By 9 years of age, 1969, Johnny Rivers endeared my heart. Especially, Do What You Gotta Do and Poor Side of Town. Raised in Orphanage and the maintenance gentleman, a Korean War Veteran introduced me to Johnny Rivers. In a category by himself.
I really love hearing Johnny Rivers. In the sixties parking with my girlfriend and wife of forty nine years, we always had Johnny’s music on. These songs bring back wonderful memories!
One of those songs that was planted in my brain 45 years ago and when I found it after NOT hearing it for 30 years I remember every note and verse. great stuff...
Funny how much information is stored in our memory banks... I'm now 71 and heard this and thousands of other songs from the '60's - especially my service days overseas being exposed to all those other peoples' musical tastes different than mine had been... and I still remember 99% of every lyric I heard, even now... walk around the house WITHOUT music on and 'hearing' tunes and singing their lyrics out loud... I'd already listened to Johnny before the service days (65-69) so it really impacted me when he made the REALIZATION album... But the most impact in my life from a song was probably 'Sweet Smiling Children'. Worked in a few radio stations since 1970 and have always managed to play that song a time or two (or more) at each one.
A fantastic version of this great, great love song, and certainly the one I remember from my early teens - but a lot of the credit must go to the sublime Jimmy Webb, what a brilliant but undervalued talent - one of the greatest songwriters of all time - and his version's pretty great too!
I am partial to Johnny's version. Sounds the best all around. So smooth and clean. I was listening to it from the day it came out. The whole album really impressed me
what a great album this was...i had it and kept it at a friends house because we spent most of our time there in the cellar....this lp was always on the record player and we could all sing along word for word...Johnny Rivers had the magic touch
jrivermusic: thanks for posting. My Dad had your "Live At The Whisky a-GoGo" album in his record collection. This song was also covered by Gregg Allman & Cher on their collaborative album. Cheers!
Jimmy wrote so many great songs and a lot went unnoticed ... Johnny does a great job here ... the 4 tops also covered this and did a great job too ... Jimmy was a country version of Bacharach ...
Johnny Rivers always so great, and I believe this to be the original 1967 version.However on this occasion the best version is the 1968 version by the great Al Wilson. Yet another brilliant Jimmy Webb writing triumph!
Al Wilson's version was the absolute best..and he was actually a label mate of Johnny Rivers...but you are right ...it was really overlooked ..it was a minor r&b hit in 60s and fail to make the pop 100 ...
Recall when I was introduced to the tunes on this LP, it was on a 45 RPM record!! The B side of one of Johnny's hit's was sectioned like a mini LP. It had about 30 seconds of 6 tunes from Rewind! The tune and "Sidewalk Song 27th St." were my favorites.
I first heard this when I bought the album back in the 60s. Since I now have access to YT and variations of almost any song, I've checked this Jimmy Webb song out by others. Johnny's is the best IMO. It has the right tone. Tom Jones, Glen Campbell (not in the 60s but around '80), 4 Tops, Roberta Flack, B.J. Thomas, Ronnie Milsap and others have done it. BJ and Ronnie are closer to to Johnny's version and they both are generally considered country. I'd have liked to have heard Eva Cassidy do it.
I'm partial to Johnny to start with but I think Johnny did this song the exact way it should be sung. Others put their own style on it and their good too, but Johnny was the first and best. Too bad it is one of those too short of types.
If you are interested there is a song by a current artist named MJ Lenderman called 'TLC Cagematch' which borrows the melody and chorus of this song (without crediting Jimmy Webb). I would like to ask MJ if he is a fan of Webb or if he learned the song from this or any other version.
Johnny's got a lot of soul in his voice. Always does good covers with good production values. Here he sound like Bob Dylan or Jimmy Webb wrote slightly in a Dylanenque way? I know most of you don't see it. Too long to explain.
It seems as if Rivers and Webb had a great relationship when it came to song writer and singer. Some folk lore says Webb offered By the Time I Get to Phoenix to Rivers who declined it instead suggesting it would a be a good song for a new guitarist he knew. Glen Campbell had just finished his fill in for The Beach Boys when Rivers suggested he record the song. Rivers later did his own version. I've always like Rivers music whether he was doing covers or originals. There was some good, hand clapping, fun songs and even the more thoughtful ones made you feel good.
I first heard it on Famous, then on a Roberta Flack vinyl I bought. Tracked it down to Nina Simone, now finally at the (hopefully) source of the song. So many covers of this, it's part of what I love about hip-hop samples, it gets us interested in music of the past. Ignore all of the ignorant replies here.
