Tag Archives: Murray the K

♫ 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

♫ Groovin’ ♫

Posted on by under music

As often happens, one thing leads to another, one song played triggers the memory of another.  In this case, I played How Can I Be Sure by the Young Rascals (who, I just learned from rg, later dropped the ‘Young’ and became just the Rascals) and Roger commented that he always loved this song, Groovin’.  Well, since I aim to please, and since I haven’t played it here before, and since I always liked it … well, you get the picture.

Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati of The Rascals wrote this song after they realized that because of their work schedule, they could see their girlfriends only on Sunday afternoons.  Says Cavaliere …

“I met this young girl and I just fell head over heels in love. I was so gone that this joyous, wonderful emotion came into the music. Groovin’ was part of that experience. If you look at the story line, it’s very simple: we’re groovin’ on a Sunday afternoon because Friday and Saturdays are when musicians work. The simplicity of it is that Sundays you could be with your loved one. And the beauty of is this joyous bliss that at that time I equated with a person, but that’s the beauty of music – when it’s an example of what you do it lasts forever. You’re in love forever because of that moment in time that you captured, and that’s what was happening with Groovin’.”

The record company executives who worked on Groovin’ didn’t particularly like the song, but as they listened to the playback, influential New York DJ Murray the K overheard it and pronounced it a #1 record. Unbeknownst to the group, Murray went to Atlantic Records president Jerry Wexler and demanded it be released. As the program manager and top DJ on the first FM rock station (WOR-FM), Murray the K had this kind of clout, and also the rare ability to connect with listeners and recognize what songs would become hits. The Rascals, who started out as The Young Rascals, were playing at The Gordion Knot club on York Avenue when Murray picked them as his “house band” – the group that backed him up at personal appearances. It was that relationship (based on Murray’s gut sense that the band had genuine potential) that drove his partisan support.

This song hit #1 in the U.S. and Canada, and #8 in the UK.  

Groovin’
The Young Rascals

Groovin’ on a Sunday afternoon
Really couldn’t get away too soon
I can’t imagine anything that’s better
The world is ours whenever we’re together
There ain’t a place I’d like to be instead of

Movin’ down a crowded avenue
Doin’ anything we like to do
There’s always lots of things that we can see
You can be anyone we like to be
All those happy people we could meet

Just groovin’ on a Sunday afternoon
Really couldn’t get away too soon
No, no, no, no

We’ll keep on spending sunny days this way
We’re gonna talk and laugh our time away
I feel it coming closer day by day
Life would be ecstasy, you and me endlessly

Groovin’ on a Sunday afternoon
Really couldn’t get away too soon
No, no, no, no
Groovin’, uh huh…
Groovin’

Writer(s): Brigati Edward J, Cavaliere Felix