Hot Imperial Artist Starts, Spreads Coast Club Craze
NEW YORK — “Young kids were always coming up to me on my tour and asking, ‘What’s the Whiskey a Go Go like? I’d sure like to go there.’ ”
Imperial Records’ hot Johnny Rivers speaking, and while what he’s saying may or may not be the best sign sociologically, it’s a good indication of how important the a Go Go in general and Johnny in particular have become on the music scene. The a Go Go has certainly played a major role in Johnny Rivers’ go going career, ending 1964 at its highest level.
“That’s where it all started,” Johnny said recently while stopping here at the windup of a 33 -city cross-country tour.
“The Whiskey a Go Go on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. Everybody drops in - Natalie Wood, Jayne Mansfield, Mamie Van Doren, Tuesday Weld. Steve McQueen is there a lot - he’ll host my ‘welcome back’ opening there Dec. 8.”
Steve’s a big booster of Johnny’s, it was learned. He recently took Johnny’s records to a European discotheque, had them played and then took them back when he left the place, it was noted by Lou Adler, head of Dunhill Productions and Johnny’s record producer, who was also visiting New York and sitting in on the interview.
Memphis Tour Highlight
Johnny’s earlier recording of “Memphis” brought him a parade and the key to that city from the mayor during his recent travels, perhaps the high -light of the tour for the slight entertainer looming large in show business.
Just what is the a Go Go sound? (Johnny’s songs have all been recorded before, but he’s given them life.) “Well, it’s hard to say if there is a Go Go sound per se,” Johnny explained. ‘Most of my records, like ‘Memphis’ and ‘Maybelline’ and the albums, ‘At the Whiskey a Go Go’ and ‘Here We a Go Go Again,’ are done live at the Whiskey a Go Go, although the new one, ‘Mountain of Love,’ was cut in a studio, with three girls plus my regular backing, bass player Mickey Jones and drummer Joe Osborne (I play guitar).
“My music has been compared to the Detroit Sound, although I’m told I have a somewhat happier sound.” At which point Adler said: “Johnny has brought the young feeling of dancing — the watusi, the frug, etc., to adults in clubs. They can relate to him musically. He’s blues-oriented, and adults have always been able to relate easier to blues than to rock ‘n’ roll.”
Johnny’s favorite artists are B. B. King, Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed and Muddy Waters - the latter a natural preference for an artist named Johnny Rivers. Among the femmes, he prefers Nancy Wilson. attracted to that particular sound.”
Johnny also believes the British groups will be popular for quite a while yet. “Too many are making it now,” he felt, “and it’ll come down to The Beatles, the best groups, the best material.” His convictions in this area are not influenced by the fact that Brian Epstein (called the fifth Beatle by some, the first by others) handles Johnny’s European engagements.
Johnny, 23, has been recording since he was 15 and now makes his home in California. According to Adler, “Johnny’s finally found his own style and sound. Recording live at the Whiskey a Go Go with just a trio turned the trick, I think. Instead of his complementing the band as he’d been doing for years, they’re complementing him. . . “.
The Hollywood Whiskey a Go Go will get some more publicity when Johnny (along with other cast members) does scenes for his first movie a la maison. “I’ve had some offers for pictures before, but I held out for a really important property. This looks like it. Right now it’s called ‘Community Property,’ and the stars are Frank Sinatra, Deborah Kerr, Dean Martin and Ann Margret. It starts shooting in February, with many of the scenes to be locationed at the Whiskey a Go Go, and I’ll have a speaking part plus three or four numbers in it. It’s basically a comedy-the title may be changed to ‘Divorce-American Style’.
(One of the films offered Johnny was Sam Katzman’s “Watusi a Go Go,” which, perhaps when they couldn’t get Johnny, was changed to “The Swingin’ Set” and now has become “Get Yourself a College Girl.”
Johnny has also appeared on TV’s “Shindig,” on Red Skelton’s show (in a skit about the “Skelton a Go Go”) and in a documentary Jack Paar filmed on the craze for a Go-Gos around our country (and, presumably, in France, the actual birthplace of the name if not the nuance).
“The Whiskey a Go Go people on the Coast are looking for a spot in New York to open a new a Go Go,” Johnny confided. Which would make Christmas merrier for “little kids” hereabouts; and, of course, for the countless watusi wacky adults who relate to Johnny’s a Go Go, man, go rhythms and sounds.
Another Christmas gift ouch: Johnny Rivers dolls — you wind them up, and, as Lawrence Welk would say, they ah, go, go, go. END
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Information, credit and news source: Record World, December 5, 1964
Audio digitally enhanced by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
