Is an American musician. His repertoire includes pop, folk, blues and old-time rock 'n' roll. Rivers charted during the 1960s and 1970s but remains best known for a string of hit singles betwe 1964 and 1968, among them Memphis (a Chuck Berry cover), Mountain of Love (a Harold Dorman cover), The Sevth Son (a Willie Mabon cover), Secret Agt Man, Poor Side of Town (a US No. 1), Baby I Need Your Lovin' (a 1967 cover of the Four Tops single from 1964) and Summer Rain.
Rivers was born John Hry Ramistella in New York City, of Italian desct. His family moved from New York to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Influced by the distinctive Louisiana musical style, Rivers began playing guitar at age eight, taught by his father and uncle. While still in junior high school, he started sitting in with a band called the Rockets, led by Dick Holler, who later wrote several hit songs, including Abraham, Martin and John and the novelty song Snoopy vs. the Red Baron.
Ramistella formed his own band, the Spades, and made his first record at 14 while he was a studt at Baton Rouge High School.
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On a trip to New York City in 1958, Ramistella met Alan Freed, who advised him to change his name to Johnny Rivers refercing the Mississippi River that flows through Baton Rouge.
From March 1958 to March 1959, Johnny Rivers released three records, including Baby Come Back (a non-Christmas version of Elvis Presley's Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me)), none of which sold well.
Rivers returned to Baton Rouge in 1959 and began playing throughout the American South alongside comedian Brother Dave Gardner. One eving in Birmingham, Alabama, Rivers met Audrey Williams, Hank Williams' first wife. She couraged Rivers to move to Nashville, Tnessee, where he found work as a songwriter and demo singer. Rivers also worked alongside Roger Miller. By this time, Rivers had decided he would never make it as a singer and songwriting became his priority.
Poor Side Of Town By Johnny Rivers
In 1958, Rivers met fellow Louisianan James Burton, a guitarist in a band led by Ricky Nelson. Burton later recommded one of Rivers' songs, I'll Make Believe, to Nelson who recorded it. They met in Los Angeles in 1961, where Rivers subsequtly found work as a songwriter and studio musician. His big break came in 1963 wh he filled in for a jazz combo at Gazzarri's, a nightclub in Hollywood where his instant popularity drew large crowds.
In 1964, Elmer Valtine gave Rivers a one-year contract to op at the Whisky a Go Go on Sunset Strip in West Hollywood.
The Whisky had be in business just three days wh the Beatles song I Want to Hold Your Hand tered the Billboard Hot 100.
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The subsequt British Invasion knocked almost every American artist off the top of the charts but Rivers was so popular that record producer Lou Adler decided to issue Johnny Rivers Live at the Whisky a Go Go,
And also on the Hot 100 on 11–18 July 1964. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc.
According to Elvis Presley's frid and employee, Alan Fortas, Presley played a test pressing of Memphis for Rivers that Presley had made but not released. Rivers was impressed and much to Presley's chagrin, Rivers recorded and released it ev copying the arrangemt.
Summer Rain — Johnny Rivers
Rivers continued to record mostly live performances throughout 1964 and 1965, including Go-Go-style records with songs featuring folk music and blues rock influces including Maybelle (another Berry cover), after which came Mountain of Love, Midnight Special, Sevth Son (writt by Willie Dixon) plus Pete Seeger's Where Have All the Flowers Gone?, all of which were hits.
In 1963, Rivers began working with writers P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri on a theme song for the American broadcast of a British television series Danger Man, starring Patrick McGoohan. At first Rivers balked at the idea but evtually changed his mind. The American version of the show, titled Secret Agt, wt on the air in the spring of 1965. The theme song was very popular and created public demand for a longer single version. Rivers' recording of Secret Agt Man reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1966.
In 1966, Rivers began to record ballads that featured background vocalists. He produced several hits including his own Poor Side of Town, which became his biggest chart hit and his only No. 1 record. He also started his own record company, Soul City Records, which included the 5th Dimsion. The group's recordings of Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In and Wedding Bell Blues became No. 1 hits for the new label. In addition, Rivers is credited with giving songwriter Jimmy Webb a major break wh the 5th Dimsion recorded his song Up, Up and Away.
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Rivers also recorded Webb's By the Time I Get to Phoix. It was covered by Gl Campbell, who had a major hit with it.
Rivers continued to record more hits covering other artists, including Baby I Need Your Lovin', originally recorded by the Four Tops, and The Tracks of My Tears by the Miracles, both going Top 10 in 1967. In 1968, Rivers put out Realization, a No. 5 album that included the No. 14 pop chart single Summer Rain, writt by a former member of the Mugwumps, James Hdricks. The album included some of the psychedelic influces of the time, like the song Hey Joe with a two-minute introduction and marked a change in Rivers' musical direction with more introspective songs including Look to Your Soul and Going Back to Big Sur.
In the 1970s, Rivers continued to record more songs and albums that were successes with music critics but did not sell well. L.A. Reggae (1972) reached the LP chart as a result of the No. 6 hit Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu, a cover version of the Huey Piano Smith and the Clowns song. The track became Rivers' third million seller, which was acknowledged with the prestation of a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America (R.I.A.A.) on January 29, 1973.
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Reviewing L.A. Reggae in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Sevties (1981), Robert Christgau said, there are modernization moves, of course—two get-out-the-vote songs (just what George needs) plus the mysterious reggae conceit plus a heartfelt if belated antiwar song—but basically this is just Johnny nasalizing on some fine old memories. 'Rockin' Pneumonia' and 'Knock on Wood' are especially fine.
Other Hot 100 top 40 hits from that time period were 1973's Blue Suede Shoes (originally recorded in 1955 by Carl Perkins)
Rivers' last Top 10 try was his 1977 recording of Swayin' to the Music (Slow Dancing), writt by Jack Tempchin and originally released by Funky Kings. Rivers' last Hot 100 try, also in 1977, was Curious Mind (Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um), originally released by Major Lance and writt by Curtis Mayfield. In addition, Rivers recorded the title song for the late night concert-influced TV show The Midnight Special.
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Rivers continued releasing material into the 1980s (e.g. 1980's Borrowed Time LP), garnering an interview with Dick Clark on American Bandstand in 1981,
In 1998 he reactivated his Soul City Records label and released Last Train to Memphis. In early 2000, Rivers recorded with Eric Clapton, Tom Petty and Paul McCartney on a tribute album dedicated to Buddy Holly's backup band, the Crickets.
He is one of a small number of performers whose names are listed as the copyright owner on their recordings. Most records list the recording company as the owner of the recording. Others include Mariah Carey, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Pink Floyd (from 1975's Wish You Were Here onward), Que, Gesis (though under the members' individual names and/or the pseudonym Gelring Limited), and Neil Diamond. The practice began with the Bee Gees and their $200 million lawsuit against RSO Records, the largest successful lawsuit against a record company by an artist or group.
In “summer Rain” By Johnny Rivers, The Song References “sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band”. Which Beatles Song Do The Chords After This Line Come From?
His name has be suggested many times for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but he has never be selected. Rivers, however, was a nominee for 2015 induction into America's Pop Music Hall of Fame.
On April 9, 2017, he performed a song, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, at the funeral for Chuck Berry, at The Pageant, in St. Louis, Missouri.
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