THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,947) Johnny Neal & Starliners — “Walk Baby Walk”
This stunning, strutting mod number was the B-side from the first of two singles the Starliners released before being grounded. Earlier, they were the band that took over for the Beatles at the Star Club in Hamburg! (https://letciaschn.medium.com/exclusive-interview-johnny-neal-part-ii-31568ad7e330)
Johnny Neal reminisced to Letícia Sechini that:
The first time I heard rock ‘n roll I was walking down a street in London and a car passed by with the windows down blaring out “Heartbreak Hotel” by Elvis Presley . . . I was elated and wanted to know more about Elvis and his music! On one [talent] show I appeared on — the Carroll Levis Show at the Birmingham Hippodrome . . . . I met up with another act appearing there called the Mike Jacks trio . . . They didn’t make it to the next round of the competition but I did and I then asked them to join me as my backing group. This was my first backing band and we finished in second place . . . . As rock ‘n roll was starting to take off I added guitar and tenor saxophone to my line-up thus forming the first authentic rock ‘n’roll . . . band in Birmingham. The band now called Johnny Neal and the Houn’dogs appeared on TV shows, theatres, dance halls etc playing the new rock ‘n rock music . . . . I then later joined a band called the Starliners. . . . In 1962 my band and I went to the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany to back a female singer called Tanya Day and to take over from a band from Liverpool called the Beatles . . . . I received a call whilst in Hamburg at the Star Club . . . that there was plenty of work waiting for us in France playing at American Forces Bases . . . . At the one American base we met an English pianist who like ourselves had been travelling around the bases. He told me he had written [“Walk Baby Walk”] and would I be interested — [it] was quite different from any other pop songs going at the time. We met with a guy from AFN (American Forces Network) a radio station for the serving GI’s in France, who snuck us into the studios late one night . . . . [and] we made a demo . . . . After our stint in France, we returned to the UK and continued gigging around Birmingham. . . . My next manager . . . John Singer . . . booked us at the Birmingham Town Hall and numerous places around the Midlands . . . . Around 1965 . . . [he] took us to . . . Pye . . . . We had submitted a demo of a song “And I Will Love You” . . . which . . . made an immediate impression on Alan [Freemn] who came down to Birmingham and signed us up. Back in the studios in London Alan asked if we had a B side for the record, we didn’t but then I remembered “Walk Baby Walk” which we quickly recorded with a young lady walking over a wooden plank in high heeled shoes with a microphone under the planks to give the sound of the footsteps at the beginning and end of the record.
https://letciaschn.medium.com/exclusive-interview-johnny-neal-part-ii-31568ad7e330
Read more from their cool interview (and learn what Neal did next) at: https://letciaschn.medium.com/exclusive-interview-johnny-neal-part-i-47f4b2b855bc, https://letciaschn.medium.com/exclusive-interview-johnny-neal-part-ii-31568ad7e330, https://letciaschn.medium.com/exclusive-interview-johnny-neal-part-iii-7c37652011b5.
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