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Johnny Rivers Wiki Information
Johnny Rivers
(born John Henry Ramistella
, 7 November 1942, in New York) is an American rock and roll singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He was versatile enough to do folk songs, blues, and revivals of old-time rock 'n' roll music songs and some original material. Rivers's greatest success came in the mid and late 1960s with a series of successful songs (including "Seventh Son", "Poor Side of Town", "Summer Rain", and "Secret Agent Man"), but he has continued to record and perform to the present.
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JOHNNY RIVERS TICKETS
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Career
1950s
The Ramistella family moved from New York to Baton Rouge, Louisiana when John was five years old. Without any formal music lessons, he began playing guitar—- learned from his father—- at the age of eight, and was influenced by the distinctive music of Louisiana.
Ramistella formed his own band, The Spades, in junior high school and made his first record at age 14, while still a student at Baton Rouge High School. Some of their music was recorded for the Suede company as early as 1956. [1]
On a journey back to New York in 1958, he met Alan Freed who advised him to change his name, so Johnny Ramistella had the Baton Rouge attorney Arthur J. Cobb change his name to Johnny Rivers after the Mississippi River that flows near Baton Rouge. Freed also helped Rivers obtain some recording contracts with the Gone company. From March 1958 to March 1959, Rivers released three records which did not sell well.
During 1959, Rivers returned to Baton Rouge. While playing throughout the American South, in Birmingham Rivers met Audrey Williams, the first wife of Hank Williams. She took Rivers to Nashville, where he recorded two more records. They were not successful either, but Johnny stayed in Nashville as a songwriter and demo singer for $25 a demo. While in Nashville, Rivers worked alongside Roger Miller.
1960s
During 1960, Rivers met fellow Louisianan James Burton, the guitar player for Ricky Nelson. Burton later recommended one of Rivers' songs to Nelson, who recorded it. During 1961, Rivers went to Los Angeles to meet Nelson, and then relocated there, working as a songwriter and studio musician. During 1963, Rivers's substituted temporarily for a jazz group at Bill Gazzarri's nightclub; the temporary gig became long-term due to positive customer response. [2]
During 1963, Rivers was chosen by the producers of British television series " Danger Man," which starred Patrick McGoohan, to sing the theme song for the U.S. version, "Secret Agent." The show itself wasn't successful, but the theme song was. Although the song was only one verse (and after the chorus had been recorded), Rivers got the idea to add two more verses, then record live at the Whiskey A-Go-Go; this became his first Top Ten success (1964). " Secret Agent Man," scored number 4 on the charts, and helped begin Rivers' career as a profitable singer.
During 1964, Elmer Valentine gave Rivers a one-year contract to open in his new nightclub, Whisky a Go Go, on Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. [ The Whisky a Go Go opened three days before The Beatles released "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and the so-called "British Invasion" reduced the chart scores of almost every American musical artist. But Rivers was so popular that producer Lou Adler decided to issue Johnny Rivers Live At The Whiskey A Go Go
.
The live album scored #12 on the charts and the single "Memphis" reached the US Hit Parade #2 spot [3] during July 1964. According to Elvis Presley's friend and employee Alan Fortas, Presley played his friend (Rivers) a test pressing of "Memphis" that Elvis had made but not released. Rivers was impressed and much to Presley's chagrin, Rivers recorded and released it, even copying the arrangement (Fortas writes: "After that, Johnny was on Elvis's shit list" and was persona non grata from then on). [4] River's version greatly outsold the Chuck Berry original from August 1959 which stalled at #87 in the US. (Lonnie Mack's 1963 instrumental version of "Memphis" scored the US Hit Parade top five during July [5]; the Chuck Berry original and its British rival cover version competed in the UK Hit parade during November 1963).
]
Rivers made a successful transition from nightclub entertainer to famous popular music singer and had created the so-called "Go Go sound", part of an act which included Go-Go dancers. During 1965, Rivers continued to record mostly live, Go-Go style records including "Maybellene" (another Berry cover), after which came "Mountain of Love", "Midnight Special", "Seventh Son" (written by Willie Dixon) and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" (written by Pete Seeger), all of which were successes.
Rivers wanted to try something different and adopted a more idiosyncratic style around 1966. He produced such successful portrayals as "Poor Side Of Town", which would be his greatest success ever and his only number one scoring record. Another success was "Secret Agent Man", the theme from the Secret Agent
television series (written by P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri). He also started his own record company, Soul City Records, where he won a Grammy Award as the producer of the 5th Dimension, which eventually recorded "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" and "Wedding Bell Blues", two number-one successes with Rivers's company. Johnny is also credited with giving songwriter Jimmy Webb major help when the 5th Dimension recorded Webb's song "Up, Up, and Away".
Johnny Rivers continued to record more successes, including "Baby I Need Your Lovin'" (cover of the Four Tops) and "The Tracks of My Tears" (cover of the Miracles), both went Top 10 in 1967. During 1968, Rivers released what many fans consider his best album [weasel words], Realization
, a number-five album on the LP charts that included the #14 popular music chart single album 'Summer Rain' written by a former member of the early 1960s Folk/Rock band The Mugwumps, James Hendricks (not to be confused with famous musician Jimi Hendrix). The album included some of the psychedelic influences of the time and marked a subtle change of his musical style, with more thoughtful types of songs, included such ballads as "Going Back to Big Sur".
