With every move he makes, another chance he takes, odds are he won't see tomorrow...

There are some music artists which despite their success, have been stunningly underrepresented in CD form. One of them is Johnny Rivers [link doesn't work in Firefox] blue-eyed soul singer from New York by way of Louisiana. Rivers racked up 9 top-ten songs between 1964 and 1977, mostly on the Imperial label. However, the only compilation that had all these songs, Rhino Records' Anthology, is for reasons unknown to me out of print. I picked up this cheapie set at a used record store. Put out by Capitol records, who has the rights to the Imperial cuts, Greatest Hits boils down most of Rivers' career to 10 songs. Half of them are live from the Whiskey A Go-Go in West Hollywood, though 4 of them were singles that were the live version. "Memphis" and "Maybelline" are adequate remakes of Chuck Berry songs, but by no way overshadow the originals. Then come two blues remakes, Leadbelly's "Midnight Special" and Willie Dixon's "Seventh Son", which up the ante in Ricky Nelson-meets-the-early Beatles sort of way. "Where Have All The Flowers Gone" puts the Pete Seeger tune in a hepcat light. Rivers' best known song, "Secret Agent Man", is here in a live version. It would have been much better to have had the original version, but this is nonetheless is good performance. In the late 60's Johnny Rivers took a much more traditional soul turn, putting out the great self-composed "Poor Side Of Town" as well as remaking Motown in "Baby I Need Your Loving" and "Tracks Of My Tears". While in my opinion "Poor Side Of Town" is his best moment, the two Motown songs like the Berry remakes are good but not as good as the originals. Finally comes the "Rockin' Pneumonia & The Boogie Woogie Flu" from 1972, which seems ripe for mixing with Melanie's "Brand New Key".

What's sorely missing besides the original of "Secret Agent Man" is early single "Mountain Of Love" and his smash from the soft-rock 70s "Swayin' To The Music (Slow Dancin')". Everything on this CD is great to listen to, and for me it was a find at $3.99, but I'm telling you to try to find Rivers' Anthology at either a used shop or half.com for a more satisfying picture.

Grade: B-
Best Cuts: "The Poor Side Of Town"