The Walker Brothers
The Walker Brothers | |
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The Walker Brothers 1965 |
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General information | |
origin | Los Angeles , United States |
Genre (s) | Baroque pop , blue-eyed soul |
founding | 1964, 1975 |
resolution | 1968, 1978 |
Last occupation | |
Scott Walker † | |
John Walker † | |
Gary Walker |
The Walker Brothers were an American pop band formed in Los Angeles in 1964 and finally disbanded in 1978. She consisted of Scott Walker (Scott Engel), John Walker (John Joseph Maus) and Gary Walker (Gary Leeds).
Band history
Because there was no musical success in America, John Maus and Scott Engel decided to try their luck in England under the band name The Walker Brothers. John Maus had adopted the name Walker as early as 1959 as a student at El Camino College in California. Scott Engel previously appeared in the Broadway musical Pipe Dream , and later played in the amateur band The Routers . He met Gary Leeds in a car accident.
The first successes were seen in 1964. This year they appeared together for the first time in Hollywood A Go-Go . The group's first single, Pretty Girls Everywhere , was unsuccessful, but their second single, Love Her , made it into the UK's Top 20 . The breakthrough came with the song Make It Easy on Yourself, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David , as well as the titles My Ship Is Coming In and The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore) .
There was a veritable "Walkers mania" with screaming and fainting teenagers and the corresponding press hype. This, as well as the strains of everyday touring, led to tension in the band. To make matters worse, the hoped-for breakthrough did not materialize in the USA and the emerging flower power movement and psychedelia did not fit into the band's concept.
In 1967 they separated amicably. John and Scott honed their solo careers, and Gary Leeds formed the band Gary and the Rain. However, only Scott Walker was somewhat successful. His solo albums Scott 1 to Scott 4 became sought-after collector's items.
In 1975 the Walker Brothers got together again. With No Regrets they had another hit. The first two albums after the reunion consistently contain a kind of middle-of-the-road country pop of the melancholy kind. The third album, Nite Flights , which was released shortly before the end of the record company GTO, gives every musician space for their own songs. Not much attention was paid to the stragglers album back then. Today it can hardly be found on LP. Nite Flights was added to The Wire's “100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening)” list.
On May 7, 2011, John Walker died after a long illness (liver cancer) in Los Angeles.
Scott Walker died on March 22, 2019 after a serious illness (cancer) in London
Members
- Scott Walker alias Noel Scott Engel: vocals, bass, guitar, keyboard instruments (born January 9, 1943 in Hamilton, Ohio; † March 22, 2019 in London)
- John Walker alias John Joseph Maus: vocals, guitar (born November 12, 1943 in New York City, † May 7, 2011 in Los Angeles, California)
- Gary Walker alias Gary Leeds: drums (born March 9, 1942 in Glendale, California)
Cover version
David Bowie covered the title track of the album Nite Flights , a composition by Scott Walker, on his album Black Tie White Noise (1993).
Discography
Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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Albums | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Singles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Albums
- 1965: Take It Easy with the Walker Brothers
- 1965: Introducing the Walker Brothers
- 1966: The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore
- 1966: portrait
- 1966: The Walker Brothers
- 1967: Images
- 1968: The Walker Brothers in Japan
- 1975: No Regrets
- 1976: Lines
- 1978: Nite Flights
Compilations
- 1966: Attention! The Walker Brothers! (alternative album title: Hitsounds )
- 1966: The Fabulous Walker Brothers
- 1967: I Need You
- 1968: The Walker Brothers Story
- 1968: The Immortal Walker Brothers
- 1972: Make It Easy on Yourself
- 1975: Greatest Hits (2 LPs)
- 1977: Spotlight On (2 LPs)
- 1982: hits
- 1982: motifs
- 1984: The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore
- 1986: Gala
- 1989: The Walker Brothers Collection (UK:silver)
- 1990: After the Lights Go Out
- 1992: No Regrets - The Best of 1965–1976 (with Scott Walker )
- 1992: Make It Easy on Yourself
- 1993: A Very Special Collection
- 1995: Anthology
- 2000: The Singles + (2 CDs)
- 2001: If You Could Hear Me Now
- 2006: The Best Of - The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine
- 2006: Everything Under the Sun (The Complete Recordings) (Box with 5 CDs)
- 2007: The Silver Collection
- 2009: My Ship Is Coming In - The Collection (2 CDs)
- 2010: 3 original album Classics (box with 3 CDs)
Singles
- 1965: Pretty Girls Everywhere
- 1965: Love Her
- 1965: Make It Easy on Yourself
- 1965: My Ship Is Coming In
- 1966: Land of 1,000 Dances
- 1966: The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Any More
- 1966: (Baby) You Don't Have to Tell Me
- 1966: Another Tear Falls
- 1966: Deadlier Than the Male
- 1967: Stay with Me Baby
- 1967: Walking in the Rain
- 1975: No Regrets
- 1976: Lines
- 1976: We're All Alone
- 1978: The Electrician
literature
- Ken Barnes, Mike Saunders: The Walker Brothers. In: Greg Shaw: The British are coming. From the childhood days of English rock music . Translated from the English by Walle Bengs. Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 1983, pp. 139–142.
- Mike Watkinson and Pete Anderson: Scott Walker. Deep shade of blue. Virgin 1995.
- John and Gary Walker: The Walker Brothers. No regrets. Our story. London: John Blake 2009.
Web links
- John Walker's official website
- The Walker Brothers at Allmusic (English)
- The Walker Brothers at Discogs (English)
- 1st German Scott Walker forum with discussion / information about the Walker Brothers
- Obituary for John Walker
Individual evidence
- ↑ see English Wikipedia
- ^ SWR - The Walker Brothers . As of September 3, 2016
- ^ The Associated Press: Scott Walker of the Walker Brothers Dies at Age 76 . In: The New York Times . March 25, 2019, ISSN 0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed March 30, 2019]).
- ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK
- ↑ Chart sources singles: DE US UK