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", Rivers would say the song: "took…about five months to write…I kept writing little bits and pieces of it." 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. 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. ==Charts==