Johnny Rivers

b. John Ramistella, 7 November 1942, New York, New York State, USA. Johnny Rivers scored a long streak of pop hits in the '60s and '70s, initially by remaking earlier R&B songs and eventually with his own compositions. His singles were spirited creations, some recorded live in front of an enthusiastic, hip Los Angeles audience. His father moved the family to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1945, where Rivers began playing guitar at the age of eight. By the age of 13, having become enamoured of the local rock ‘n’ roll and R&B artists, he was fronting his own group. In 1958 he ventured to New York to make his first recording. Top disc jockey Alan Freed met the singer and gave him his new name, Johnny Rivers, and also recommended to the local Gone Records label that they sign Rivers. They did, and his first single, Baby Come Back, was issued that year. At 17 Rivers moved to Nashville, where he wrote songs with another aspiring singer, Roger Miller, and recorded demo records for Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and others, including Ricky Nelson, who recorded Rivers' Make Believe in 1960. Rivers relocated to Los Angeles at that time. Between 1959 and his 1964 signing to Imperial Records he recorded singles for such small labels as Guyden, Cub and Dee Dee, as well as the larger Chancellor, Capitol Records, MGM Records, Coral Records and United Artists Records, none with any chart success.
In late 1963 Rivers began performing a three-night stand at the LA club Gazzari's, which was so successful it was extended for weeks. He then took up residency at the popular discotheque the Whisky A Go Go, where his fans began to include such stars as Johnny Carson, Steve McQueen and Rita Hayworth. His first album for Imperial, JOHNNY RIVERS AT THE WHISKY A GO GO, was released in the summer of 1964 and yielded his first hit, Chuck Berry's Memphis, which reached number 2. Further hits during 1964-65 included Berry's Maybelline, Harold Dorman's Mountain Of Love, the traditional folk song Midnight Special, Willie Dixon's Seventh Son and Pete Seeger's Where Have All The Flowers Gone, each delivered in a rousing, loose interpretation that featured Rivers' nasal vocal, his concise, soulful guitar-playing and sharp backing musicians. Relentlessly rhythmic, the tracks were produced by Lou Adler, working his way toward becoming one of the city's most formidable hitmakers. Rivers started 1966 with Secret Agent Man, the theme song from a popular television spy thriller. Later that year he achieved his only number 1 record with his own Poor Side Of Town (co-written with Adler), an uncharacteristic ballad using top studio musicians such as Hal Blaine, James Burton and Larry Knechtel. Rivers also launched his own Soul City record label in 1966, signing the popular Fifth Dimension, who went on to score four Top 10 singles on the label. Retreating from the party atmosphere of his earlier recordings for Imperial, Rivers had hits in 1967 with two Motown covers, the Four Tops' Baby I Need Your Lovin' and Smokey Robinson's The Tracks Of My Tears. Following an appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival, another soulful ballad, the James Hendricks-penned Summer Rain, became Rivers' last major hit of the '60s. The latter also appeared on Rivers' best-selling album, the REALIZATION. Early '70s albums such as SLIM SLO SLIDER, HOME GROWN and LA REGGAEwere critically lauded but not commercially successful, although the latter gave Rivers a Top 10 single with Huey Piano Smith's Rockin' Pneumonia—Boogie Woogie Flu. A version of the Beach Boys' Help Me Rhonda (with backing vocal by Brian Wilson) was a minor success in 1975, and two years later Rivers landed his final Top 10 single, Swayin' To The Music (Slow Dancin'). Rivers recorded a handful of albums in the '80s, including a live one featuring the old hits, but none reached the charts.