Johnny Rivers "At the Whisky a Go Go" 1964

It was at those gigs that Rivers hooked up with a songwriter and music producer named Lou Adler, a business associate of Herb Alpert who'd previously worked with Jan & Dean and who was planning to start his own record company. Rivers took on Adler as his manager and also got a contract, starting in mid-January of 1964, to play at a new club opening in Los Angeles called the Whisky a Go-Go. This was where Rivers' act and reputation exploded, resulting in turn-away crowds -- his act was so rousing and the chemistry between Rivers, his music, and the audience was so strong, that Adler decided to try and record him live at the club, and to do that, he and Rivers had to borrow the money to rent the necessary equipment.
At the time, there were other artists playing this kind of basic, danceable rock & roll, mostly in club settings, in and around Los Angeles. The most notable among them was probably Bobby Fuller, although the Standells were making something of a noise as well. In early 1964, however, none of those acts had broken nationally or even locally. Rivers got there first and, in many ways, paved the way for performers like Fuller, once he got heard.
The tape of Rivers' performance was rejected by every record company in Los Angeles until Adler got to Liberty Records. Liberty had been founded by Al Bennett in the mid-'50s and although it had enjoyed huge success with pop singer Julie London, Liberty was also more of a youth-oriented label than most other L.A. record companies at that time. Bennett didn't believe that Rivers' tape was anything special, but he was convinced by one of his executives, Bob Skaff, to release an album from the tape on the Imperial Records label, which Bennett had purchased a few months earlier.
Johnny Rivers at the Whisky a Go-Go, released in May of 1964, was a hit from day one, its sales boosted by the accompanying single, a powerful version of Chuck Berry's "Memphis," which got to number two on the charts. The magnitude of Rivers' accomplishment shouldn't be underestimated -- since early 1964, the American charts had been dominated almost exclusively by British rock acts, with American artists picking up the scraps that were leftover, and then along came this new white kid from Baton Rouge, playing '50s-style rock & roll and R&B like he means it (and he did). The sales of the debut album were stunning for their time, rising to number 12 in a 45-week chart run on the strength of the single. In response, another live performance was released as Here We a Go-Go Again in late August of 1964. In the interim, his debut single was followed by Rivers' version of "Maybelline," which got to number 12. - by Bruce Eder
trax:
01 Memphis 02 It Wouldn't Happen With Me 03 Oh, Lonesome Me 04 Lawdy Miss Clawdy 05 Whiskey A-Go-Go 06 Walking the Dog 07 Brown Eyed Handsome Man 08 You Can Have Her (I Don't Want Her) 09 Multiplication 10 La Bamba_Twist & Shout