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Johnny Rivers
Johnny Rivers (born John Henry Ramistella; November 7, 1942) is an American musician. His repertoire includes pop, folk, blues, and old-time rock 'n' roll. Rivers charted during the 1960s and 1970s but remains best known for a string of hit singles between 1964 and 1968, among them "Memphis, Tennessee (song), Memphis" (a Chuck Berry cover), "Mountain of Love" (a Harold Dorman cover), "The Seventh Son" (a Willie Dixon, Willie Mabon cover), "Secret Agent Man (Johnny Rivers song), Secret Agent Man", "Poor Side of Town" (a US No. 1), "Baby I Need Your Loving, Baby I Need Your Lovin'" (a 1967 cover of the Four Tops single from 1964), and "Summer Rain (Johnny Rivers song), Summer Rain". Life and career Early years Rivers was born as John Henry Ramistella in New York City, of Italian ancestry. His family moved from New York to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Influenced by the distinctive music of Louisiana, Louisiana musical style, Rivers began playing guitar at age eig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Summer Rain (Johnny Rivers Song)
"Summer Rain" is a song written by James Hendricks and performed by Johnny Rivers on his 1968 LP ''Realization.'' Of his several dozen releases, it is considered his sixth greatest hit internationally. It reached No. 14 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100, No. 6 on the U.S. ''Cash Box'' Top 100, and No. 10 in Canada in early January, 1968. "Summer Rain" is about lifelong love during "the summer of love" of 1967. It was released in the late fall, as a reminiscence of the previous summer. The song references '' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,'' the Beatles album which was released during the middle of that year. Chart performance Weekly charts Year-end charts Personnel * Lead vocals by Johnny Rivers * Strings and horns by Marty Paich * Drums by Hal Blaine * Bass by Joe Osborn Joseph Osborn (August 28, 1937 – December 14, 2018 [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baby I Need Your Loving
"Baby I Need Your Loving" is a 1964 hit single recorded by the Four Tops for the Motown label. Written and produced by Motown's main production team Holland–Dozier–Holland, the song was the group's first Motown single and their first pop Top 20 hit, making it to number 11 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and number four in Canada in the fall of 1964. It was also their first million-selling hit single. ''Cash Box'' described it as "an intriguing rock-a-cha-cha beat pleader...that he Four Topscarve out with solid sales authority." ''Rolling Stone'' ranked the Four Tops' original version of the song at No. 400 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Personnel * Lead vocals by Levi Stubbs. * Background vocals by Renaldo "Obie" Benson, Lawrence Payton, Abdul "Duke" Fakir, and the Andantes: Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps. * Instrumentation by the Funk Brothers and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (strings). **Piano by Earl Van Dyke **Bass by James Jam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Memphis, Tennessee (song)
"Memphis, Tennessee", sometimes shortened to "Memphis", is a song by Chuck Berry, first released in 1959. In the UK, the song charted at number 6 in 1963; at the same time Decca Records issued a cover version in the UK by Dave Berry and the Cruisers, which also became a UK Top 20 hit single. Johnny Rivers's version of the song was a number two US hit in 1964. Background In the song the narrator is speaking to a long-distance operator, trying to find out the number of a girl named Marie, who lives in Memphis, Tennessee, "on the southside, high upon a ridge, just a half a mile from the Mississippi bridge." The narrator offers little information to the operator at first, only that he misses Marie and that they were separated by Marie's mother. The final verse reveals that Marie is, in fact, the narrator's six-year-old daughter; her mother, presumably the narrator's ex-wife, "tore apart our happy home" because she "did not agree", as it turned out, with their marriage, not his rel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the List of United States cities by population density, most densely populated major city in the United States, and is more than twice as populous as second-place Los Angeles. New York City lies at the southern tip of New York (state), New York State, and constitutes the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass. With over 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York is one of the world's most populous Megacity, megacities, and over 58 million people live within of the city. New York City is a global city, global Culture of New ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colin Larkin (writer)
Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British writer and entrepreneur. He founded, and was the editor-in-chief of, the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged". Along with the ten-volume encyclopedia, Larkin also wrote the book ''All Time Top 1000 Albums'', and edited the ''Guinness Who's Who of Jazz'', the ''Guinness Who's Who of Blues'', and the ''Virgin Encyclopedia Of Heavy Rock''. He has over 650,000 copies in print to date. Background and education Larkin was born in Dagenham, Essex. Larkin spent much of his early childhood attending the travelling fair where his father, who worked by day as a plumber for the council, moonlighted on the waltzers to make ends meet. It was in the fairground, against a background of Little Richard on the wind-up 78 rpm turntables, that Larkin acquired his passion for the world of popular music. He studied at the South East Essex County Technical High School and at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Music Of Louisiana
