Chart entered : 29 April 1965
Chart peak : 20
Number of hits : 10 + 6 solo hits ( 3 for Scott, 2 for Gary, 1 for John )
This story provides a new challenge as The Walker Brothers are the first band we've covered where the individual members had a recording career before coming together.
Scott Engel was the first off the mark. He was born in Ohio in 1943 but the family moved around the country due to his father's work as an oil industry manager. Despite this he was able to start a career as a child performer with several appearances on Eddie Fisher's TV show. He released his first single on RKO at 14 as "Scotty Engel". I was expecting "When Is A Boy A Man" to be terrible but it isn't ; the sound and arrangement are very Frankie Laine and Scott's unbroken voice is amazingly controlled. You can take or leave the frustrated teen lyrics but overall it's an impressive entrance.
By 1958 he had changed labels to Orbit and dropped the "y" . His next single "The Livin End" written by Rod McKuen and Hank Mancini is a neatly executed rock and roll pastiche which only needs to be heard once. The next one "Charlie Bop" sought to take advantage of a new dance step; the back cover of the single helpfully explains how to do it. "Blue Bell" sees a deeper-voiced Scott moving into Paul Anka territory but with a line like "All the way to Albuquerque , I'll be feeling mighty perky" he couldn't expect to be taken seriously.
John Maus was born in New York City in 1943 but the family resettled in California in 1947. He learned several instruments as a child and became an actor with a regular role in the sitcom Hello Mom and some work as a film extra. He also befriended the ill-fated Ritchie Valens and was a pallbearer at his funeral. He formed a duo with his older sister Judith as Johnny and Judy releasing their first single "Bother Me Baby" at the beginning of 1959.
By this time Scott and his mother had also moved to California but while John started knocking around with some of the future Beach Boys, Scott deliberately set himself against the surf culture, consuming progressive jazz and European cinema. He was also becoming a proficient bass player and found some session work in that capacity. His next single "The Golden Rule Of Love " sung in his half-broken voice is a doo-wop ballad that shows little trace of these new influences and is not very interesting.
John and Judy's next single "Hideout" is better, a rumbling Duane Eddy-style rocker ( written by their mum, Regina ! ) with Judy in proto-Valley Girl mode singing of her love-den over the top. Scott went down the rockabilly route with his next single, a version of Johnny Burnette's "Comin Home" but doesn't really sound comfortable with the material. It was his last single for Orbit.
John and Judy had a couple of singles out in 1960, "You Can't Have My Love" and "This Feeling" which I haven't heard in their finished form but a contemporary demo suggests a familiarity with the works of Mr Holly.
In March 1961 Scott was back in action on Liberty with John Loudermilk's "Mr Jones" produced by Snuff Garrett. It's a decent teen pop ditty about asking your girlfriend's parents for her hand with a confident vocal but it's too brief to be more than mildly diverting. John and Judy persisted with "Live It Up" a lively surf rocker although the riff is stronger than the song and the dreary doo wop ballad "I Love You So".
Scott meanwhile had joined a band called The Routers as their bassist and is on their first release "Let's Go ( Pony)" a guitar and sax instrumental based around the cheerleader chant in 1962.
I don't know if he is on any of their subsequent singles in 1963 because that was the year he and John met. At first he joined John's reconstituted band Judy and the Gents but they then left Judith behind and toured as the Surfaris in the autumn , knowing the act behind "Wipe Out" were just session musicians. In August 1963 the last single under the name Scott Engel was "Devil Surfer" a guitar instrumental apart from smattering of diabolic laughter. That same year a band called Larry Tamblyn and the Standels made a single "You'll Be Mine Someday" which featured drummer Gary Leeds ( born 1942 ) but he left when they signed for Liberty.
The "Walker" name originated with John who used it to get around age-related performing restrictions and it first appeared on record with his solo single "What A Thrill" in 1964. He and Scott then formed The Walker Brothers Trio with a drummer Al Schneider to back the singer Donny Brooks. However only John and Scott signed the record deal with Mercury and the trio became a duo. At the end of the year they released their first single "Pretty Girls Everywhere" a brassy up tempo but rather flimsy number sung in John's light tenor which got them on Shindig ! but not into the charts. They had also hooked up with Gary Leeds, who was fresh from a US tour supporting P J Proby and he persuaded them that England might be more immediately appreciative of their sound.
Just before departing for London the Walker Brothers ( not yet including Leeds ) recorded a second single. "Love Her" is a Mann/Weil song previously recorded by the Everly Brothers for a B-side. The singer is telling an ex-lover's new beau to treat her better than he could manage. Producer Nick Venet persuaded John that Scott should do the lead vocal perhaps in imitation of the Righteous Brothers where the deeper-voiced Bill Medley was the lead on their current smash You've Lost That Loving Feeling. He then brought in Spector associate Jack Nitzche for the cavernous orchestral arrangement ( the horn parts do seem to echo those on Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa ) where Scott's voice seems to rise out of a bottomless pit of noble sorrow for the missed chances. Though very much relegated to a side role, John's harmonies on the chorus are an essential part of the mix and the band's sound was established even before Gary "Walker" joined.
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