Louie Louie you’re gonna fly

Friday, Sept. 17, 1999 | 9:51 a.m.

Louie Edmund Cordero -- better known to Las Vegas nightclub dwellers as Louie Louie -- received an e-mail message from friend and bandmate Sam Masarani not long ago.

It was a missive best understood by those in the hyper-passionate world populated by dedicated musicians.

"It said, 'Dance like nobody's watching. Love like you've never been hurt. Work like you don't need the money,' " Cordero said, fondly remembering the message from a percussionist in his five-person back-up band. "It's innocent, yeah. It's corny and maybe it's even naive, but in a lot of ways it's great advice."

It's also the inspiration for a new album set to be released by Louie Louie in December, "Dance, Love, Work," Cordero's fourth studio album this decade. The album title mirrors Cordova's philosophy of life -- particularly his tireless, up-at-all-hours stage act.

"I like to use words like 'energy' and 'drive' to describe my act," Cordero said. "Everything I do has that."

Clearly, the 37-year-old Cordero, a star in Madonna's 1984 video "Borderline" and himself a Top 20 artist on the Billboard charts with the dance hit "Sittin' in the Lap of Luxury" has found a satisfying career in an all-hours town that fits his personality perfectly.

"I sleep when most people are awake," Cordero said with a laugh. "I like the night. I lead an opposite lifestyle, and I like the fact that my shows are late at night, even if my band hates it."

For a little more than two years, Cordero has been the centerpiece of Louie Louie's 11 p.m.-5 a.m. show every Friday and Saturday (no cover charge) at The Nightclub at the Las Vegas Hilton. The show is the purest form of interactive entertainment, with Cordero freely sampling his own music as well as the top rhythm-and-blues and dance tunes of the day and venturing into the crowd.

"I like to get out into the audience and meet every single person in the audience, to shake everybody's hand and and see their faces," Cordero said. "I don't like being confined to the stage. I try to get out and entice people to get up and dance."

The 470-seat room is usually filled with folks all too happy to dance the night away.

"In the past two years I've only seen three or four people walk out, Cordero said. "When they come in, they usually don't want to leave."

Cordero tries just about any means of reaching his audience, from dressing as Austin Powers for the Ricky Martin hit "Livin' La Vida Loca" and donning fake dreadlocks to a take on Lenny Kravitz's "Fly Away."

"We're going to add 'American Woman,' " Cordero said. "We like the Latin music a lot, and it's really caught on. All walks of life are into it right now, Santana has a new CD that's hot, Ricky Martin's hot, and the big radio stations in L.A. that consider themselves black stations are playing a lot of Latin music."

After dallying in a wide assortment of music early in his career -- including ska, pop, funk, salsa and ballads -- Cordero said he's settling in on a more traditional rhythm-and-blues approach to his new CD.

"It's up-tempo, glad-you're-alive kind of music," said Cordero, who is finishing recording the CD in his home studio. "I've always loved artists like Stevie Wonder and (the Artist Formerly Known as) Prince. I've worn out 'Songs In The Key Of Life' about five times on CD, and I've always liked the unique sounds that Prince has used on his records."

But Cordero's act is only driven in part by the music. He makes frequent appointments with Los Angels designer Alek Adorian to update and modify his dazzling (and often reflective) wardrobe.

"Alek brings in the clothes and will put together some really crazy costumes," Cordero said. "For me, the crazier the better. As long as I can move. I don't think I'd be the same if I was up there in jeans and a T-shirt. Alek has put some stuff together that's just outrageous, like metal clothing that actually has aluminum in it.

"When you're wearing this stuff, you can't help but move around."

And the man in metal pants can dance. Having spent his youth living in or near Los Angeles, Cordero held a variety of odd jobs (including working at Del Taco, Sears and a local automobile dealership) while attempting to break into the then-infant world of music videos.

"I'd literally leave work from the auto dealership when they didn't know it, drive 30 minutes in to L.A. and audition, then come back," Cordero said. "It was crazy. I was just chasing a dream and following my heart."

One quick-shot trip to L.A. led Cordero to a break-dance competition, which the "Borderline" producers attended. He was plucked out of the contestants and cast as the love interest for then-blossoming starlet Madonna, who became both a friend and inspiration to Cordero.

"You couldn't believe the way this woman talked," Cordero said. "She would tell me straight to my face, 'I'm going to be bigger than Prince and Michael Jackson by next year. I'm going to be a huge star.' She had more drive and ambition than anyone I've ever known, and she still is turning out interesting stuff 15 years later."

Cordero cut his first CD, "The State I'm In," in 1990, featuring the late Dizzy Gillespie. The song "Sittin in the lap of Luxury" reached the Top 20 and became a summertime hit. A rugged three-month tour of Canada and the United States followed, with Louie Louie opening for the British synth-pop band Erasure on most dates.

"It was an odd mix, with us and Erasure, two diverse types of music," Cordero said. "We were playing a lot during the day, during the late afternoon, which I don't prefer because you can't use the lights as much."

Two years later, Louie Louie's second CD, "Let's Get Started," received vast airplay in Europe, and a short European tour followed. The self-titled album "Louie Cordero" followed in 1996, and soon after Cordero decided to use Louie Louie as his permanent professional name.

Not because of the song made famous by The Kingsmen, however.

"I've played it a couple of times," Cordero said. "Tina Turner has done a pretty wild version of it, and I've done her version. But I don't care too much about that particular song. I just wanted to use a name that reminded people of fun, of a good time and was something they were familiar with."

Having toured the country, recorded a hit single and befriended Madonna, Cordero said he's perfectly happy working his nearly nonstop schedule in Las Vegas. Cordero said he needs no more time away from the stage than his one week off per year.

"I've seen the world, and there is a barometer of energy in Las Vegas that can't be measured," Cordero said. "The world rotates around Las Vegas, and I don't consider what I do work. I remember my first job, at Del Taco. I sold shoes at Sears, I sold cars on commission ...

"Now that was work."

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