Rating: *** (3 stars)
Title: The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore
Company: Smash
Catalog: MGS 27082
Year: 1965
Grade (cover/record): VG/VG
Comments: mono pressing; minor
ring wear
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 4102
Price: $12.00
"The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore) (Bob Gaudio - Bob Crewe) - 3:04
2.) After the Lights Go Out (John Stewart) - 3:57
3,) People Get Ready (Curtis Mayfield)
4.) Everything's Gonna Be All Right (Mitchell) - 2:15
5.) Old Folks (Hall - Robinson) - 3:10
6.) Take It Like a Man (Leiber - Stoller) - 2:38
(side 2)
1.) (Baby) You Don't have To Tell Me (Autell) - 2:26
2.) I Need You (Gerry Goffin - Carole King) - 3:12
3.) My Love Is Growing (John Stewart) - 3:15
4.) Young Man Cried (J. Franz - Scott Engles) - 2:34
5.) Just for a Thrill (Louis Armstrong - D. Kaye) - 3:33
6.) Don't Fight It (Wilson Pickett - Steve cropper) - 1:55
The track listing for the Walkers' first British album is similar to the one for their debut American LP (Introducing the Walker Brothers), except that it's missing their first single ("Pretty Girls Everywhere"/"Doin' the Jerk") and "My Ship Is Coming In," and adds three cuts not on the U.S. release. As it happens, these three tracks are worth having, particularly the David Gates-penned ballad "The Girl I Lost in the Rain" and "First Love Never Dies," another son-of-Righteous Brothers epic that would have made a reasonable single. The CD reissue is also much preferable to the American LP since it adds eight bonus cuts from the time, including the singles "Love Her" and "My Ship Is Coming In" and their B-sides, as well as the 1966 EP I Need You. A couple of the EP tracks are very strong: "Young Man Cried," another booming ballad with Spectoresque production, was one of Scott Walker's first good compositions (co-written with producer John Franz), and "Looking for Me" is a fine dramatic and little-known early Randy Newman song. Unfortunately "Pretty Girls Everywhere" and "Doin' the Jerk" weren't included on this (or any of the other Walker Brothers CD reissues) as bonus tracks; for those you'll still need to look for Introducing the Walker Brothers.
Their debut album was an erratic affair; they hit their trademark balladeering groove with the hits "Make It Easy On Yourself" and "My Ship Is Comin' In," but sound stiff on uptempo R&B numbers like "Land of 1,000 Dances" and "Dancing in the Street." It does include some interesting tracks which haven't been reissued, most notably the obscure early Randy Newman composition "I Don't Want to Hear It Any More" and the Scott Engel original "You're All Around Me," both of which are the kind of pop/rock ballads which were the Walkers' strongest suit
While the Walkers looked the part of British Invaders with their shaggy mop-top hairstyles, they were far more pop than rock. Nor did they play on most of their records. With producer Johnny Franz and veteran British arrangers like Ivor Raymonde (who also worked with Dusty Springfield) and Reg Guest, they favored orchestrated ballads that were a studied attempt to emulate the success of another brother act who weren't really brothers: the Righteous Brothers. Not as soulful as the Righteous Brothers, lead singer Scott Walker's deep croon betrayed strong debts to non-rock vocalists like Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra. While their biggest hits were covers of songs by American pop songwriting teams like Bacharach-David and
and Mann-Weill, Scott (and occasionally John Walker) could write brooding originals in a more personal, less overblown style when given the chance.
In the intensely competitive days of 1967, the Walkers' brand of pop suddenly become passé, and the group disbanded in the face of diminishing success and Scott's increasingly fruitful solo career. Scott ran off a series of Top Ten British solo albums in the late '60s, which have attracted a sizable cult with their idiosyncratic marriage of Scott's brooding, insular songs and ornate orchestral arrangements. Gary Walker released a few singles and an album with his group the Rain in a much harder-rocking guitar-oriented format. The Walkers reunited for a while in the mid-'70s, which produced a final British hit ("No Regrets"). Much of the Walkers' story is retold in the biography Scott Walker: A Deep Shade of Blue, published only in Britain.
