It Was 50 Years Ago Today: “Seventh Son” by Johnny Rivers

July 21, 1965
“Seventh Son” by Johnny Rivers
#1 on the RPM Top Singles Chart (Canada), July 19-25, 1965

Johnny Rivers would have been among the first wave of rock ‘n’ rollers, if he hadn’t been born just a few years too late. Under his birth name, Johnny Ramistella, he released a few singles in the late ’50s, but his timing was off. Rivers was a prodigiously talented guitarist and singer, with a knack for attracting industry attention — including famed DJ Alan Freed, who rechristened the musician after the Mississippi flowing through Rivers’ hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Nevertheless, by the time he was releasing records, his connections were fading, and his driving, straightahead rock ‘n’ roll sound had grown passé.

While Rivers’ recording career was in the weeds, he focused instead on live performances and writing songs for other artists. He built up an audience gigging at the Hollywood nightclub Gazzarri’s before transferring to a residency at the newly opened Whisky a Go Go. His dance-friendly versions of rock and R&B hits proved so popular with the club’s clientele that a (purportedly) live LP, Johnny Rivers At the Whisky a Go Go, was released in February 1964. The record was a hit, despite the British Invasion drawing the bulk of the media’s attention. Rivers’ first single from the album, a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Memphis,” climbed up to #2 on the pop chart in July 1964, sandwiched between two other American holdouts: the Beach Boys (“I Get Around”) and the Four Seasons (“Rag Doll”).

Rivers’ band at the Whisky was essentially a power trio, and his records retain that tight sound, with only minimal embellishment from handclaps and occasional female backing vocals. Whether or not his albums were actually recorded live — it’s more likely that they were cut in the studio, with crowd noise dubbed over — that stripped-down feel reflects the viscerality inherent in a live recording. At the same time, the nightclub atmosphere add a certain swankiness to Rivers’ records — the so-called “go-go sound” — that made them a little hipper and more adult than most teeny-bopper pop.

Rivers would release a total of five LPs supposedly recorded at the Whisky a Go Go, and reaped a string of hit covers: another Chuck Berry remake, “Maybellene”; Harold Dorman’s “Mountain of Love,”; and the folk standard “Midnight Special,” previously a pop hit for Paul Evans. The biggest of his early covers after “Memphis” was “Seventh Son,” a version of a song previously recorded by R&B pianist Willie Mabon in 1955. “The Seventh Son,” as it was originally titled, was written by Chess Records super-songwriter/producer Willie Dixon, the man behind such blues classics as Muddy Waters’ “I Just Want to Make Love to You,” Howlin’ Wolf’s “Spoonful,” and Bo Diddley’s “You Can’t Judge a Book by the Cover” (as well as previous IW50YAT entry “Little Red Rooster”). “The Seventh Son” is similar to “Hootchie Cootchie Man,” another song Dixon wrote for Waters; in both, the narrator boasts of his mystical powers given to him at birth under unusual circumstances.

Mabon, being more of a breezy jazzman than a Waters-style swaggering blues god, gives “The Seventh Son” a light, humorous feel, gently mocking the braggadocio of the lyrics. Rivers wisely emulates Mabon’s rendition, adding a hint of cheekiness to enhance the youthful rock ‘n’ roll vibe. As far as blues standards go, “Seventh Son” is an ideal vehicle for Rivers’ tremulous voice and easygoing go-go sound; anything heavier would strain credulity.

“Seventh Son” became Rivers’ third US Top 10 hit, and second Canadian #1 (after “Memphis”). He’d continue to notch hits throughout the ’60s, nearly all of them covers or, in the case of “Secret Agent Man,” a song written expressly for him by P.F. Sloan. The lone exception, 1966’s “Poor Side of Town,” penned by Rivers with producer Lou Adler, would also be his lone US #1. When old-school rock ‘n’ roll made a comeback in the ‘70s, it brought Rivers along with it, earning a new batch of hits with oldies such as Huey “Piano” Smith’s “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu,” Carl Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes,” and the Beach Boys’ “Help Me Rhonda.” Rivers may have just missed being among the first wave of rockers, but he was a natural fit in its revival, having helped defend the spirit of old-school American rock ‘n’ roll against the influx of the British Invasion.

It Was 50 Years Ago Today examines a song, album, movie, or book that was #1 on the charts exactly half a century ago.

Sally O'Rourke

Sally O’Rourke works in an office and sometimes writes about music. She blogs about every song to ever top the Billboard Hot 100 (in order) at No Hard Chords. She has also contributed to The Singles Jukebox, One Week // One Band, and PopMatters. Special interests include girl groups, soul pop, and over-analyzing chord changes and lyrics as if deciphering a secret code. She was born in Baton Rouge and lives in Manhattan. Her favorite Nugget is “Liar, Liar” by The Castaways.