Happy Birthday, Johnny Rivers! John Henry Ramistella was born on November 7, 1942, in New York City. When he was about five, his father wound up out of work. The Ramistellas moved to Baton Rouge, where an uncle, head of the Louisiana State University art department, got Johns dad work painting houses and antiquing furniture. Johns first musical inspiration was his father. His dad and uncle used to get together and play these old Italian folk songs on mandolin and guitar. As John started playing, he listened to R&B on the late-night radio, megawatt stations like WLAC in Nashville. However, R&B was a way of life in Baton Rouge. By junior high, he was sitting in with various local bands, including one led by Dick Holler, who later wrote Abraham, Martin And John. Hollers guitarist was the still-unknown Jimmy Clanton. Johnny formed his own band The Spades in 1956 and played tunes by Fats Domino, Little Richard, Larry Williams, and Bobby Bland. Johnny and The Spades toured Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama. His first recording, Hey Little Girl, was released by the Natchez, Mississippi-based Suede label, and sold well on The Spades touring circuit. In 1957, John flew to New York during a school vacation and stayed there with an aunt. He wanted to meet Alan Freed. And he did. It was like a scene out of an Alan Freed movie, Rivers says. He was at WINS in Columbus Circle. I stood in front of the radio station. It was freezing cold and he came up with Jack Hooke who was his manager. I said My names Johnny Ramistella. Im from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and I have a band. I play and write and Id like you to hear my music. Alan gave me his card and said We have an office down at the Brill Building on Broadway. Why dont you come down tomorrow afternoon? I went down and Jack Hooke was there and I played four or five songs. Hooke called George Goldner, owner of Gone and End records, whose office was also in the Brill. Legendary songwriter Otis Blackwell, author of Dont Be Cruel and Great Balls Of Fire arranged Johns debut single Baby Come Back b/w Long, Long Walk. Freed also gave Johnny a new name. Rivers remembers, Freed said, Your name... you need to come up with something a little more musical. We were talkin about where I grew up on the Mississippi River and somehow Rivers came out of that, That was the first time I used that name. Baby Come Back was released in March 1958. His New York contacts also led to releases like Your First And Last Love on the Dee Dee label, issued that August, and Youre The One on the Guyden label, released in March 1959. None were hits. Back in Baton Rouge, Rivers began touring as a solo act with innovative Southern comedian Brother Dave Gardner. At a show in Birmingham, Alabama, he met Hank Williams widow Audrey, who brought him to Nashville around 1959 and got him a contract with Cub, a subsidiary of MGM Records. He cut two singles for Cub backed by some of Nashvilles best session players: Floyd Kramer, Buddy Harman, Bob Moore, and Hank Garland, who became a close friend. Johnny also hung out with Roger Miller, then a promising songwriter at Tree Music, Rogers publishing company. Rivers credits his uncanny gift of finding good songs and writers to his New York and Nashville experiences. I learned that the song was everything from hangin out at the Brill Building and in Nashville around Tree Music, he says. I used to cut demos for Hill and arrange songs when I was in New York, Guys like Otis Blackwell would come in with a new tune and theyd get me to do the Elvis Presley sound and cut demos for them. 25 bucks a demo. Around 1960, as Johnny alternated between Nashville and Baton Rouge, Merle Kilgore, then a deejay at KWKH in Shreveport, got him a spot on the Louisiana Hayride. He also introduced him to Shreveport guitar legend James Burton, home on vacation from working with Ricky Nelson in California. Burton took a tape of Johnnys song Ill Make Believe back to California. Within a month, he called to tell Johnny that Rick would record it. The song wound up on Nelsons 1960 Imperial LP More Songs By Ricky. Rivers flew to L.A., met Rick and the band, and relocated to L.A. around 1961. He met a producer named Nick Venet and wound up working for Capitol. The 1962 Capitol sides, including a cover version of Lefty Frizzells country hit Long Black Veil didnt sell, but Rivers contacts gained him work as a writer and producer. Rivers returned to the stage in 1963, almost by accident. He was a regular customer at Bill Gazzaris club on La Cienega Blvd. in L.A. for some time. One night Johnny found Gazzari forlorn because his house band was leaving. Johnny devised a formula: He called Eddie Rubin, a jazz drummer who wasnt gigging at the time, and went into Gazzaris together‹just guitar and drums. To everyones surprise, huge crowds gathered to hear Johnny and Rubin play rock and R&B hits. Gazzaris profits soared, and when Rivers was ready to leave, Gazzari offered him more money and let him hire a bassist. Joe Osborn, just starting to become an L.A. studio legend, joined Rivers and Rubin. Rivers also met two men at Gazzaris who would play major roles in his career: Lou Adler, who became his producer, and Elmer Valentine, who was opening an L.A. version of the Paris Whisky A Go-Go club on the Sunset Strip. Valentine offered Rivers a years contract to appear at the new club. On January 15, 1964, he opened. Three days later The Beatles I Want To Hold Your Hand entered the charts. They werent at the Whisky long when he and Adler thought of cutting a live album. Another L.A. club owner loaned Rivers and Adler money to hire Wally Heiders remote recording unit. Liberty Records executive Bob Skaff liked the tape and convinced reluctant Liberty President Al Bennett to release it on Imperial Records. Bennett had purchased Imperial from founder Lew Chudd, and ran it as a small, semi-independent label. To release Rivers recordings, he and Adler formed Dunhill Productions with Bobby Roberts (an ex-member of The Dunhills, a tap dancing group that inspired the name) and Pierre Cossette (now producer of the Grammy Awards show). This eventually evolved into Dunhill Records, home to L.A rock legends The Mamas & The Papas, The Grass Roots and Steppenwolf. Adler and company were disappointed that the album would appear on what they considered a secondary label. But not Johnny. When they said Imperial Records. I just jumped up because I grew up with nothing but Imperial Records, Bobby Mitchell, Fats Domino, and Ricky Nelson, and I thought What a cool label! Both Rivers and Adler came to see Imperials smallness as a plus. Rivers continued recording into the 1980s, although his recording career decreased. In 1998 Rivers reactivated his Soul City imprint and released Last Train to Memphis. In early 2000 Rivers recorded with Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, and Paul McCartney on a tribute album dedicated to Buddy Hollys backup band, The Crickets. In all Rivers had nine Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and 17 in the Top 40 from 1964 to 1977. In total, he has sold well over 30 million records. Rivers is one of a small number of performers, such as Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Pink Floyd (from 1975s Wish You Were Here onward), Queen, Genesis (though under the members individual names and/or the pseudonym Gelring Limited) and Neil Diamond, who have their name as the copyright owner on their recordings. On June 12, 2009, Johnny Rivers was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. Rivers is still touring, doing 50 to 60 shows a year. Increasingly he has returned to the blues that inspired him initially.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 13:51:46 +0000
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