The music of Louisiana can be divided into three general regions: rural south Louisiana, home to Creole Zydeco and Old French (now known as cajun music), New Orleans, and north Louisiana. The region in and around Greater New Orleans has a unique musical heritage tied to Dixieland jazz, blues, and Afro-Caribbean rhythms. The music of the northern portion of the state starting at Baton Rouge and reaching Shreveport has similarities to that of the rest of the US South. Southern region The music of rural south Louisiana features significant input from non-Creoles, most notably African Americans who are critical to the cultural/musical identity. Four main musical genres are indigenous to this area — Creole music (i.e. zydeco), swamp pop, and swamp blues. These historically-rooted genres, with unique rhythms and personalities, have been transformed with modern sounds and instruments. The southwestern and south central Louisiana areas herald many artists and songs that have become ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Four Tops
The Four Tops are an American vocal quartet from Detroit who helped to define the city's Motown sound of the 1960s. The group's repertoire has included soul music, R&B, disco, adult contemporary, doo-wop, jazz, and show tunes. Founded as the Four Aims, lead singer Levi Stubbs, Abdul "Duke" Fakir, Renaldo "Obie" Benson and Lawrence Payton remained together for over four decades, performing from 1953 until 1997 without a change in personnel. The Four Tops were among a number of groups, including the Miracles, the Marvelettes, Martha and the Vandellas, the Temptations, and the Supremes, who established the Motown Sound heard around the world during the 1960s. They were notable for having Stubbs, a baritone, as their lead singer, whereas most other male and mixed vocal groups of the time were fronted by tenors. The group was the main male vocal group for the highly successful songwriting and production team of Holland–Dozier–Holland, who crafted a stream of hit singles fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poor Side Of Town
"Poor Side of Town" is a song by Johnny Rivers that reached number one on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and the ''RPM'' Canadian Chart in November 1966. The song marked a turning point in Rivers' career that saw him move away from his earlier rock and roll style toward pop ballads. Song Johnny Rivers would recall of "Poor Side of Town": "I don’t know what inspired it…It was not from any personal experience, because I was living in Beverly Hills." Although he'd describe it as "an easy song to write", Rivers would say the song: "took…about five months to write…I kept writing little bits and pieces of it."''Morning Call'' 13 November 2015 "Johnny Rivers Music Has Taken Him Slow Dancin' Through the Decades" by John Moser pp. Go1, Go2 With the parent album of "Poor Side of Town": ''Changes'', Rivers shifted from southern rock to an orchestral pop sound with a string-&-brass arrangement by Marty Paich who had orchestrated the recent Top 5 hits by the Mamas & the Papas, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Secret Agent Man (Johnny Rivers Song)
"Secret Agent Man" is a song written by P. F. Sloan and Steve Barri. The most famous recording of the song was made by Johnny Rivers for the opening titles of the American broadcast of the British spy series ''Danger Man'', which aired in the U.S. as ''Secret Agent'' from 1964 to 1966. Rivers's version peaked at #3 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and #4 on the Canadian RPM chart, one of the biggest hits of his career. Numerous covers and adaptations have been recorded since then with the song becoming both a rock standard and one of Johnny Rivers's signature songs. History According to composer P.F. Sloan, the American television network that licensed ''Danger Man'', CBS, solicited publishers to contribute a 15-second piece of music for the opening of the U.S. show to replace the small section of the British theme, an instrumental by Edwin Astley entitled "High Wire", which started each episode. CBS executives were worried the show might not be successful without a "hummable" th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Willie Dixon
William James Dixon (July 1, 1915January 29, 1992) was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was proficient in playing both the upright bass and the guitar, and sang with a distinctive voice, but he is perhaps best known as one of the most prolific songwriters of his time. Next to Muddy Waters, Dixon is recognized as the most influential person in shaping the post–World War II sound of the Chicago blues.Trager, Oliver (2004). ''Keys to the Rain: The Definitive Bob Dylan Encyclopedia''. Billboard Books. pp. 298–299. . Dixon's songs have been recorded by countless musicians in many genres as well as by various ensembles in which he participated. A short list of his most famous compositions includes "Hoochie Coochie Man", " I Just Want to Make Love to You", "Little Red Rooster", "My Babe", "Spoonful", and "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover". These songs were written during the peak years of Chess Records, from 1950 to 1965, and wer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Seventh Son
"The Seventh Son" (also listed as "Seventh Son") is a rhythm and blues song written by Willie Dixon. The title refers to the seventh son of a seventh son of folklore, which Dixon referenced previously in his "Hoochie Coochie Man". The lyrics include: In 1955, Willie Mabon was the first to record it. The jazz pianist and singer Mose Allison released it as a single in 1959 and on an album in 1964, calling it one of his "featured numbers". Johnny Rivers recorded the song as the lead track for his album ''Meanwhile Back at the Whisky à Go Go'' in 1965. Also released as a single, "The Seventh Son" was one of Rivers most popular singles. Willie Mabon song In his autobiography, Dixon described writing several tunes for Mabon, including "The Seventh Son". He noted that Mabon stuck to his arrangement, unlike others who recorded the song, and commented on its background: Chess Records released the song as a single with "Lucinda" as the A-side and B-side, B-side, however, it did no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harold Dorman
Harold Kenneth Dorman (December 23, 1926 – October 8, 1988) – accessed September 2010 was an American singer and songwriter. Biography Dorman was born in Drew, Mississippi. He wrote a song called " Mountain of Love", which he released as a single in 1960 on the Rita record label. The song became a hit in the U.S., selling over a million copies and reaching No. 7 on the |
