This page contains Johnny Rivers songs, albums and video links. Music profile for Johnny Rivers with events, tracks, videos, pictures, lyrics and band information.
Johnny Rivers (born John Henry Ramistella, 7 November 1942, in New York City|New York) is an United States|American rock and roll singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He was versatile enough to do folk songs, blues, covers of old-time rock 'n' roll songs and some original material. Rivers's greatest success came in the mid and late 1960s with a string of hit songs (including "Seventh Son (song)|Seventh Son", "Poor Side of Town", "Summer Rain", and "Secret Agent Man (song)|Secret Agent Man"), but he has continued to record and perform to the present.
Career
1950s
The Ramistella family moved from New York to Baton Rouge, Louisiana when John was five years old. Without any formal music lessons, he began playing guitar--learned from his father--at the age of eight, and was influenced by the distinctive music of Louisiana.
Ramistella formed his own band, The Spades, in junior high school and made his first record at age 14, while still a student at Baton Rouge High School.{{Fact|date=April 2007 Some of their material was recorded on the Suede label as early as 1956.
On a trip back to New York in 1958, he met Alan Freed who advised him to change his name, so Johnny Ramistella had the Baton Rouge attorney Arthur J. Cobb change his name to Johnny Rivers after the Mississippi River that flows near Baton Rouge.{{F... read all
