Poor Side of Town
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"Poor Side of Town" is a song by Johnny Rivers that reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and the RPM Canadian Chart in November 1966.[1] The song marked a turning point in Rivers' career that saw him move away from his earlier rock and roll style toward pop ballads.
Song
Johnny Rivers would recall of "Poor Side of Town": "I don’t know what inspired it…It was not from any personal experience, because I was living in Beverly Hills." Although he'd describe it as "an easy song to write", [2] Rivers would say the song: "took…about five months to write…I kept writing little bits and pieces of it."[3] With the parent album of "Poor Side of Town": Changes, Rivers shifted from southern rock to an orchestral pop sound with a string-&-brass arrangement by Marty Paich who had orchestrated the recent Top 5 hits by the Mamas & the Papas, the LA Phil musicians who had played on the Mamas & Papas tracks also playing on Changes.[3]
The single edit of "Poor Side of Town" reduces the coda of the album track, which following the repeated lyric line: "Oh with you by my side" continues, finishing up the verse, and following the repeated guitar riff, repeats the sung introduction of the scatting, before the song fades out.
Charts
| Chart (1966) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Canada RPM[4] | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 1 |
Cover versions
- The 5th Dimension recorded the song for the 1967 album, Up, Up and Away.
- Al Wilson released a version of the song as a single from his 1968 album, Searching for the Dolphins. It reached No. 75 in the U.S. and No. 54 in Canada in 1969.[5]
- Beverly Bremers released a version of the song on her 1972 album, I'll Make You Music.[6]
- Joe Stampley released a version of the song as a single from the 1983 album, Backslidin'.
- Lynn Anderson recorded a version of the song on her 1980 album Even Cowgirls Get The Blues
- Nick Lowe released a version of the song on his 2001 album, The Convincer.
- Mark Oliver Everett (better known as Eels) recorded an acoustic version of the song backed by a mini orchestra on his 2006 live album, Eels with Strings: Live at Town Hall.
- Bruce Springsteen recorded the song in 1995, for an album that wasn’t released until his Tracks II: The Lost Albums box set was released in 2025.
- The Heart Beats' version appears on The Complete '60s Masters released in 2023.
Personnel
- Lead vocals and guitar by Johnny Rivers.
- Piano by Larry Knechtel
- Bass by Joe Osborn
- Drums by Hal Blaine
- Background vocals by The Blossoms: Darlene Love, Fanita James, and Jean King.
- Written by Johnny Rivers and Lou Adler.
- Produced by Lou Adler.
References
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- ↑ a b Morning Call 13 November 2015 "Johnny Rivers Music Has Taken Him Slow Dancin' Through the Decades" by John Moser pp. Go1, Go2
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- ↑ Beverly Bremers, I'll Make You Music Retrieved August 13, 2016.
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External links
- Pages with script errors
- Articles with hAudio microformats
- Music infoboxes with malformed table placement
- 1966 songs
- 1966 singles
- Johnny Rivers songs
- Beverly Bremers songs
- Joe Stampley songs
- Nick Lowe songs
- Eels (band) songs
- Songs written by Lou Adler
- Song recordings produced by Lou Adler
- Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles
- Cashbox number-one singles
- RPM Top Singles number-one singles
- Imperial Records singles