Italy Picture Sleeve: Philips 320 241 BF
Germany Picture Sleeve: Star-Club 148 581 STF / 320 241 BF
First UK Release: Philips BF 1548 / 320241 BF. Side A
First UK Release: Philips BF 1548 / 320241 BF. Side B
A Stay With Me Baby
B Turn Out The Moon
by The Walker Brothers
Released: February 3rd, 1967. Label: Philips
Stay with Me Baby is the Walker Brothers’ ninth single. Originally a 1966 hit single for American singer Lorraine Ellison under the title Stay With Me, it was co-written by Jerry Ragovoy, writer of the first US top ten hit for the Rolling Stones, Time Is On My Side, and George David Weiss, co-writer of Louis Armstrong’s 1968 hit single What A Wonderful World.
It’s B-side, Turn Out The Moon, is another Scott Walker composition to indicate a change in tone in his lyrical style. “Happy people in black steeples,” runs its second verse, “Make me need you a little bit more/Starless mornings find me older/Waitin’ for you to walk through that door.” “The real satisfaction is in writing something you believe in,” Walker said to Mike Grant of Rave Magazine in February 1967. ” If I can reach people with what I write, if I can just get through to a few, then I’ll be happy.”
Reg Guest directed the orchestral accompaniments for both the single’s A-side and B-side. Stay With Me reached no. 26 in the UK charts.
Credits
A. Stay with Me Baby 3:19
Written By Jerry Ragovoy, George David Weiss
Arranger Reg Guest
B. Turn Out The Moon 3:31
Written By Scott Engel
Arranger Reg Guest
Interview
Disc and Music Echo, 1 April 1967
by Penny Valentine
“By next year pop tours will be dead.” This astounding statement comes this week from Scott Engel — only a few days before he, John and Gary launch into their third major tour of Britain. A tour which, if Engel has his way, will be the last the Walker Brothers make.
“It isn’t that we don’t like touring, but we don’t want to be part of a dying scene. And the pop tour as it stands today is a dying scene,” said Scott firmly.
“Although certainly our box-office figures are the best ever — but that may be because of the strength of the supporting artists as much as anything — you can get a pointer of the way things are going by seeing who people are bringing in to tour. People like Tony Bennett and Count Basie. Not pop groups.”
The Walker Brothers, then, will be transferring their affections to a TV musical series and cabaret. But this switch certainly doesn’t mean a lack of enthusiasm for what may prove to be their nationwide finale on stage.
BOUNCE
When the tour opens on Friday, the Walkers will be presenting only a very few of their well-known numbers. They will have a much larger backing band. They will have a much bigger sound.
“Of course, we’ll still bounce around, because a pop show is for the fans and our act is aimed at them. They don’t want to hear guys standing around singing big standard things.”
BORED
The thought that the sight this month on tour of Scott, John and Gary may be their last will probably prove more than just shattering for Walker fans.
But in many ways the time may well have come for a serious appraisal of the Walker Brothers’ future. And, as far as Scott’s concerned, that future lies more in a complete restyling of the group than anything else. He has many times voiced the opinion that something would have to be done to make people sit up.
“They’re bored with the Walker Brothers sound because they know just what to expect,” said Scott some months ago.
Now he enlarges on this.
“There has got to be a very definite change in the group. As far as the record sound is concerned we have experimented in the studio in the last couple of weeks and a few things have come off so well that we feel a bit more hopeful of making these changes.
“There will,” he said in his usual enigmatic way, “be quite a few surprises coming.”
Teenage fans at the Walker Brothers concert in the Wellington Town Hall. Dominion Post (Newspaper): Photographic negatives and prints of the Evening Post and Dominion newspapers. Ref: EP/1967/0398-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23033384