Free Secret History of Rock. The Most Influential Bands You've Never Heard by Roni Sarig Page A

Righteous Brothers (who weren’t brothers either), with close harmonies and Phil Spector-like orchestration, the Walker Brothers recorded a few singles with Maus singing lead, but these failed to gain much attention. By the end of the year, the British Invasion was in full swing, and the band decided to head where the action was, so they moved to London.
    Before long their single Love Her , which featured Scott’s operatic baritone as the lead voice, became a hit in the U.K. The Walker Brothers decided to stay, and signed with a British record label. With the help of producer Johnny Franz (who created a similarly orchestrated pop sound for Dusty Springfield), the Walker Brothers scored a string of big hits through 1965 and ‘66, including the #1 single Make It Easy on Yourself , as well as My Ship Coming in , as well as The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore (which was also a Top Twenty hit in the U.S.), and Deadlier than the Male . For a brief run, they were the biggest teen idols in Britain, complete with screaming mobs and fan-clubs, but the hysteria died off quickly, and in 1967 the Walker Brothers decided to disband. On their farewell tour of the U.K., they brought along Cat Stevens and Jimi Hendrix as supporting acts.
    Ron Sexsmith:
    I love Scott Walker. Just the idea of Scott Walker – this guy who has a beautiful voice and puts out a record every ten years or something. There’s your alternative artist for you, not that he sets out to be. His whole career is incredible, to be able to touch people that way, without touring, without anything, and keep growing as an artist. He’s an influence in that he doesn’t follow any trends, he’s always himself, and it’s inspiring...
    Though each of the Walker Brothers pursued solo careers, only Scott had success (and only in the U.K.). Still working with producer Franz, between 1967 and 1969 Walker churned out a series of four landmark solo records – Scott , Scott 2 , Scott 3 , Scott 4 – that remain his most enduring creations. Singing material that included works by the songwriting teams of Bacharach & David and Weill & Mann, as well as by renowned Belgian writer Jacques Brel, Scott established himself as a premier song stylist – a darker, more introspective Tom Jones; a Tony Bennett for the Age of Aquarius.
    Scott restored Walker as a teen idol and made him a top draw in the cabarets of Europe. The record also featured, for the first time, Scott’s own compositions. Even next to Brel’s richly drawn pieces, songs such as Montague Terrace (in Blue) hold their own. But while Walker seemed to be growing as an artist, he remained firmly entrenched in an old-style career as a middle-of-the-road singer. For at least another year, Walker pursued a sort of musical double life; while he explored his more challenging material on increasingly artistic albums, he continued to please the masses (and his record company) with commercial singles such as Johanna and Lights of Cincinnati .
    With Scott 2 , Walker had become the premier English interpreter of Brel’s songs (which were translated by American songwriter Mort Shuman) and he enjoyed success with the somewhat unusual and risque single Jackie . By Scott 3 , his own compositions filled the majority of the album. Songs like Big Louise , Rosemary , and in particular, It’s Raining Today – with its dissonant string orchestrations – showed that Walker was continuing to develop and stretch the boundaries of what was acceptable in pop music.
    When Walker released Scott 4 in 1969 (under the name Noel Scott Engel), though, it seemed he had pushed a little too far. Consisting of all originals, the record contained challenging material such as the Ingmar Bergman-inspired The Seventh Seal and The Old Man’s Back Again (Dedicated to the Neo-Stalinist Regime) , a commentary on the recent Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia. The British public rejected the album, and Walker’s stature quickly fell from marquee star to cult artist.