In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Seattle was the hotbed for popular music. Record companies and executives stormed the city limits looking for the next band that would wow with big, heavy songs and poignant, thought-provoking lyrics. Who would be the next Nirvana, Soundgarden, or Pearl Jam?
Well before that era of the city’s music, there were still classic rock bands doing their thing and making the Emerald City what it would later become, musically speaking. Here below, we wanted to explore three such songs. A trio of tracks from Seattle-born classic rock bands that came along before the city’s grunge explosion.
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[RELATED: Nirvana’s Former Soundman Craig Montgomery Talks Music Festivals with Grunge Icons]
“Barracuda” by Heart from Little Queen (1977)
The Seattle-born rock band Heart did so much for rock globally and their hometown. While the Seattle area had a history of music, from Ray Charles to even Bing Crosby, Heart was the first national or even international rock group to come from the region. Fronted by sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, the group’s debut LP Dreamboat Annie remains a master class in classic rock, and their 1977 album Little Queen featured perhaps the group’s best-known song, “Barracuda,” a hard rocker about the nefarious blood suckers who try to impose their gross will onto female rockers. (For more on the track, check out the American Songwriter interview with guitarist Nancy Wilson here.)
“The Witch” by The Sonics from Here Are the Sonics!!! (1965)
Even before Heart, it was the Sonics who made the biggest waves in the Emerald City area. In the 1960s and early 1970s, garage rock was huge in the area. Back then, Seattle was more of an outpost and not nearly the metropolis it has become today. So, loud, blistering, and buzzy garage rock was the rage and it was The Sonics who perfected it. The band’s biggest hit from their seminal debut 1965 LP was “The Witch,” which has since influenced rock, grunge, and punk.
“Louie Louie” by The Wailers (1961)
One of the most famous early rock songs, “Louie Louie” became a national hit when it was recorded by The Kingsmen in 1963. But the song wasn’t written by them or even first performed by that Portland, Oregon-born group. Originally, the track was written by Richard Berry in 1955 and released in 1957. It was that same year when Berry played a show in the Seattle area and local artists, including Dave Lewis, took it and ran with it. The first Pacific Northwest band to make the song a hit was the Tacoma, Washington-born group The Wailers. Just 45 minutes south of Seattle, The Wailers cut the track and released it in 1961 as a standalone single. That was two years before The Kingsmen could get to it. Ever since, the song has lived in perpetuity.
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