| Poor Side of Town | |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Johnny Rivers |
| Album: | Changes |
| B-Side: | "A Man Can Cry" (non-LP track) |
| Released: | August 1966[1] |
| Genre: | Baroque pop, orchestral pop |
| Length: | 3:48 (album) 3:03 (single) |
| Label: | Imperial 66205 |
| Producer: | Lou Adler |
| Prev Title: | (I Washed My Hands in) Muddy Water |
| Prev Year: | 1966 |
| Next Title: | Baby I Need Your Loving |
| Next Year: | 1967 |
"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.[2] The song marked a turning point in Rivers' career that saw him move away from his earlier rock and roll style toward pop ballads.
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", [3] Rivers would say the song: "took…about five months to write…I kept writing little bits and pieces of it."[4] 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.[4]
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.
| Chart (1966) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| Canada RPM[5] | 1 | |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 1 |