Noel Scott Engel (January 9, 1943 – March 22, 2019), better known by his stage name Scott Walker, was an American-British singer-songwriter, composer, and record producer. Walker was known for his emotive baritone voice and his unorthodox career path, which took him from being a teen pop icon in the 1960s to an avant-garde musician from the 1990s to his death. Walker was most successful in the United Kingdom, where he achieved fame as a member of pop trio the Walker Brothers, who scored several hit singles during the mid-1960s, including two number-one hits on the UK singles chart with "Make It Easy on Yourself" (1965) and "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" (1966). He lived in the UK from 1965 onwards, and became a UK citizen in 1970.
After the Walker Brothers split in 1967, he began a solo career with the album Scott later that year. Strongly inspired by Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel, Walker moved toward an increasingly challenging musical and lyrical style on the late 1960s baroque pop albums Scott 2 (1968), which reached number one in the UK; Scott 3 (1969); and Scott 4 (1969). After Scott 4 and its follow-up 'Til the Band Comes In (1970) failed commercially, Walker released a number of MOR covers albums, which he later disowned, to appease record companies. He reunited with the Walker Brothers in the mid-1970s. They achieved a top-ten single with "No Regrets" in 1975, while their final album, Nite Flights (1978), marked the beginning of Walker's move towards the avant-garde.
During the 1980s, Walker released only one album, Climate of Hunter (1984). Its follow-up, Tilt (1995), saw his work now fully immersed in a dark and avant-garde musical and lyrical idiom. Walker progressed this style through The Drift (2006); Bish Bosch (2012); and Soused (2014), a collaboration with American drone metal band Sunn O))). The Guardian reflected on Walker's stylistic evolution in 2012: "imagine Andy Williams reinventing himself as Stockhausen". Walker also undertook several side projects during the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, including film soundtracks and songwriting and production for other artists.
Walker continued to record until 2018, the year before his death. His 1960s recordings were highly regarded by the 1980s UK underground music scene, and gained a cult following. He was described by the BBC as "one of the most enigmatic and influential figures in rock history".
Noel Scott Engel was born on January 9, 1943, in Hamilton, Ohio, United States, the son of Elizabeth Marie (Fortier), who was from Montreal, Quebec, and Noel Walter Engel. His father was an oil industry manager whose work led the family to successive homes in Ohio, Texas, Colorado, and New York. Engel and his mother settled in California in 1956. Engel was interested in both music and performance and spent time as a child actor and singer in the mid to late 1950s, including roles in the Broadway musicals Pipe Dream and Plain and Fancy. Championed by singer and TV host Eddie Fisher, he appeared several times on Fisher's TV program. Engel cut some records including one named "Misery", which saw him briefly promoted as a teen idol.
Upon his arrival in Los Angeles, Engel had already changed both his taste and his direction. Interested in the cool jazz of Stan Kenton and Bill Evans, he was a self-confessed "Continental suit-wearing natural enemy of the Californian surfer" and a fan of European cinema (in particular Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, and Robert Bresson) and the writings of the Beat Generation. Engel attended Hollywood Professional School for several years and eventually attended art school, furthering his interests in cinema and literature. Engel played bass guitar proficiently enough to get work as a session musician in Los Angeles as a teenager.
In 1961, after playing with the Routers, he met guitarist and singer John Maus, who was using the stage name John Walker on a fake ID to enable him to perform in clubs while underaged. The two formed a band, Judy and the Gents, to back John Walker's sister Judy Maus, before joining other musicians to tour as the Surfaris (although they did not play on the Surfaris' records). In early 1964, Engel and John Walker began working together as the Walker Brothers; later in the year, drummer Gary Leeds (soon rechristened Gary Walker) joined, and his father financed the trio's first trip to the UK.
1964–1967: The Walker Brothers
As a trio, the Walker Brothers cultivated a glossy-haired and handsome familial image. Prompted by Maus, each of the members took "Walker" as their stage surname. Scott continued to use the name Walker thereafter, with the brief exception of returning to his birth name for the original 1969 release of Scott 4 and in songwriting credits. Initially, John served as guitarist and main lead singer of the trio, with Gary on drums and Scott playing bass guitar and mostly singing harmony vocals. By early 1965, the group had made appearances on TV shows Hollywood A Go-Go and Shindig and had made initial recordings, but the start of their real success lay in the future and overseas.
While working as a session drummer, Leeds had recently toured the United Kingdom with P.J. Proby and persuaded both John and Scott to try their luck with him on the British pop scene. The Walker Brothers arrived in London in early 1965. Their first single, "Pretty Girls Everywhere" (with John still as lead singer), failed to chart. Their next single, "Love Her" – with Scott's deeper baritone in the lead – made the UK Top 20 and he became the group's main singer from this point on.
The Walker Brothers' next single, "Make It Easy on Yourself", a Bacharach/David ballad, went to No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart (No. 16 on the U.S. charts) on release in August 1965. After hitting again with "My Ship Is Coming In" (No. 3 UK), their second No. 1 (No. 13 U.S.), "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore", shot to the top in early 1966; shortly thereafter, their fan club grew to contain more members than the official fan club of the Beatles.
Between 1965 and 1967, the group released the albums Take It Easy with the Walker Brothers (1965), Portrait (1966), and Images (1967), and two EPs, I Need You and Solo John/Solo Scott (both 1966). Following "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore", the group's subsequent singles in 1966 were "(Baby) You Don't Have to Tell Me" (No. 13 UK), "Another Tear Falls" (No. 12 UK) and "Deadlier Than the Male" (No. 32 UK), the latter a co-write between Scott and Johnny Franz for the soundtrack of the film of the same name, while 1967 brought two more singles in "Stay With Me Baby" and "Walking in the Rain" (both of which reached No. 26 in the UK).
The Walkers' 1960s sound mixed Phil Spector's "wall of sound" technique with symphonic orchestrations featuring Britain's top musicians and arrangers, notably Ivor Raymonde. Scott served as effective co-producer of the band's records throughout this period, alongside their named producer Johnny Franz and engineer Peter Oliff. Many of their earlier numbers had a driving beat, but with the release of their third album, Images, in 1967, ballads predominated.
By 1967, John Walker's musical influence on the Walker Brothers had waned (although on Images he sang lead on a cover of "Blueberry Hill" and contributed two original compositions), which led to tensions between him and Scott. At the same time, Scott was finding the group a chafing experience: "There was a lot of pressure. I was coming up with all the material for the boys, and I was having to find songs and getting the sessions together. Everyone relied on me, and it just got on top of me. I think I just got irritated with it all." His desire to shake off his pop pin-up reputation might have influenced his drinking habits. In 1967 he told one British journalist that he was drinking “a bottle of wine and a bottle of Scotch a day” with the sole purpose, he claimed, of wanting to coarsen the baritone voice he thought sounded too sweet.
Artistic differences and the stresses stemming from overwhelming pop stardom led to the break-up of the Walker Brothers in the summer of 1967, although they reunited temporarily for a tour of Japan in 1968.