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NDERCOVER
F
good
ol’-fashioned rock ’n’ roll, Johnny
Rivers’s music runs deep.
Over a career that has coursed
through more than years, Rivers
emulated Elvis in the ’ s, battled e
Beatles in the ’ s, and still struck gold
in the ’ s. He has indisputably proven
to be one of rock’s best innovators and
interpreters.
Rivers’s in uential staples include the
Bond-ish rocking, ri -driven “Secret
Agent Man” (which was originally
recorded as the opening theme for
US broadcasts of the British spy series
Danger Man
as
Secret Agent
and later
expanded as a single) and one of his
own compositions, the chart-topping
and pleading “Poor Side of Town.” But
he also achieved the seemingly impossi-
ble in putting his own memorable stamp
on some of pop’s best-known songs, like
Chuck Berry’s “Memphis” and e Four
Tops’ “Baby, I Need Your Lovin’ ”—both
outselling and out-performing the
originals on the pop charts. Rivers’s rich,
rugged rock sound, tastefully tinged
with hints of pop, blues, rockabilly, and
folk, similarly surfaces in both origi-
nals and notable covers, like the
top- hit “Swayin’ to the Music (Slow
Dancin’),” “Summer Rain,” “Mountain
of Love,” “Maybelline,” “ e Seventh
Son,” and “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the
Boogie Woogie Flu.” He brings that
considerable catalogue to Ravinia on
September .
Johnny Rivers was born John Henry
Ramistella in
, in New York City. At
age , his family moved to Baton Rouge,
LA, and growing up in this cultural-
ly and musically diverse atmosphere
authentically avored his music with a
creole in uence and gave his rock some
spicy Southern soul.
In the early ’ s, Ramistella formed
his own band, e Spades, which origi-
nally played songs by Fats Domino and
Little Richard. Later, the band played
the “new” rock and roll sound that was
mixed with a dollop of country and per-
soni ed by Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee
Lewis. A chance
meeting in New
York with legendary disc jockey Alan
Freed led to a recording contract, and
the changing of Ramistella’s name. Freed
suggested the name “Rivers,” referring
to the mighty Mississippi, which owed
through Baton Rouge.
us “Johnny Rivers” was born.
ough his initial recording stints in
New York and Nashville were brief, they
were noteworthy and key to his career.
In Nashville, for example, he worked
with songwriter Roger Miller at Miller’s
Tree Music publishing company. Miller
became a popular singer and TV star,
writing and singing several major hits,
including the ultra-cool “King of the
Road.”
Rivers credits these early experiences
as having a lasting in uence on his ca-
reer as a singer, songwriter, and produc-
er. “I learned ‘the song was everything’
from hanging out at the Brill Building in
New York and at Tree Music in Nash-
ville,” he says.
By the early ’ s, Rivers rambled west
to Los Angeles, resulting in a series of
star-making turns of events. His “tem-
porary” gig playing a small LA Italian
restaurant became a steady showcase.
It opened the locks for Rivers to meet
music mastermind and producer Lou
Adler, which led to a regular residency
at West Hollywood’s hip Sunset Strip
meeting ground, the Whisky a Go Go.
“ e Whisky was a smash from open-
ing night,” Rivers says. “I brought my
following from Gazzari’s.”
Rivers debuted at the Whisky in Jan-
uary
, just weeks before e Beatles
arrived in the US and quickly captivated
the nation and soon the world. Rivers’s
residency proved so dynamic, Adler
recorded and was eager to release a live
album of his club show. “We recorded
the album over two nights in a row
and took it to every record company in
town. None of them wanted it,” Rivers
recalls with irony.
Despite the industry’s reluctance—
and the onset of “Beatlemania”—within
a few months,
Johnny Rivers at the
Whisky a Go Go
entered the charts and
reached number . It also gave Rivers
his rst major hit—his cover of Berry’s
“Memphis.”
During this period, Rivers became
one of the mainstays on the Sunset Strip,
along with the likes of e Doors, e
Mamas & e Papas, Bu alo Spring-
eld, e Turtles, and others. Rivers was
of the few American acts able to resist
the “British Invasion” with a steady
stream of hits from
through the
end of decade and into the ’ s.
In all his songs, originals or covers,
Rivers injects a charismatic attitude and
genuine emotion. In fact, while many
white performers like Pat Boone were
criticized for recording songs by black
artists and “smoothing” the sound to
appeal to a wider audience, Rivers never
caught such ack because his versions
retained an authenticity he could and
purposely did deliver.
e trace of Southern twang in
Rivers’s voice from his Louisiana
GUY WEBSTER
SEPTEMBER 3, 2018 – MAY 11, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE
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