Their first album, The Kingsmen in Person, remained on the Billboard Top LPs chart for 131 weeks from January 1964 to August 1966.

Their early albums were released internationally in Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Mexico, South Africa, and Taiwan.

Lynn Easton and Jack Ely started performing at an early age in local newspaper-sponsored revues with the Journal Juniors and the Young Oregonians, respectively.

[3] Easton and Ely performed at local parties and events, and soon added Mike Mitchell on guitar and Bob Nordby on bass to round out the band.

[5] The Kingsmen began their collective career playing at fashion shows, Red Cross events, and supermarket promotions, generally avoiding rock songs on their setlist.

[6] In 1962, Don Gallucci, a high school freshman at the time, was recruited from another local group, the Royal Notes, to play keyboards.

[10] Ken Chase, host of radio station KISN, formed his own club to capitalize on these dance crazes.

On April 5, 1963, Chase booked the band an hour-long session at the local Northwestern Inc. studio for the following day to record a demo tape for a summer cruise ship gig.

[15] Ely sang the beginning of the third verse two bars too early but realized his mistake and waited for the rest of the band to catch up.

[20] The B-side was "Haunted Castle", composed by Ely and Don Gallucci, the new keyboardist; however, Lynn Easton was credited on both the Jerden and Wand releases.

The lyrics were, in fact, innocent, but Ely's baffling enunciation permitted teenage fans and concerned parents alike to imagine the most scandalous obscenities.

[23] Picking up on this initially prankish effort, Whatcom County Councilman Craig Cole introduced Resolution No.

85–12 in the state legislature, citing the need for a "contemporary theme song that can be used to engender a sense of pride and community, and in the enhancement of tourism and economic development".

A crowd of 4,000, estimated by press reports, convened at the state capitol that day for speeches, singalongs, and performances by the Wailers, the Kingsmen, and Paul Revere and the Raiders.

Two days later, a Seattle event commemorated the occasion with the premiere performance of a new, Washington-centric version of the song written by composer Berry.

[4] This led Ely and Nordby to quit the group in 1963, and Gary Abbott and Norm Sundholm were added to play drums and bass, respectively.

[54] (The liner notes for the first album, The Kingsmen In Person, presented an abridged history with no mention of Ely or Nordby and with Easton as the group’s sole founder and creative force.

The two remaining original Kingsmen, Lynn Easton and Mike Mitchell, were joined by Gary Abbott, Barry Curtis and Norm Sundholm to record their first album and tour as the official band.

[57][58] Following legal action, a settlement was reached and Easton, Mitchell, Peterson, Curtis and Sundholm established their rights to the "Kingsmen" name.

After starting 1965 with their own float in the Rose Bowl Parade,[62] the Kingsmen returned to the Top 10 nationally with "The Jolly Green Giant" reaching No.

They also released a promotional item, a "picture-sleeve-clad potato-chip ad jingle 45" titled "The Krunch", their only picture sleeve single, which did not chart.

[65] 1966 also saw two Kingsmen departures: Barry Curtis was drafted and Norm Sundholm opted to work full time for Sunn amplifiers, a business he had started in 1964 with his brother.

[68] In 1968 with the original group on a recording and touring hiatus, the Kingsmen's management team worked with the Kasenetz-Katz production organization and studio musicians to release a single on the Earth label ("Feed Me"/"Just A 'B' Side").

Dick Peterson and Barry Curtis as the Other Two released two singles in 1966,[75] and Lynn Easton re-recorded "The Jolly Green Giant" in 1976.

[81] Gusto had acquired the Kingsmen song rights from Springboard International Records, Inc., who had purchased the entire Scepter-Wand catalog in 1977 after Florence Greenberg's retirement, but the group had not been paid royalties since 1968.

[90] Guitar Player magazine noted, "Raw, lightning-fast, and loud, the solo's unbridled energy helped make the song a No.

This group scored a hit record (#35) on Billboard with the instrumental entitled "Week End", written by Rudy Pompilli, Franny Beecher, and Billy Williamson, backed with "Better Believe It" as the B side.

They released a follow-up single on East West Records featuring "The Catwalk" backed with "Conga Rock".