So fascinating the intersections that exist within the realms of popular music! Case in point: the Burt Bacharach-Hal David song “Walk On By,” now considered a contemporary classic as much as a result of the original 1964 recording by Dionne Warwick as by Isaac Hayes, whose twelve-minute and three-second 1969 version undoubtedly contributed to catapulting his breakthrough “Hot Buttered Soul” LP into public consciousness.

The song itself has much personal meaning for me, virtually responsible (almost single-handedly) for my ‘conversion’ from British pop to American soul: unashamedly, I had preferred Liverpudlian Cilla Black (managed at the time by Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein, and a future fixture on British television) version of Dionne’s unrequited opus “Anyone Who Had A Heart,” fiercely defending my choice because I didn’t like the muted trumpet in the Warwick recording! “Walk On By,” another homage to the brokenhearted among us – I was pining over Marilyn Wolfe, a number of years older than me who had rejected in favor of teenagers older than her tender sixteen years of age – was the song that got me through the angst and pain of puppy love…

It was also my introduction to Aretha Franklin. In a somewhat radical departure from the jazz and pop material which had been the standard fare for her previous five Columbia albums, the late 1964 “Runnin’ Out Of Fools” contained her own distinctive readings of a number of current hits of that year (including Brenda Holloway’s “Every Little Bit Hurts” and Nancy Wilson’s “How Glad I Am”). I heard Aretha’s gospel-styled reading of “Walk On By” during an outing of the Dionne Warwick, Shirelles and Scepter-Wand Appreciation Society members in Littlehampton, a British beach town, on a portable record player and vowed to find out exactly who this Aretha Franklin singer was. But that’s another story…

Many years after the release of Dionne’s “Walk On By” (which brought her immediate international fame and recognition and remains the most popular song in her repertoire among Brits and other European audiences), I found out in a rare interview session with the late Florence Greenberg (the founder and owner of Scepter Records for whom Dionne recorded her classic Bacharach-David material) that the song was originally intended as a “B” side. Florence preferred the more bossa-nova-flavored “Any Old Time Of Day”: undecided, she asked popular New York disc jockey Murray The K to run an on-air contest so listeners could vote for their choice. Needless to say, “Walk On By” won hands down and Dionne was rewarded with a massive hit single…

While I don’t confess to know what motivated Isaac Hayes to choose “Walk On By” and turn it into an acknowledged musical masterpiece (with horns, strings and a ‘nasty’ funky guitar!), I do know that he transformed it into a veritable showcase for his skills as an outfront recording artist. Moving from the backroom as one of Stax Records’ key producers and songwriters along with partner David Porter, Ike reportedly recorded his first Stax LP (1968’s “Presenting Isaac Hayes”) because Stax needed one more album to fill out a major sales campaign the company was doing with its new G&W distribution deal.

Soul connections being what they are, Isaac and Dionne would tour together some seven years after the release of “Hot Buttered Soul” when both were undergoing career challenges, she near the end of a frustratingly unsuccessful six-year tenure at Warner Brothers Records and he finishing a short-lived association with ABC Records via his own Hot Buttered Soul imprint. Recorded in Atlanta in 1976, an album named after the tour (“A Man And A Woman”) was released in early ’77 on HBS and included, naturally, “Walk On By” sung by the duo as part of a medley that also included another Bacharach-David classic, “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself.” The LP has never been issued on CD due to uncertainty over ownership although we can confirm that tapes for it exist in the UMG vaults! Until such time as someone somewhere concludes it’s worth reissuing, we can content ourselves with the two vastly different of the song without which I might never have taken the soul music path that I’ve been on all these many years… You can hear a shortened version of Isaac’s “Walk On By” on the Stax 50th Anniversary Celebration 2-CD set.

David Nathan
Aka the British Ambassador Of Soul
Owner, www.soulmusic.com

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