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Johnny Rivers - Secret Agent Man

Johnny Rivers - Secret Agent Man Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Greatest Hits
Released: 1966

Secret Agent Man Lyrics

There's a man who leads a life of danger
To everyone he meets he stays a stranger
With every move he makes another chance he takes
Odds are he won't live to see tomorrow

Secret Agent Man, secret agent man
They've given you a number, I know they've take away your name

Beware of pretty faces that you find
A pretty face can hide an evil mind
Ah, be careful what you say
Or you'll give yourself away
Odds are you won't live to see tomorrow

Secret agent man, secret agent man
They've given you a number, I know they've take away your name

Secret agent man, secret agent man
They've given you a number, oh they've taken away your name

Swingin' on the Riviera one day
And then layin' in the Bombay alley next day
Oh, don't you let you let the wrong word slip
While kissing persuasive lips
Odds are you won't live to see tomorrow

Secret agent man, secret agent man
They've given you a number, oh they've take away your name

Secret agent man

Writer/s: BARRI, STEVE / SLOAN, P. F.
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Secret Agent Man

This was the theme for a TV show called Secret Agent, starring Patrick McGoohan. Unlike many TV themes, the song held up on its own with a distinctive dueling guitar sound.

This is an example of "Spy" music. The sound implied action and was associated with James Bond movies.

P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri, who at the time were just starting the band The Grass Roots, wrote this song. Secret Agent was a US adaptation of a hit show in England called Dangerman, and CBS needed a 15-second theme to replace the British version. Sloan wrote of the song (from his website): "Somebody thought I should do a full length instrumental of the song. So I did. Meanwhile the song was picked by CBS and Johnny Rivers recorded the quick 15-second song for the TV show. The Ventures, the genius guitar instrumental group, heard the demo and recorded and released the song way before Rivers even had a finished song. The publishers asked me to finish the song, Rivers recorded it, not one of his favorite songs back then, but he's happier with it now."

Some of the artists to record this song include Hank Williams Jr., Devo and Blues Traveler.

P.F. Sloan wrote the riff for this song first, then came up with the lyric that went, "Look out Danger Man..." When the title of the show was changed to Secret Agent, he says it was a breakthrough. "That changed everything," he told us. "The lyric just came together in no time at all. It just worked immediately."

This was used in commercials for Wal-Mart and also for Chase credit cards. Some of the many movies to use the song include Repo Man, Bowfinger, Can't Buy Me Love, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, and Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls.

According to P.F. Sloan, Johnny Rivers didn't like this song, and was content to record just the quick TV version until The Ventures charted with it. Both acts recorded for subsidiaries of Liberty Records, and the label was able to convince Rivers to record it.

Sloan told us in 2014 that Rivers had clearly embraced the song. "I saw him about two months ago and I've got to say he did an absolutely killer version," he said. "Johnny must have sang that song half a million times, and he still sings it with so much gusto, and the audience goes nuts. That's something great to see."

The Ventures instrumental version peaked at #54 US on March 26, 1966. Rivers' version hit its peak on April 23. His rendition is substantially longer, running 3:03 vs. 2:17.

Johnny Rivers - Memphis

Johnny Rivers - Memphis Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Johnny Rivers At The Whisky a Go Go
Released: 1964

Memphis Lyrics

Long distance information, give me Memphis Tennessee
Help me find the party trying to get in touch with me
She could not leave her number, but I know who placed the call
Cause my uncle took the message and he wrote it on the wall

Help me, information, get in touch with my Marie
She's the only one who'd phone me here from Memphis Tennessee
Her home is on the south side, high up on a ridge
Just a half a mile from the Mississippi Bridge

Help me, information, more than that I cannot add
Only that I miss her and all the fun we had
But we were pulled apart because her mom did not agree
And tore apart our happy home in Memphis Tennessee

Last time I saw Marie she's waving me good-bye
With hurry home drops on her cheek that trickled from her eye
Marie is only six years old, information please
Try to put me through to her in Memphis Tennessee

Writer/s: C. BERRY
Publisher: BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Memphis Song Chart

Chuck Berry wrote this and recorded it in 1959 as "Memphis, Tennessee." It languished as the B-side of his Back In The U.S.A. single, but was revived when the white blues guitarist Lonnie Mack covered it in 1963. With the title shortened to "Memphis," his version went to #5 in the US.

Johnny Rivers, who had some success as a songwriter (Rick Nelson's "I'll Make Believe"), but had yet to score a hit as an artist, landed a regular gig in 1963 at the Whisky a Go Go, a popular club on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles (The Doors would later make their mark playing shows at The Whiskey). In 1964 he released a live album recorded at the club called Johnny Rivers At The Whisky a Go Go, with "Memphis" issued as a single. It became a huge hit for Rivers, going to #2 in America and launching a career that included nine Top 10 singles. He also had tremendous influence on the business side; he started a record label called Soul City which signed the Fifth Dimension and Jimmy Webb .

This song tells quite a story and has an interesting twist ending. We hear about the singer getting a phone call from a girl who wouldn't leave a number, but he knows it came from Memphis, Tennessee. He calls the operator, trying to locate his girl Marie (which conveniently rhymes with "Tennessee"), who he thinks is the one trying to reach him. At the end of the song, we find out that Marie is his six-year-old daughter, and that he is a divorced father trying desperately to get in touch with her.

Chuck Berry drew on accounts he heard from friends and acquaintances to craft his lyric. "I had known couples who had divorced and the tragedies of the children," he said.

Rivers followed up this song with another Chuck Berry cover: "Maybellene," which went to #12 in the US.

In February 1972, John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent a week hosting The Mike Douglas Show. During this stint, Lennon performed this song and "Johnny B. Goode" with Chuck Berry, who Lennon referred to as "my hero." (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

This song made a return to the charts in 1981 when Fred Knoblock's cover made #10 on the Country charts and bubbled under at #102 on the Hot 100.