From the original vinyl LP.

Imperial
A Product of Liberty Records
LP-9324


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MEMPHIS
(C. Berry) Arc Music Corp. BMI

MABELLENE
"Maybelline" on the record label
(Berry - Fratto - Freed) Arc Music Corp. BMI

MIDNIGHT SPECIAL
(Arr. & Adpt. J. Rivers) Trousdale Music Pub., Inc. BMI

WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE?
(P. Seeger) Fall River Mus., Inc. BMI

JOHN LEE HOOKER
(J. Rivers) Trousdale Music Pub., Inc. BMI

SEVENTH SON
(W. Dixon) Arc Music Corp. BMI


SECRET AGENT MAN
(Sloan - Barri) Trousdale Music Pub., Inc. BMI

MUDDY WATER
(J. Babcock) Maricana Mus., Inc. BMI

MOUNTAIN OF LOVE
(H. Dorman) Vaughn Pub. Co., Inc. BMI

MEDLEY:
LA BAMBA
(Arr. & Adpt. J. Rivers) Trousdale Music Pub., Inc. BMI,
TWIST AND SHOUT (Russell - Medley) Progressive Mus. Pub. Co., Inc. - Robert Mellin, Inc. BMI

IT WOULDN'T HAPPEN WITH ME
(R. Evans) Knox Mus., Inc. BMI
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MUSICIANS:

Lead & Rhythm Guitar: Johnny Rivers
Bass: Joe Osborne
Piano & Organ: Larry Knechtel
Drums: Mickey Jones, Hal Blaine, Eddie Rubin

Producer: Lou Adler
A DUNHILL PRODUCTION
Engineer: Studio: Bones Howe / Remote: Wally Heider
Art Direction: Woody Woodward
Cover Photography: Ken Kim
Live Recordings: Recorded At The Whisky A Go Go, Hollywood, CA
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"Who were you dating when this was number one?"

Familiar words indeed, intimately imparted by effusive deejays on Boss Golden Weekends, and probably preceded by an unmelodic eulogy on spearmint chewing-gum.

“They’re playing our song!” Familiar words too, usually whispered softly from the depths of a vinyl bucket-seat to a rhythmic background of conveniently swishing ocean.

The point is this. “Golden Hits” are as integral a part of growing up as are drive-in movies, surfboards, two-dollar Face Medication, three hour telephone conversations and cigarettes lighted at the wrong end. Not to mention the artistic merits of the Andrews Sisters, as shouted at you by irate and irascible relatives from dusty generations before.

Golden Hits. Yes.

They have become almost ritualistic. And without them the contemporary finger-popper would be lost in a welter of dulicers, autoharps and poems of peace.

Having established the necessity of Golden Oldies and/or Golden Hits – and the operative word here is “Golden” – let’s get on to the relevance of this album.

These are Golden Hits of Johnny Rivers – volume one because there will certainly be more – and accounted for here are three wonderful years of dancing and shouting and lining up for two or three blocks to get in. To wherever Rivers is at.

For Johnny Rivers really is a star. Not the usual superstar who goes to “Arthur,” plays his sitar and dates whoever is fashionable at the time.

Johnny Rivers is a suntanned, streamlined young star with the whitest teeth and the biggest smile you ever saw.

The hair is carefully coiffeured by the nimble hands of Jay Sebring, Hollywood’s King Of The Clip set who continues to smile prosperously in times of stress such as these, when a haircut is no longer what it used to be. The suits (elaborately but tastefully decorating an entire wall in the Rivers mansion up in Trousdale) are all custom-made by Giacomo the Tailor, and as the Hollywood jet-set will tell you, Giacomo doesn’t make suits for nothing. The car – or one of them – is a maroon Jaguar which gleams immaculately and is necessarily void of the inevitable lipstick smears which you learn to live with if you’re Johnny Rivers. Even the guitar, flashing proudly on stage, look set to spend the night on a satin cushion and it probably does. But the voice. Time and tide cannot change that. It remains as strong, as flexible, as vibrant as it always was in the days when Rivers was digging Mose Allison and Willie Dixon back home in Alabama.

So Rivers hasn’t changed. He has developed. He has always been identified with “a sound” – a gutty, stomping, “Let’s all make it to the Go-Go” sort of sound with a dash of country and overtones of the blues. And the sound is still there. As in “Memphis” where it all began. This album taking you logically through the musical milestones of his career, shows you just how he has adapted this sound to a variety of songs from many and different sources. Which means this. Rivers can sing “Mabellene,” and tell his story with positive aggression. Or he can sing about “The Seventh Son” with boundless exuberance. Or he can sing about his “Secret Agent Man” with an urgency that goes deeper than the lyrics. For lyrics aren’t what Rivers is about anyway. It’s all in the feel, and when you’re feeling it too, then he’s n business and you’re in business and the show is on the road.

– Andy Wickham
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HEAR JOHNNY RIVERS ON IMPERIAL RECORDS:


ALSO AVAILABLE IN STEREO
LP-12324
LP- 9324

PRINTED IN U.S.A.