Wednesday August 26, 2020 “Summer Rain” Johnny Rivers
Into each summer a little rain must fall. (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, paraphrased)
Johnny Rivers is just a darned interesting guy who has been involved in almost every aspect of the music business all the while managing his own “B” rock star career. Fostering that career he had a great ear for picking songs that he would cover from artists like Chuck Berry, The Four Tops, Pete Seeger and Willie Dixon but he was also an accomplished songwriter and producer.
He is credited with giving iconic songwriter Jimmy Webb (“Wichita Lineman”, “McArthur Park”, “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”) his first big break when he gave Webb’s song “Up Up and Away'' to The Fifth Dimension a group that Rivers was managing and producing.
“Summer Rain” although not a Rivers composition was written by James Hendricks (no, not that one). Early on, this James Hendricks formed a group known as The Mugwumps referenced in the Mama’s and Papa’s song "Creque Alley" and the Mugwumps included Cass Elliott and Denny Doherty (Mama’s & Papa’s) and John Sebastian and Zal Yanovsky (Lovin Spoonful).
Interesting to note that Mr. Rivers is one of the rare and exceptional artists who owns all of his songs’ copyrights thereby benefiting totally in all revenues from album/CD sales, covers and commercial uses of his songs and with nine top ten songs and over 30 million records sold he's probably doing OK
Stay safe and well...and is Sgt. Pepper’s LonelyHearts Club Band really a danceable tune?
