John Henry Ramistella, was born on November 7, 1942
in New York City, New York. The Ramistella family moved from New York to
Baton Rouge, Louisiana when John was five years old. On a trip back to
New York in 1958, he met Alan Freed who advised him to change his name,
so Johnny Ramistella became Johnny Rivers after the Mississippi River
that flows near Baton Rouge. In 1964, Elmer Valentine then gave Rivers a
one-year contract to open his new club, Whiskey a Go Go, on Sunset Strip
in West Hollywood. Into 1965, Rivers continued to record mostly live, Go
Go style records including "Maybellene" (another Berry cover),
which he followed "Mountain of Love", "Midnight Special",
"Seventh Son" (written by Willie Dixon) and "Where Have
All the Flowers Gone?" (written by Pete Seeger), all of which were
hits. In all, Rivers had 9 top ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and 17
in the top 40 from 1964 to 1977. In total, he has sold well over 25
million records.
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