Many people - even those not in the know about music history - can tell you that the Beatles' "Yesterday" is the most-covered song of all time. Not a lot of people know that the song at Number 2, however, is a song which engendered a storm of controversy upon its release, was banned in at least one US state, and was scrutinized relentlessly by the FBI.

That song is the Kingsmen's "Louie, Louie," a 60s frat anthem and garage-rock classic that is in itself a cover - the original was done by 50s R&B artist Richard Berry, who wrote it himself as a sort of sea chanty tribute (lyrically, at any rate). In Berry's original lyrics, Louie himself is a bartender, and the singer is telling him about a girl he left behind. The reason he "gotta go" is to get back to her. Simple. Charming, even. Yet when the Kingsmen covered it in 1963, they did it so cheaply that the lyrics became hopelessly garbled. Indeed, according to the band members, the vocals were sung into one huge boom mike hanging above the rest of the chaos.

When the song became a hit at frat parties, a scene often known for lascivious and outright raunchy tastes in music, the ambiguity of the Kingsmen version's vocals caused some to believe that they'd substantially altered the original lyrics. The words are definitely blurred in the hit version - the first line of the third verse is missing entirely - but a close listen reveals that the lyrics have indeed been left intact. The controversy remains fascinating, however, even though there IS profanity on the song itself - the drummer actually blurts out a positively filthy word right at the end of the second chorus. Turns out he hit his sticks together accidentally. Whoops.