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Johnny Rivers

JOHNNY RIVERS
 
 
Johnny Rivers  (born John Henry Ramistella; November 7, 1942, New York City) is an American rock ’n’ roll singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer.  His repertoire includes pop, folk, blues, and old-time rock ’n’ roll.  Rivers charted during the 1960’s and 1970’s but remains best known for a string of hit singles between 1964 and 1968, among them “Memphis” (a Chuck Berry cover), “Mountain of Love”, “The Seventh Son”, “Secret Agent Man”, “Poor Side of Town” (a US #1), “Baby I Need Your Lovin’” (a Motown cover), and “Summer Rain”.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
Now, on their website, Sundazed insists of the Stillroven that “their pedal-to-the-metal, frenetic version of ‘Hey Joe’ [is] still THE definitive version as far as we’re concerned”.  That’s a pretty strong statement considering that “Hey Joe” was one of the most recorded songs of the 1960’s.  Better-known covers include those by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Deep Purple (on their debut album, Shades of Deep Purple, they even claimed to be the songwriter!), Johnny Rivers, the Byrds, the Music Machine, and the Leaves.
 
So, if you want to test that claim, here is the Stillroven on YouTube (audio only) performing “Hey Joe”:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-0zMnkCYOE .
 
(September 2012)
 
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The Soul Agents released their second single on October 15, 1964, also on Pye Records; the band picked two other traditional songs for this 45, “The Seventh Son” b/w “Let’s Make it Pretty Baby”.  “The Seventh Son” was a Top Ten hit song for Johnny Rivers in 1965, and “seventh son” is mentioned in numerous other songs as well, such as Roger Miller’s “Dang Me”:  “I’m the seventh out of seven sons / My pappy was a pistol, I’m a son of a gun”.  

 

(May 2014)