Photo retouching certainly has come a long way since the 1960’s, hasn’t it? I’m guessing the retouching on these photos was done with a razor blade and a can of rubber cement.

Here’s another variation of the first photo. Back in the 1980’s, there was a series of not-entirely-authorized music compilations celebrating semi-obscure garage rock recordings. This particular album, “Highs in The Mid-Sixties- Volume 07: The Northwest” featured Jack’s 1966 re-recording of his big hit song, named simply “Louie Louie ’66.”

If you want to hear “Louie Louie ’66” I’d recommend obtaining the Ace Records CD “LOVE THAT LOUIE,” which includes that re-recording, as well as a lot of other great versions of LOUIE LOUIE. Click on the button on the right column, buy the CD, and you’ll provide a small donation to this website. Or talk your local library into buying this CD, and let others share this great music!