One of the most prominent purveyors of the California musical scene is Johnny Rivers. Born in New York in 1942 as John Ramistella, Rivers is well-known as a musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and label owner/founder. From 1964 to 1968, most people recognize Johnny as a live performer, popular with crowds and audiences at the Whiskey a Go Go club in Los Angeles.
From 1958 to 1964, he recorded several tunes for eight record labels, most on the East Coast. In one of his first, released in 1958, he mimics Elvis Presley.
It was in New York in 1958 where Rivers took on his new last name courtesy of DJ Alan Freed. He moved to Baton Rouge and learned how to play guitar at age eight. He was into pop, folk, country, blues, and rock ‘n’ roll. His first band was called the Rockets. He soon after formed a group called the Spades. After some years in New York, Rivers moved back to Baton Rouge. During this time he sold one of his songs to Ricky Nelson, and moved to LA, where he became a writer and session musician. He also began playing live with a drummer at a Hollywood jazz club called Gazaris in 1963. Whiskey a Go Go opened on Sunset about the same time the Beatles arrived in America, and owners there offered Rivers a one-year contract to open there live, alternating the stage with a disc jockey. Rivers started the gig by playing and recording live a Chuck Berry tune:
Rivers had heard a test pressing of Memphis by Elvis, and copied it note for note, ending any relationship he was ever going to have with the King. Along with the trio Rivers assembled—drummer Eddie Rubin, bassist Joe Osborne, and the female DJ—the Whiskey employed go-go dancers to entertain the crowd. The Whiskey a Go Go got its name from a French bar near Cannes (Go Go is a French expression meaning in abundance or galore). Rivers recorded many songs live at the Whiskey, including another Chuck Berry song:
Rivers, with his famous red Gibson guitar, was an immediate hit. He joined up with record producer Lou Adler (later of Mama and Papas fame) and signed with Imperial records, which gave the pair more autonomy in what to record and release. Rivers’ only regret with Maybelline is his harmonica playing, which he thought was flat. His third single in the fall of 1964 was his version of a Harold Dorman hit, which was his first Imperial studio single:
It included top session musicians from the Wrecking Crew, like famed drummer Hal Blaine. Rivers continued to record mostly live performances throughout 1964 and 1965, all of which were hits. His fourth single was a revved up version of a folk tune that became better known when he re-recorded the song in 1972 as the theme for the late-night NBC pop music series of the same name:
In 1965 it reached number 20 on Billboard. As Rivers worked more often in the studio, his basic recording band of drummer Blaine, bass player Osborne, and keyboardist Larry Knechtel coalesced into a group that would record some of LA’s classic pop records. Rivers said Adler (along with just about every other producer in Hollywood) used them on records by The Mamas and Papas, Barry McGuire, and The Fifth Dimension. On the flip side of Midnight Special was Rivers’ recording of a Sam Cooke ballad:
His next Top Ten record came out in the fall of 1965. It was a cover of Mose Allison’s version of a song that Rivers said has a “What’d I Say” kind of feeling to it:
Rivers saw Allison playing the song in a jazz club called the Downbeat in Gulfport, Mississippi, and Rivers went on to acknowledge he was a great Mose Allison fan, performing a bunch of his songs that he never recorded. While Johnny was taping Seventh Son, the Folk rock era was just beginning to bloom. After laying down Where Have All the Flowers Gone, which Rivers didn’t like, he found one he did in March 1966. Thanks to James Bond and TV spy shows like Man From Uncle, the Brits had one of their own called Danger Man, which was re-titled Secret Agent when brought to U.S. TV. Rivers was approached by the producers of the show to see if he could come up with a theme. Writers Sloane and Barri composed the song and it eventually became a hit for Rivers, who played lead guitar on the tune. This song, which I think is Rivers’ best, turned out to be a Number Three single:
Rivers followed this with a country version of I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water, his last song offering a go go style. His next two albums would signify a big change in his singing and recording style, and his musical direction. Two albums were released in late 1966 and in 1967: Changes and Rewind. The first included many surprising pop standards of the day, and its huge hit (which took Rivers and Lou Adler six months to write) was Rivers’ only Number One record:
About this time in his career, Rivers started his own production company and label called Soul City. That’s when he heard about this unknown songwriter named Jimmy Webb. One song that really caught Johnny’s attention was By the Time I Get To Phoenix. He met with Webb and they recorded the song, adding it to his LP Changes. He wanted to release it as a single, but felt it sounded too much like Poor Side.
