WILKES-BARRE — Johnny Rivers has sold more than 30 million records, achieving 17 Gold records and 29 chart hits.

Some of his greatest hits include “Memphis,” “Secret Agent Man,” “Poor Side of Town,” “Summer Rain,” “Slow Dancin’ (Swayin’ to the Music),” “Baby I Need Your Lovin’,” “Mountain of Love,” “The Tracks of My Tears,” “Rockin’ Pneumonia-Boogie Woogie Flu,” “Seventh Son,” “Midnight Special,” “Maybelline” and many more.

Rivers, who turned 76 on Nov. 7, will perform at The F.M. Kirby Center on Sunday Dec. 2, at 7:30 p.m.. The concert is being presented by Edd Raineri, host of “The Beatledd Fab Four Hour” on WRKC-FM.

Tickets start at $55.50 plus fees and are on sale at the Kirby box office; online at kirbycenter.org; or can be charged by phone at 570-826-1100.

In a telephone interview with the Times Leader, Rivers said he has played Wilkes-Barre before and is looking forward to coming back.

”I do enjoy performing,” he said. “Although I don’t do as many as I used to. I have cut back a little. But this is what I do and I’m definitely not into retiring.”

Rivers said he loves to interact with the audience and he enjoys doing different arrangements on his songs. He will also do an acoustics segment during the show.

Rivers said he will perform his hits, but he’s not sure he can play all of them. But he assured that those attending will have a good time.

Rivers said his father was a guitar and mandolin player.

“My dad saw that I was into it,” Rivers said. “He taught me a lot and I took a few lessons.”

Rivers had influences as well from several of the industry’s icons — Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, Ricky Nelson and Jerry Lee Lewis were friends of his — just to name a few.

Rivers wrote a song for Ricky Nelson — “I’ll Make Believe.” He said Nelson was “the man” when Elvis was in the Army. Nelson was the star of the 60s sitcom Ozzie and Harriet with his parents and brother, Dave.

Rivers also liked to listen to Hank Williams and being from Louisiana, he had a strong Cajun influence.

“It will be a great show, a lot of fun,” Rivers said. “I hope everybody will have a good time.”

Rivers, born Johnny Ramistella, grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He began playing professionally at age 14 when he formed his first band, “Johnny & The Spades.”

At age 15, he went back to New York City where he met disc jockey Alan Freed, who got him a record deal with Gone Records and changed his name to Rivers.

In January of 1964, Rivers opened at the now world-famous “Whisky a Go Go” in Hollywood and released his first No. 1 single, “Memphis.” By 1966, with numerous hit albums and singles on Imperial Records, Rivers founded Soul City Records and Rivers Music Publishing. He then signed The Fifth Dimension to Soul City and an unknown tunesmith, Jimmy Webb, to Rivers Music.

In 1966, after writing and recording his No. 1 hit, “Poor Side of Town”, Rivers published “Up, Up and Away”, which won 2 Grammys for Record and Song of the Year (1967). Rivers gave Glen Campbell the Webb song, “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”, which became Campbell’s first No. 1 country hit.

During this period, Rivers appeared on many TV shows, including The Red Skelton Show; American Bandstand; The Hollywood Palace and The Ed Sullivan Show.

In 1967 Rivers, along with Lou Adler, John Phillips and Paul Simon, founded The Monterey Pop Festival, where Rivers also performed. In 1968, Rivers produced one of his finest albums, “Realization”, which featured the hit, “Summer Rain”.

Rivers also scored hits with two Motown classics, “Baby I Need Your Lovin’” and “The Tracks of My Tears.”

In the 1970s, he returned with “Rockin’ Pneumonia & The Boogie Woogie Flu” and his classic, “Slow Dancin’ (Swaying to the Music).”

Johnny Rivers
https://www.theweekender.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_JOHNNY-RIVERS-2.jpg.optimal.jpgJohnny Rivers

By Bill O’Boyle

boboyle@timesleader.com

Reach Bill O’Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.