Scott

by Scott Walker

Overview

Scott Walker's success as a teen idol singer of Spectorish ballads with the Walker Brothers in no way prepared listeners for the mordant, despairing lyrics of his solo debut. To compound the surprise, he does his best to imitate the vocal girth of Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra on this mix of original tunes and covers, which also features sweeping, bloated orchestral arrangements. It was hardly rock, and pop of a most oddball sort, but it found a surprisingly large audience -- in Britain, anyway, where it reached the Top Three in 1967. Poke behind the velvet curtain of the languid MOR arrangements, and one finds a surprisingly literate existentialist at the helm of these proceedings. His lyrical nuances were probably lost on his audience of predominately teenage girls, though they've earned him a small cult audience that endures to this day. Besides presenting three of his own compositions, Walker covers tunes by Weill/Mann, Tim Hardin, and Andre & Dory Previn on this album, as well as three songs by his favorite writer, Jacques Brel. Highlights include his exquisitely anguished rendition of Brel's classic "Amsterdam" and his dramatic cover of the early-'60s Toni Fisher pop ballad "The Big Hurt." ~ Richie Unterberger

Product Details

Release Date:	06/03/2014
Label:	Universal
UPC:	0602537288465
Rank:	38616

Tracks

1. Mathilde
2. Montague Terrace (In Blue)
3. Angelica
4. The Lady Came From Baltimore
5. When Joanna Loved Me
6. My Death
7. The Big Hurt
8. Such a Small Love
9. You're Gonna Hear From Me
10. Through a Long and Sleepless Night
11. Always Coming Back to You
12. Amsterdam

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Scott Walker   Primary Artist,Vocals
Wally Stott Orchestra   Ensemble,Orchestra
Peter Knight   Conductor
Wally Stott   Conductor
Reg Guest   Conductor
The Peter Knight Singers   Conductor

Technical Credits

Alfred Newman   Composer
Andre Previn   Composer
Simon Heyworth   Remastering
Jacques Brel   Composer
Cynthia Weil   Composer
Wayne Shanklin   Composer
Scott Walker   Composer
Wally Stott   Arranger
Reg Guest   Arranger
Tim Hardin   Composer
Mort Shuman   Composer
Gerard Jouannest   Composer
Jack Segal   Composer
Barry Mann   Composer
Dory Previn   Composer
Mack Gordon   Composer
John Franz   Producer
Robert Wells   Composer
Peter J. Olliff   Engineer
The Peter Knight Singers   Arranger
Keith Altham   Liner Notes,Sleeve Notes