100 Greatest Songs of the 60’s #20 Dionne Warwick – Walk On By

Released: 1964

Whilst the sixties was the decade in which the world finally grew out of it’s stilted post war straitjacket, the pace of change was neither uniform or equal. As the British plotted their invasion of America’s front rooms and radios, most of the status quo got along just fine.

Burt Bacharach and Hal David took more than their fair share of holding back the cultural tsunami (And became ironically hip again in the nineties), keeping it easy and middle of the road. If the duo’s saccharine and conventional world view might’ve been dismissed by Mick, Keith, John and Jim it certainly didn’t halt their progress as they racked up hit after hit for the likes of Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones and Cilla Black.

In Dionne Warwick however they discovered a perfect foil. Walk On By was recorded in the same three hour session as Anyone Who Had a Heart, but after originally debuting as the b-side to Any Old Time of Day, it was eventually flipped on the insistence of the influential New York DJ Murray “The K” Kauffman. He was right too; flecked with jazzy brass and regretful strings, the singer’s voice had enough power and dexterity to paint the song’s lonesome emotions. Burt and Hal were on a roll, and the squarer they got, the better they were.