1970s
During the 1970s, Rivers continued to record more songs and albums that were a success with music critics, but did not sell as well as some of his earlier successes. One of these albums, L.A. Reggae
during 1972, scored the LP charts as a result of the #6 success "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu", a cover version of the Huey "Piano" Smith And The Clowns song. Other successes at that time were "Blue Suede Shoes" (cover of Carl Perkins), during 1973, which would score the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100,[ and "Help Me Rhonda" during 1975 (cover version of The Beach Boys) on which Brian Wilson helped with backup vocals. His last Top 10 entry was "Swayin' to the Music (Slow Dancing)" (cover version of the Funky Kings), which reached #10, followed by his last Hot 100 entry, "Curious Mind (Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um)" (cover of Major Lance), both during 1977. He also sang the title song to the late night concert influenced TV show The Midnight Special
.
]
1980s to current
Rivers continued recording during the 1980s (e.g., 1980's Borrowed Time
LP), although his recording career decreased. Despite his music not having scored the best seller charts for quite a while, Rivers is still touring, doing 50 to 60 shows a year. Increasingly he has returned to the blues that inspired him initially.
During 1998, Rivers reactivated his Soul City trade-name and released Last Train to Memphis
.
During 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".
In all, Rivers had nine Top 10 successes on the Billboard Hot 100 and 17 in the Top 40 from 1964 to 1977. In total, he has sold well over 30 million records.
Rivers is one of a small number of performers such as Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Pink Floyd (from 1975's Wish You Were Here
onward), Queen, Genesis (though under the members' individual names and/or the pseudonym Gelring Limited) and Neil Diamond who have their name as the copyright owner on their recordings. (Most records have the recording company as the named owner of the recording.) This noteworthy development was spearheaded by supergroup The Bee Gees after their successful $200,000,000 lawsuit against RSO, which remains to this day the largest successful lawsuit against a record company by an artist/group.
On June 12, 2009, Johnny Rivers was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
Discography
Main albums
- At the Whisky à Go Go
(live album) (1964)
- Here We à Go Go Again!
(live) (1964)
- In Action!
(1964)
- Meanwhile Back at the Whiskey 'a GoGo
(live) (1965)
- Johnny Rivers Rocks the Folk
(1965)
- ...and I know you wanna dance
(live) (1966)
- Changes (Johnny Rivers album)
(1966)
- Rewind (Johnny Rivers album)
(1967)
- Whiskey 'a GoGo Revisited
(live) (1967)
- Realization (Johnny Rivers album)
(1968)
- Slim Slo Slider
(1970)
- Homegrown (Johnny Rivers album)
(1971)
- A Portrait Of Johnny Rivers
(1971)
- L.A. Reggae
(1972)
- Blue Suede Shoes (Johnny Rivers album)
(1973)
- Rockin Pneumonia (Johnny Rivers album)
(1973)
- Last Boogie in Paris
(live) (1974) (not released in the U.S.)
- Rockin' Rivers
(1974) (not released in the U.S.)
- Road (Johnny Rivers album)
(1974)
- New Lovers and Old Friends
(1975)
- Wild Night (Johnny Rivers album)
(1976)
- Outside Help
(1977)
- The Rock And Roll Years
(1981)
- Borrowed Time
(1980)
- Not a Through Street
(1983)
- Greatest Hits
(1985)
- The Memphis Sun Recordings
(1991)
- Last Train to Memphis
(1998)
- Back at the Whisky
(live) (2000)
- Reinvention Highway
(2004)
- Last Boogie in Paris: The Complete Concert
(live) (2007)
- Shadows on the Moon
(forthcoming) (2009)
Main compilations
- Johnny Rivers' Golden Hits
(1966)
- Touch of Gold
(1969)
- Johnny Rivers
(1972)
- The Very Best of Johnny Rivers
(1975)
- The Best of Johnny Rivers
(1987)
- Anthology, 1964-1977
(1991)
- Summer Rain: The Essential Rivers, 1964-1975
(2006)
- ''Secret Agent Man: The Ultimate Johnny Rivers Anthology (2006)
Singles
Chart positions are from the Billboard Hot 100:
- "Memphis" #2 (1964)
- "Maybellene" #12 (1964)
- "Mountain of Love" #9 (1964)
- "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" (1964)
- "Midnight Special" #20 (1965)
- "Cupid" #76 (1965)
- "Seventh Son" #7 (1965)
- "Where Have All The Flowers Gone" #26 (1965)
- "Under Your Spell Again" #35 (1965)
- "Do You Wanna Dance?" #31 (1966)
- "Secret Agent Man" #3 (1966)
- "(I Washed My Hands In) Muddy Water" #19 (1966)
- "Poor Side Of Town" #1 (1966)
- "Baby I Need Your Lovin'" #3 (1967)
- "The Tracks Of My Tears" #10 (1967)
- "Summer Rain" #14 (1967)
- "Look To Your Soul" #49 (1968)
- "Right Relations" #61 (1968)
- "These Are Not My People" #55 (1969)
- "Muddy River" #41 (1969)
- "One Woman" #89 (1969)
- "Into the Mystic" #51 (1970)
- "Fire and Rain" # 94 (1970)
- "Sea Cruise" #84 (1971)
- "Think His Name" #65 (1971)
- "Rockin' Pneumonia - Boogie Woogie Flu" #6 (1972)
- "Blue Suede Shoes" #38 (1973)
- "Help Me Rhonda" #22 (1975)
- "Ashes and Sand" #96 (1977)
- "Swayin' To The Music (Slow Dancin')" #10 (1977)
- "Curious Mind (Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um)" #41 (1977)
References
- Poore, Billy (1998). ''Rockabilly: A Forty-Year Journey'', p. 101. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 0793591422.
- Quisling, Erik, and Williams, Austin (2003). ''Straight Whisky: A Living History of Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll on the Sunset Strip'', pp. 19-21. Bonus Books, Inc. ISBN 1566251974.
- Cash box: Top 100 singles
- Fortas, Alan and Nash, Alanna (1992). ''Elvis from Memphis to Hollywood'', p.228, Aurum Press. ISBN 9781845133221.
- Cash box: Top 100 singles
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