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"Poor Side
Of Town" became the eleventh US hit single by Johnny Rivers, one of
America's most consistent hitmakers of the mid 1960s. In the following
November it became his only US No.1. Rivers, born John Ramistella in
New York City, grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he was exposed
to the area's early rock 'n' roll stars like Fats Domino, Frankie Ford
and Huey 'Piano' Smith. He began writing songs as a teenager, and on
a trip to New York to visit a relative waited outside WINS, the radio
station that employed Alan Freed, until he met the disc jockey. He played
some of his work to Freed, who arranged a recording deal and also renamed
Ramistella as Johnny Rivers. In the late 1950s Rivers moved to Los Angeles,
and began playing as a singer/guitarist in Hollywood clubs, building
up a strong following that convinced a local businessman, Elmer Valentine,
to open a new club, the Whisky-A-Go-Go, where Rivers was the main attraction.
In 1964 Rivers scored his first US Top 3 hit with a cover version of
Chuck Berry's "Memphis", and he continued to chart with cover versions
of oldies like Berry's "Maybelline", Harold Dorman's "Mountain of Love"
and bluesman Willie Dixon's "Seventh Son." However, it was not until
he was confident enough to record his own songs that he reached the
elusive No.1 spot with "Poor Side Of Town".
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