Johnny was at the Whiskey A Go Go in LA back in 1965. I later found out Johnny played there offen in the 1960's.
I imagine Gregg and Jackson Browne met Johnny.
He is completely retired now.
This song, Poor Side Of Town was written by Johnny and Lou Adler and was Johnny's only single to reach NUMBER ONE on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song was a number one song in 1966, 60 years ago.
Here is Johnny with Marty Stuart and band nine years ago!!
If you are interested here is the 60 year old studio recording which went to number one in 1966.
Johnny sings and plays electric guitar. He is backed by the Blossoms on backing vocals. The Blossoms lead singer was Darlene Love who sang The Rebel for Phil Spector who wanted the song out immediately. Phil released The Rebel as a song by The Crystals but they were on tour and not available.
The famous LA studio musicians known as the Wrecking Crew are the backing band. Poor Side Of Town is one of 40 singles which went to number one that feature Hal Blaine on drums.
Blain also played drums on over 150 top 10 hit singles and is the drummer over 6,000 singles.
Here is Hal Blaine and Poor Side Of Town from 1966 which features Johnny Rivers on vocals backed by The Blossoms.
Phil Spector wanted The Rebel out his studio's door to beat a compeating version so Spector brought in The Blossoms with Darlene Love on lead vocals and recorded The Rebel at Spector's studio in LA but released it as by the more popular The Crystals and the actual Crystals were on tour and were surprised to hear it on the radio. The song went to number one and they had to perform it live for years and it's not really them on the record.
Phil Spector later said he didn't give a flying flip if it was really them or the Blossoms. It's Phil Spector music. That is all that matters!!
The Blossoms with lead vocals by Darlene Love pretending to be the Crystals.
I read a story that Johnny Rivers was often hanging out with Elvis in the mid-60s, always welcome. Elvis let it drop that he was working on a cover of Chuck Berry's "Memphis" that he was really excited about as his next single. Just weeks later Johnny Rivers' released his own cover of "Memphis" which hit #2 on the singles charts, beating Elvis to the punch. Rather than appear to be jumping on Rivers' bandwagon, Elvis dumped his version on an album the next year. Elvis said he'd rather Rivers not come around anymore. That's showbiz, I guess.
@porkchopbob Yes that wasn't cool of Johnny.
Elvis had cooled off a bit with hit singles by the late 60's but had a few big hits in the 1970's.
@robertdee yeah this was mid-60s when Elvis's movies started tanking but before his NBC Special and the Elvis in Memphis album.
@porkchopbob When I was a kid, Elvis played in my hometown. No one knew much about him but a friend of mine who was also about 8 years old in 1954 or 55 thought Elvis was fantastic!!
Elvis wasn't the headliner. He opened for country music star Hank Snow. I think Elvis opened for Snow for an entire tour.
First time I saw Elvis was on the Ed Sullivan ( waist up only ) show then he was live in my area as of course the headliner.
Saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show too.
I never got to see the Beatles live. I knew a couple of kids who traveled to RFK stadium in Washington to see the Beatles and indeed they got to SEE the Beatles. But they did not HEAR the Beatles.
At just a couple of notes into each song the audience screamed so loud one couldn't hear anything but the screaming.
They needed a high octane sound system.
@porkchopbob Here is another Johnny Rivers performance on the Marty Stuart show. Summer Rain which was a big hit I forgot about.
The Marty Stuart band does an excellent job backing Rivers. Probably all Nashville session players.