Johnny Rivers is 72 years old today. A rock and roll singer, songwriter, guitarist and record producer, River’s styles include folk songs, blues and revivals of old-time rock n roll songs and some original material. Riverss greatest success came in the mid- to late-1960s with a string of hit songs (including the #1 hit Poor Side of Town,” Summer Rain” and Secret Agent Man), but he has continued to record and perform to the present. Without any formal music lessons, Rivers began playing guitar, which he learned from his father and uncle, at the age of eight, and was influenced by the distinctive music of Louisiana. While in junior high school he started sitting in with a band called The Rockets led by Dick Holler who later wrote a number of songs including Abraham, Martin and John and Snoopy vs. The Red Baron.” 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. Here Rivers performs “Poor Side of Town.”
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 11:54:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015