♫ Walk On By ♫ (Redux)

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music

I had about 40 different songs in my mind to play for you yesterday, but by the time I sat down to actually put fingertips to keyboard, they had all flown from the coop of my mind.  Happens a lot these days.  So, I pondered at 2:30 a.m. … not what would I like to hear, but who.  And the answer came swiftly and without hesitation … the one, the only …

Dionne Warwick!

dionne-warwick

The songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote this. Bacharach came up with the music, and David wrote the lyrics about a woman asking her former lover to leave her alone.

This was released as the B-side to Warwick’s single Any Old Time Of The Day. She’d had several releases that went nowhere, and her latest tune was, in the opinion of her label, her manager, and herself, her last shot at making the Top 40. Murray the K, whose show on radio station WINS was the top-rated program in New York, wouldn’t play it. No matter how many people called and pleaded with him, he played the B-side instead because he knew that was the tune with potential. Warwick’s record company wasn’t happy with this, but listeners agreed with Murray and Walk On By became the hit.

According to Bacharach …

“‘Walk On By’ was the first time that I tried putting two grand pianos on a record in the studio. I can’t remember if I played and Artie Butler played or if Paul Griffin and Artie Butler played but here were two grand pianos going on. I knew the song had something. It was a great date. I walked out of that studio and we had done two tunes in a three-hour session, ‘Walk On By’ and ‘Anyone Who Had A Heart’. I felt very good leaving knowing that I had two monster hits on my hands. You never know for sure but you feel a great satisfaction.”

An interesting bit of trivia … On May 12, 2002, Dionne Warwick was arrested at Miami International Airport after baggage screeners found marijuana inside a lipstick container she was carrying. The UK publication The Sun reported the story with the headline: “Walk on high, Dionne.”

Walk On By
Dionne Warwick

If you see me walking down the street
And I start to cry each time we meet
Walk on by, walk on by

Make believe
That you don’t see the tears
Just let me grieve
In private ’cause each time I see you
I break down and cry
And walk on by (don’t stop)
And walk on by (don’t stop)
And walk on by

I just can’t get over losing you
And so if I seem broken and blue
Walk on by, walk on by

Foolish pride
Is all that I have left
So let me hide
The tears and the sadness you gave me
When you said goodbye
Walk on by (don’t stop)
Walk on by (don’t stop)
Walk on by (don’t stop)
Walk on

Walk on by
Walk on by
Foolish pride
Is all that I have left
So let me hide
The tears and the sadness you gave me
When you said goodbye
Walk on by (don’t stop)
And walk on by (don’t stop)
Now you really gotta go so walk on by (don’t stop)
If you leave you’ll never see the tears I cry
Now you really gotta go so walk on by (don’t stop)

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Burt Bacharach / Hal David
Walk On By lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Royalty Network

33 thoughts on “♫ Walk On By ♫ (Redux)”

  2. There were other versions, different in interpretations, but no one else captured the poignancy of lost love and trying to keep on keeping on in the aftermath.
    If you want the true depth of the song’s origins, then it’s Dionne Warwick and no one else.

    Liked by 1 person

  8. I saw the title. I saw the pictures. There was dissonance. I remembered a male voice. Leroy van Dyke, in fact. 1961. It wasn’t a great song, in my mind, though it was a country hit. 19 weeks at #1 in fact, a long-stading record for a country hit. It even made the top 5 as a crossover hit on Billboard. Why, I’m not sure. I guess tastes were different pre the British Invasion. But it is the song I thought of when I saw the title.

    Dionne song wssn’t much better in my mind. Nothing wrong with it. Just, meh!

    Liked by 1 person

  9. Jill, Dionne could sing so effortlessly. This is a good example. She got some flak for being more mainstream, but I think she was the ideal voice for Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Keith

    Liked by 2 people

    • I agree! I love so many of her songs I had a tough time deciding which one to play … my second choice would have been, “Do You Know the Way to San Jose”. Glad you enjoyed it!

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