Brother Louie (Hot Chocolate song)

"Brother Louie" is a song about an interracial love affair. The title was written and sung by Errol Brown and Tony Wilson of the group Hot Chocolate, and was a Top 10 hit in the UK Singles Chart for the band in 1973, produced by Mickie Most. It peaked at number 7 and became the 86th biggest British hit of 1973.Alexis Korner has a spoken word part in this version of the song.

Stories cover

"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 number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. In Canada, the Stories' version spent three weeks at number one.

Chart performance (Stories)

Weekly singles charts

Year-end charts

Other versions

Another cover was released in 1973 by Roy Ayers on his album Virgo Red, playing vibes instead of singing. It has since been covered by many other artists including The Undisputed Truth, The Quireboys, Peter Beckett, Louie Louie, Matumbi, The Oppressed, and Scarecrow. Vandenberg singer Bert Heerink had a top 10 hit in 1995 in the Netherlands with a Dutch version titled "Julie July". More recently, the song has been covered by Bon Jovi and the hip hop group Code Red.

Brother Louie (Modern Talking song)

"Brother Louie" is Modern Talking's first single from their third album, Ready for Romance. It was their fourth consecutive single to top the German Singles Chart, after "You're My Heart, You're My Soul", "You Can Win If You Want" and "Cheri, Cheri Lady".

"Brother Louie" was released on 27 January 1986 and it peaked at No. 1 on March 3, 1986 in Germany. The single spent four weeks at the top and total of 17 weeks in the German single chart. In the UK, it peaked at No. 4 in the charts and went silver for selling over 250,000 units. "Brother Louie" was also certified silver in France for selling over 250,000 units.

In 1998, not long after the duo's reunion, a re-worked version of the single was released entitled "Brother Louie '98". The single, released in a new sleeve was also successful, it reached gold in France for selling over 250,000 units.

Track listing

Germany