TGIF Rock-n-Roll Oldies: Johnny Rivers 1966

Reaganite Republican ^ | November 26, 2010 | Reaganite Republican

[Reaganite Republican]

Johnny Rivers (born John Henry Ramistella @ NYC 11.07.42) is an American rock and roll singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer.... styles include folk songs, blues, and revivals of old-time rock 'n' roll songs in addition to some of Rivers' original material.

Johnny Rivers's greatest success came in the mid-to-late 1960s with sequence of top US and international hits such as "Seventh Son", "Poor Side of Town", "Summer Rain", "Secret Agent Man" -theme to the TV show- then in the early 70's with a great cover of Jerry Lee Lewis' "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie-Woogie Flu" that went to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, his third million-selling single.

Rivers continues to record and perform to the present in 2010... love that voice, and the guy can play a guitar:

Johnny Rivers: Secret Agent Man- 1966

[YouTube -here-]
More/links at Reaganite Republican

[Vaquero]

He mostly did cover songs.

Chuck Berry’s ‘Memphis’ is the superior cut.

‘Secret Agent’ and ‘Summer Rain’ was probably his best efforts.

[Migraine]

Memphis
Mountain of Love

When this guy does a song, he defines it. What a great sense of how a song should sound!

[balch3]

he lives in Baton Rouge now, plays an occasional gig in local clubs and coaches little league baseball.

[Reaganite Republican]

I adore the “Rockin’ Pneumonia” cover he did, just fantastic... couldn’t find a decent clip of it tho

[ibytoohi]

I was at the Atlanta Pop Festival at the Speedway in 1969. Incredible line up, but one incident stands out...

Johnny Rivers’ band was onstage waiting for him when he arrived in a helicopter. What a showboat. He did two or three songs poorly and then he left. His band was highly pissed and apologized to the 100k or so people in the audience.

Its funny what you remember after all these years. Still can't listen to him.

[AU72]

I believe Johnny Rivers was the only white singer on Motown Records.

[vetvetdoug]

Is Rivers in the R&R HOF? I heard he was not because of his politics and the head man there said as long as he was in charge, Rivers was not getting in.

[abb]

Some nice pics of Johnny with my favorite by him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOxErh1AvCA&feature=related
Johnny Rivers - Where Have All The Flowers Gone

[Doulos1]

I heard it was Rare Earth, a pretty good white band.

[AU72]

I heard it was Rare Earth, a pretty good white band.

Yes, I remember now. In fact the Funk Brothers did their album back up.

[Doulos1]

Yep, I bought their first album when I was in high school.
Might have been 1969 or 1970. Long time ago.

[memphibian]

Yes, Rare Earth. Johnny Rivers was on Imperial and United Artists for the bulk of his hits. Also, Rockin’ Pneumonia was a Huey Smith song from New Orleans.

[csmusaret]

http://www.my-3-sons.com/javascript-flv/flv-videos5.htm

[csmusaret]

Oops. scroll down the page

[abb]

I always liked that vid of The Searchers. Needles and Pin-za!

[AU72]

If you want a great music movie, get the DVD about the Funk Brothers, Standing in Shadows.

[vetvetdoug]

Needles and Pins was written by Sonny Bono. Pete Rivera, the drummer for Rare Earth, is touring with the Rock and roll All Stars. Standing In The Shadows is a great DVD, I have it in my collection. Since it was made several of the artists on the DVD have gone on....

[memphibian]

I have it. It is telling of the way the business ran. I teared up as they introduced the guys to come out for the performance and they brought pictures out of the guys that didn’t make it.