Take It Easy With The Walker Brothers

As the Beatles continued their transition from teen idols to serious artistes, the likes of The Walker Brothers were quick to fill some part of the commercial vacuum created thereby, with this, their debut album, released near the end of 1965. Blurbs on the back of the sleeve by notable DJs such as Alan Freeman, Tony Blackburn, Pete Murray and, regrettably, Jimmy Savile, recognise both their vocal talents and their good looks.

Only a single track ('You're All Around Me') featured a writing credit by one of the Brothers (Scott), with the remaining numbers all covers. Bacharach & David wrote the trio's first big hit 'Make it Easy on Yourself' - the opening track on side 1. There are upbeat R&B/soul songs ('Dancing in the Street' and 'Land of 1,000 Dances') which some have criticized as a little stiff , but which I think have a real verve and charm. In any case, I prefer those to the somewhat anodyne rendition of Dylan's 'Love Minus Zero'.

Their real forté, however, was undoubtedly with big, booming ballads such as 'Make it Easy...', 'First Love Never Dies' and 'The Girl I Lost in the Rain'. Ivor Raymonde did the boys proud with his orchestral arrangements, and the production is a more than creditable British approximation of "the wall of sound". Ephemeral pop music this may have been, but, nearly sixty years after the fact, I'm still enjoying it. My copy is a mid-'60s original, picked up for a few pounds in Chepstow.

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