He gave the tune to Glen Campbell, who copied Rivers note for note. In 1967, Rivers snatched two songs from Motown, and gave them a LA-California feel. They both appeared on the Rewind album and featured the Wrecking Crew and the backup group The Blossoms led by Darlene Love. Baby I Need Your Lovin’‘ was a popular Holland-Dozier-Holland composition that charted in 1964 at Number 11. Rivers’ cover of the song three years later went to Number Three.
The go go approach that Rivers had used at the start of his career was over, but he wasn’t through with the Motown sound just yet. In 1965 Smokey Robinson and the Miracles had laid down one of their more popular efforts, The Tracks of My Tears, which reached Number Three. Rivers used the same formula for this song that he had for his Four Tops rendition. Complete with lots of strings offering an orchestral sound, his version of Tracks wasn’t as crude, but did show off the songwriting and melodic talents of Smokey Robinson.
The Rewind album contained seven Jimmy Webb songs, some you likely have heard by other artists. Carpet Man, for example, appears not only on Rewind, but also on a Fifth Dimension LP. Rivers was aware of the Fifth Dimension in 1966, having discovered them when they were calling themselves The Versatiles. He thought they could be kind of like a black Mamas and the Papas. Two songs you may recognize were the Dimensions’ first two hits: Go Where You Wanna Go (from the Mamas and Papas, ironically), and Up Up and Away, a Jimmy Webb tune that helped propel the group to the top. Rivers produced the group, and released them on his Soul City label.
- Up Up and Away, Fifth Dimension
Although Rivers wasn’t a progressive artist, he admired the likes of The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Buffalo Springfield, and other acts of the same ilk, many who played at the Whiskey a Go Go after Rivers. Rivers and Adler put up some of the seed money for the Monterey International Pop Festival in June 1967. Rivers acknowledged the Summer of Love when mentioning Sgt. Peppers in his next single, which came out near the end of 1967. Some versions of this song have rain or thunder sound effects, others do not:
The release of Summer Rain, which reached Number 14, saw Rivers’ chart action receding a bit, but his popularity was still there. The next array of singles from 1967 to 1970 weren’t strong. Some were interesting. He recorded a version of the Van Morrison song Into The Mystic, and directly following that recorded a song written by a guy he’d never heard of. As soon as he heard Fire and Rain, Rivers rushed in and laid it down, and thought he’d beat James Taylor to the punch. But when Taylor’s management realized what they had and woke up, DJs started playing Taylor’s version. In 1971, Rivers returned to a comfortable rock ‘n’ roll style and went into the studio, recording a Huey Smith Frankie Ford classic:
It only hit Number 84, but it paved the way for a reliable Johnny Rivers, who took it easy as a song of the south where Rivers came from. By that I mean New Orleans. That’s where his next song came from, again a Huey Smith and the Clowns number. Rivers put together a band of musicians including famed session drummer Jim Gordon, guitarist Dean Parks, and keyboardist Larry Knechtel, for his LA Reggae LP which included this song:
It was a Number Six hit in September of 1972. He continued recording rock ‘n’ roll like Blue Suede Shoes, Help Me Rhonda, and Curious Mind, and put together some nice LPs in the mid-seventies, particularly one I like called Road. His final Top Ten chart entry was in June of 1977:
Slow Dancin Swayin to the Music
Johnny Rivers likes honest music. And he loves recording it, either in the studio or live.