Louis Russell Pegues (born 1944, Buffalo, New York, U.S.A. ), better known as Lou Courtney, is a soul singer who had some chart success in the mid 60s with the dance hits "Skate Now" and "Do the Thing".
He made his first record for Imperial Records in 1962, but much of his work over the next few years was behind the scenes, writing with producer Dennis Lambert; he wrote songs for artists such as Mary Wells and Chubby Checker under the pseudonym Louis Pegues.
In 1966, Courtney signed with Riverside Records and began recording a series of dance hits that made him a national star, notably 'Skate Now' (number 13 R&B, number 70 pop) from 1967, and 'Do The Thing' (number 17 R&B, number 80 pop). An album Skate Now / Shing-A-Ling soon followed. He went to Buddah Records in 1968 and recorded 'Tryin' To Find My Woman', which did not chart at the time of its release but later became a favourite among UK northern soul fans.
Courtney spent a period as lead vocalist with the Packers (who recorded 'Go Ahead'). In 1973, he began working with producer Jerry Ragovoy, and in 1974 released an excellent soul album entitled I'm In Need Of Love from which was released the single 'What Do You Want Me To Do' (number 48 R&B) on Epic. A second single from the album, 'I Don't Need Nobody Else' (number 67 R&B) was Lou Courtney's last chart record. His new band Buffalo Smoke released an album on RCA Records in 1976, but their proto-disco style failed to make a commercial impact.
He was in the group Fifth Dimension briefly in 1978 and 1979. Little has been heard of Courtney since the end of the 70s, although on rare occasions he has come out of retirement to perform one-off live shows.
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Below is a list of Lou Courtney songs, sorted by the most popular first. Place mouse on
to see information about song. Click song title to play song and to read details about the song including lyrics (if available). Click year to list all songs from that year. Click label to list songs from that record label. Songs with chart position "---" either never made it into the US top 100 R&B or UK charts or we have no details of their highest chart positions if they did.
(Song are sorted in highest US R&B Top 100 and/or UK Top 100 chart position order)
