It Was 50 Years Ago Today: “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore” by The Walker Brothers
April 5, 1966
“The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore” by The Walker Brothers
#1 on the Record Retailer Singles Chart (UK), March 17 – April 13, 1966
In late 1966, Phil Spector withdrew from the recording industry. The immediate cause: the poor reception in America of the record he considered his masterwork, Ike & Tina Turner’s “River Deep – Mountain High.” The error wasn’t with the single, since recognized as one of the greatest pop recordings ever. Instead, its failure was symptomatic of shifting trends in popular music. American teens no longer needed Spector’s “little symphonies”; they preferred the crisper, headier sounds of the British Invasion, or Motown, or garage rock.
Across the Atlantic, however, there was still an niche for orchestral pop, and all the better if it could be filled by some glamorous Americans. In 1966, the same year “River Deep – Mountain High” peaked at #3 on the UK singles chart, the hottest new band was steeped in a sumptuous emulation of Spector’s Wall of Sound. The California-bred Walker Brothers — an unrelated trio, none of whom was actually named Walker — spearheaded a reverse British Invasion, not only geographically, but in terms of style. In the United States, they had played surf music and bouncy pop-rock. It was only once they switched gears, becoming a teen idol version of fellow faux-bros the Righteous Brothers, that they made their mark on the pop charts.
The Walker Brothers did respectably in their home country, notching a pair of Top 20 singles. In the UK, however, they were a bona fide phenomenon. The Walker Brothers broke through in Britain with their second single, 1965’s “Love Her,” a cover of a B-side by the Everly Brothers. Unlike the Walkers’ debut, “Pretty Girls Everywhere,” which featured a light rock arrangement and lead vocals by frontman John Walker, “Love Her” was sung by bassist Scott Walker and lushly orchestrated by frequent Spector collaborator Jack Nitzsche. “Love Her” indelibly recast the Walker Brothers as crooners of sweeping orchestral ballads, and refocused attention from the more conventional John Walker to the intellectual, cosmopolitan Scott Walker, a baritone whose vocal style was closer to French chanson than pop-rock or blue-eyed soul.
The Walker Brothers solidified the success of “Love Her,” which just nicked the UK Top 20, with follow-up “Make It Easy on Yourself,” a cover of Burt Bacharach/Hal David song that had recently been a hit for R&B singer Jerry Butler in the States. The Walkers’ “Make It Easy on Yourself” climbed to #16 on the US charts, outperforming Butler’s version, but really made its mark in the UK, soaring all the way to #1. The band’s gloomy luster — and pop-star good looks — established the Walker Brothers as a more somber, elegant alternative to the scrappier sounds coming out of the British beat groups.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9wV7QWyXf8
Despite the relatively narrow focus of the group’s sound, the Walker Brothers suffered little in the way of diminishing returns. In fact, their fourth single in their remodeled mode became their most successful, granting them not only a second UK #1, but a hit around the world. Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe, the songwriting/ production team behind the Four Seasons, wrote “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore” to launch the solo career of Frankie Valli, the group’s frontman. Valli’s version missed the pop charts, but the song’s surging chorus and theatrical melancholy proved an ideal fit for the Walkers’ persona. Scott Walker’s deeper voice and pensive phrasing adds a layer of resonance to the record, while Gaudio and Crewe’s knack for soaring yet earthy melody keeps the song firmly in the realm of contemporary pop.
At one point, the legend goes, the Walker Brothers’ official fan club boasted more members than the Beatles’. But while the Walkers’ flame burned bright, racking up nine Top 40 hits in the span of two years, it also burned briefly. By the end of 1967, the band had dissolved, falling prey to both tensions within the band and the changing tastes of the pop public. Yet Scott Walker eventually emerged from the group as one of the most intriguing figures in popular music, with solo records running the gamut from Jacques Brel-inspired Euro-pop, to countrified easy listening, to uncompromising dips into the avant-garde. While the Walker Brothers could have ended up yet another beat group or faux-Spector also-rans, it’s his distinct yet indefinable essence that elevates a record like “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore” into a haunting expression of heartache.
It Was 50 Years Ago Today examines a song, album, movie, or book that was #1 on the charts exactly half a century ago.
