♫ Walk Don’t Run ♫

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Tonight, as I was trolling around my usual haunts for material for Jolly Monday, I came across a list on Phil’s Phun of the top songs of the 1960s.  Immediately, I seized on at least 15 great ones that I hadn’t thought of in ages, such as Jimmy Jones’ Handy Man, Brenda Lee’s I’m Sorry, Greenfields by The Brothers Four, and much more that brought back memories galore.  But, when I came to #25 on the list … damn, but I’ve always loved this song!  It’s an instrumental, no words, but it needs none.

After hearing a Chet Atkins recording of Walk Don’t Run, the Tacoma-based instrumental rock band The Ventures released their version of the tune as a single in spring 1960 on Dolton Records. This version made the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at #2 and was kept out of the #1 spot by It’s Now or Never by Elvis Presley.

This single, their first national release, vaulted the Ventures’ career. The song was recorded before the band officially had a drummer. The Ventures’ website lists the drummer on Walk, Don’t Run as Skip Moore. Skip was given the choice of $25 or 25% of the money the record would make for playing on the session. He took the $25.  Fool!

Lyrics???  It’s an instrumental …

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28 thoughts on “♫ Walk Don’t Run ♫”

  3. This single was followed by their first album, “Walk, Don’t Run” about 6 months later. I remember it because my elder sister loved the song when it was released, playing it and dancing to it…and she taught me too! She became a huge Ventures fan and bought all their albums well into the 70’s. I also recall another Ventures album that was released when she was in college during my senior year of high school, “Walk, Don’t Run Vol. 2”, that had a remake of the song…we didn’t like it as much as the original. I vividly recall an album by Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass, “Going Places” from the fall of 1965 that had a fantastic version. One of the girls in my dorm at nursing school was a devoted fan, that album was played often and loudly…there may have been some dancing in the hallway too! You know what? I think I feel like dancing!! Thank-you!!

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    • Do you recall Horst Jankowski’s “A Walk in the Black Forest”? I have been meaning to play that one for a while … I love it! Stay tuned! And yes, Herb Alpert and the TJB are also on my radar … so much great music, so little time!

      Dance on, Miss Ellen … Dance ON!!!

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    • Indeed … this is definitely one that sticks with you, makes you want to tap your toes, or maybe even dance. I don’t think I realized they did the theme song for “Hawaii Five-O” … I love that song!!!

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  6. Pretty sure I never knew the Ventures version so it could only be the Shadows version which as the first heard is favourite but in all honesty the only instrumental I ever heard that I liked enough to pay attention to was Albatross by Fleetwood Mac.
    Cwtch

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    • I’m not sure, but I don’t think I know of the Shadows. I love Albatross, too, but there are a number of other instrumentals I like. I find them to be somehow soothing, relaxing. I’ll try to play something more to your liking tomorrow 😉
      Cwtch

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  7. I doubt Skip was a fool, it just turned out to look thar way. You could feed a family for a week on $25 in 1960. I don’t know if he had a family or not, but I’m sure he did what he thought was right. It could be a long time before a royalty cheque showed up.
    In 1965 my first real job paid 75 cents an hour, or $30 for a 40 hour week. I would have taken the $25 too, lol.
    Walk Don’t Run was a great record. I never knew Chet Atkins wrote it. Thanks.

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    • You make a valid point … back then, $25 was a bunch of money. My first car, a 1956 Chevy, I paid $50 for. Still … he might be wealthy now if he had waited for the bird in the bush. I hadn’t known Chet Atkins wrote it either!

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  9. Wow! This tune was my all-time favourite for many years, Jill. I think I owned every album that the Ventures produced and I played them all the time and drove my mother nuts – because I never played anything at a low volume!

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    • I had nearly forgotten this song until I stumbled upon it Sunday night, and I’ve been whistling it all day! Heh heh … what teenager plays things at low volume? The purpose is to annoy our parents! And what goes around, comes around, as they say, for then we have our own kids who turn into teenagers. My mother used to say, “I hope some day you have a child as rotten as you are!” I did. 😉

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        • Oh yes … I was rotten!!! Started stealing my dad’s car at age 13, Argued with anything and everything. Ran away from home so many times they finally stopped bothering to look for me. I was, indeed, a terror! I hear you on the volume thing! Even though I am nearly deaf, the sounds I can hear can easily get on my nerves, such as somebody’s car alarm bleeping, or an obnoxious voice on t.v.

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            • Heh heh … maybe, just maybe … I thought about it, but then said, “Nah … who wants to read about a bratty kid who grew up to be a boring accountant?” But maybe … I did have some interesting spots in there, like the mafioso “uncles” …

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