Comments on: THE WALKER BROTHERS - “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore”

By: Caledonianne

Caledonianne — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 13:12:04 +0000

Not to mention the leads hamming it up with aplomb in the movie “Truly, Madly, Deeply”.

By: Lee Lenox

Lee Lenox — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 22:37:37 +0000

Hey, didn’t a band called The Fuzzy Bunnies do a long guitar ladened version of The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore? It was probably about a year after the Walker Brothers had their hit with it. I remember it when into a key change at the end of the vocal portion of the song, then played out as a lead guitar / orchestral romp. I think the Fuzzy Bunnies were from upstate New York, so it may have only have been a regional thing, but if you heard that version of the song you wouldn’t have forgotten it.

By: Lena

Lena — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 22:13:09 +0000

Oh, it’s a killer!

“The Electrician” is a great song (I am amazed to know it was a single) and the idea of it even getting into the top ten, let alone #1, is blowing my mind.

Is the Four Seasons version good? I’ve never heard it.

By: Pete Baran

Pete Baran — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 13:05:50 +0000

So contrary to the song: his son still shines then!

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 12:20:57 +0000

his son has also done pretty well for himself, it has to be said.

(before you ask: simon raymonde out of the cocteau twins, this mortal coil etc.)

By: clarisse spader

clarisse spader — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 21:25:34 +0000

i disagree. i loved ivor raymonde’s arrangements for this, for dusty and helen shapiro..

By: bramble

bramble — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 20:34:01 +0000

Can anyone tell me what the point of Gary Leeds was? He didnt play on record and rumour has it that on live dates another drummer was sat behind the stage curtains drumming.Maybe it was they appeared like a real group rather than a duo a la Righteous Brothers

By: Mark Gamon

Mark Gamon — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 09:06:00 +0000

10.5 (from a Nancy Sinatra base)

By: Andrew Hickey

Andrew Hickey — Sat, 11 Jun 2005 14:41:00 +0000

Actually just listening now to a stereo fanmix of Guess I’m Dumb which fixes pretty much everything you’re complaining about there - trumpets and lead vocal are way above everything else.

By: Marcello

Marcello — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 05:59:00 +0000

The Four Seasons one was the original.

By: Alan Connor

Alan Connor — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 21:01:00 +0000

Time to tip our hats to songwriter Bob Gaudio! If only for “Short Shorts” and Little Shop Of Horrors. And then Bob Crewe had done some work on “Daddy Cool” and “Tallahassee Lassie”. They’ll be reappearing in due course with “Silence Is Golden”, so it’s by no means all good.

Anyone know if this was originally for the WBs or for Frankie Valli?

Cover versions include Cher (as produced by Trevor Horn, featured on The X-Files, and subsequently rejigged by Junior Vasquez), Robson & Jerome, Neil Diamond, Los Mustang, Johnny Ventura, Frankie Valli, David Essex, Clarence Clemons & the Red Bank Rockers, Royal Philarmonic Orchestra, Junior Vasquez, Tight Fit, Klaus Wunderlich and all-round entertainer Freddie Starr.

By: Andrew Hickey

Andrew Hickey — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 12:06:00 +0000

Maybe you should try the Wondermints’ version - essentially the same arrangement, but cleaner, more separated production.
There’s one of those ‘bootleg’ things the young people of today do floating round the net, where the vocal from Campbell’s version is overlayed on the Wondermints’ backing track, as well…

By: Marcello

Marcello — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 12:43:00 +0000

It would have been if BW hadn’t buried GC’s vocal beneath the strings and more or less forgot to put a microphone where the trumpet section were sitting!

By: Andrew Hickey

Andrew Hickey — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 11:18:00 +0000

“Brian Wilson’s misproduction”?!
Kill the heretic!
Guess I’m Dumb is one of *the* great singles of all time.

By: Marcello

Marcello — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 05:50:00 +0000

I’m not sure that John Franz and Ivor Raymonde knew how to do the Wall of Sound properly. Scott’s vocal is buried far too deeply in the mix, and the melody topline is actually lost (cf. Brian Wilson’s misproduction of Glen Campbell’s “Guess I’m Dumb” a few months earlier) - so while it’s tempting to view it as the lament of a vanished ghost (that cloak of loneliness belongs so easily in Bergman’s Seventh Seal), the record is neither close nor far enough to feel. Compared to the contained rage/grief/deathwish of “It’s Over” it comes across as slightly jejeune.

Perhaps I’m still lamenting over the alternative universe which might have opened up had “The Electrician” gone to number one in 1978…