The Stranglers- Walk On By REACTION & REVIEW 

I was Dave Greenfield’s keyboard tech for a number of years, miss him hugely. RIP Dave and Jet Black 🖤🖤🖤 wish you were both still with us. IMHO ‘Walk On By’ is by far the greatest cover of a track ever, just imagine standing behind Dave as he takes us through this brilliant solo whilst simultaneously drinking a pint of rum and Coke, Legend. As all Stranglers fans would know, this was a key part of the whole performance.

The punk rock / Dionne Warwick crossover you never knew you needed in your life. Also, Black & White is a really great album.

best cover song ive ever heard.

The Stranglers played this cover in their early days before signing with United Artists. Hugh Cornwell on "Walk on By": "We never considered it as a single until it started getting a lot of airplay when it was given away. We really thought it was just something for the fans because they always loved hearing it." "I originally suggested that we play the song and as we kept playing it live, the middle developed into a new piece of music and the song got longer and longer. When we first played it we were doing it as a three or four minute number and it ended up at about seven minutes long, when we included that long solo. I changed a couple of words as well, to show a bit of disrespect."

Being a bass player, I LOVE The Stranglers. They are four individuals with skills that made up an amazing group. Wait until you listen to Black and White and beyond, they get a bit darker, a bit more commercial in places and also quite weird and prog. Outstanding and very original band.

Burt Bacharach meets The Doors in an acid nightmare. It's Dionne Warwick's song laid on top of Light My Fire's arrangement and structure with that distinctive Stranglers feel.It originally came as a free 7" singe included in the original pressing of the third album, *Black and White*.

Still gives me Goosebumps.

My favourite Stranglers track! This came on a white 7" single, free with the album.

A world without The Stranglers...unthinkable. I just love 'em!. "Black And White" and "The Raven"...yes please. Great reaction JP (Written by Bacharach and David and recorded in 1963 by Dionne Warwick)

Utterly utterly fantastic. As you say, could listen to this all day!

An utterly filthy bass tone

For me, Dave Greenfield is one best keyboard players of all time, up there with Jon Lord. Great reaction 👍

I love that we live in a world where we can have both Dionne Warwick's and The Strangler's version of this absolute classic. Both totally different and both completely brilliant.

Just DIG that Bass 🔊 wow, its so down n dirty, laden with menace, fantastic

You’ve finally returned to them! This is truly one of their great songs, even better live, Black And White and The Raven are both amazing albums which you need to hit soon!

An absolute monster of a cover. Obviously the extended solo's were a nod to The Doors and 'Light My Fire, but they were big fans and it's great to hear them really stretch out!

Awesome cover. Enough said.

Fun fact the synthpop group A Flock of Seagulls landed their name based from the bridge section of The Stranglers’ song “Toiler on the Sea”

Such a fantastic song, I loved the way you just sat back and took it all in half way through the instrumental part, great work 🖤👏

Oh goodness I love The Stranglers version of Walk On By so much. I'd recommend you listen to Dionne Warwick singing it - it is beautiful and very mellow and soulful and you'll see where The Stranglers jumped off from and made it entirely their own. I always think of this as not just a cover, but as one of 'the covers'. Thanks for reacting to it JP, that made my day.

Great reaction to a great album! Black & White is amazing. If you intend to listen to more songs from this album, I recommend "Sweden", "Tank" and "Toiler on the Sea".

The best cover of any song ever !

Back in 1979 I had never heard of The Stranglers. Then I won an album from my college radio station. I walked over to the station to get my album without knowing what it would be. They handed me a copy of The Stranglers album Black and White. Still clueless, I walked back to my dorm room not knowing what I would hear. The record was pressed on a really cool black-and-white-swirled-together vinyl. Forty-five minutes later I was a Stranglers fan. Actually, it only took 3 minutes as they had me with the very first song, "Tank".

Great cover version, made their own.

This is the most underrated cover I have ever heard, it is absolutely brilliant.

Thank you thank you, you have just made my Xmas. Unfortunately I'm going to have to start asking for other stranglers tunes 5 mins and the black and white album. But for now thank you so much for the review.

I was one of the many who suggested you listen to this track. Definitely Top 5 by The Stranglers and imho one of the Top 5 cover versions of any track ever.

Justin, to add a little, ....back in the day the 2 main music papers in the UK were Sounds and New Musical Express (NME). End of the year the inevitable awards. If memory serves me correctly, Greenfield twice won best keyboardist - me thinks 77 and 78 from NME. [NME covered the breaking Punk and New Wave scene, Sounds were more into scenes - mods, punk, metal]. Also pretty sure JJ won best bassist one year. BTW - brilliant reactions - you should have waaaay more subscribers

Nice version. Originally done by Dionne Warwick in the early 60's. Paul Carrack did a great version as well.

Along with All along the Watchtower … probably the greatest cover version of all time

As great as Dave's keyboard playing is on this, I think Hugh's guitar solo deserves a lot of credit too. He was never the most technically complex guitarist, but i think his style is very engaging.

Always loved this cover, you're right, very Doors sounding in places (although on a Vox not a Hammond as pointed out below - cheers). I love the JJB bass throughout, the melancholy singing and of course Greenfield smokes it!

Dionne Warwick's original version is beautiful. However, the most incredible version is Isaac Hayes' 1969, 12 minute version. c'est magnifique

Perhaps their finest moment - one of these that I didn't was a cover for years after I knew it

This is from the Black and White period, just where you're up to in their catalog, and a fantastic album, as are the next few. The single cover is from the B&W album photo shoot, with Dionne Warwick's head pasted on Hugh's. You do know this song was a monster R & B hit for Warwick in 1963, written for her by Bacharach and David. (If you've never heard the original, you must try that, it's a classic!) Just pick up where you left off, and do Black and White, I think you'll love it, and be surprised. Their first two are similar, but B&W is where they really start branching out and bending your mind with even riskier unexpected creative territory. And it's got all the punch you loved about this single.

8:00 - yes, it does go beyond their usual stuff. They wrote numerous good, and even great, songs. But this....this is another level. Their absolute best. Their incredible best.

Got this as a free single with the Black and White album. Please play that next.

Instantly identifiable as a trademark Bacharach melody - despite the Stranglers really bringing their own unique take to it, with a very liberal dose of the Doors on top! Bacharach and long-time collaborator and lyricist Hal David wrote this for Dionne Warwick who had the original hit with it in the early sixties before it was covered by a number of soul stars. I can definitely recommend going down a Burt Bacharach rabbit hole some time, though my favourite work of his was his collaboration with Elvis Costello in 1999 on an album called 'Painted From Memory'.

Hi Justin. Dave from a wet London (Waiting For The Sun). Really like their version of this classic penned by Burt Bacharach & Hal David. Do I prefer it to the Dionne Warwick 60s hit? Dave's organ break tips the balance for me. P.S. my song ref Waiting For The Sun is by The Doors (I wonder why that came to mind!)

Best cover ever

Love this version of the classic song, so different from Dionne Warwick's also brilliant version, but this ones packed with attitude, masculine but sensitive too, it captures that wistful longing in the lyric. Black & White album has some fantastic bass driven tracks, Nice N Sleazy, Sweden, Toiler on the Sea are all top tier, and of course trademark keyboards !

I still have this on single vinyl. Super great track.

When I was young I thought this was a bland song. But then when I caught up with it twenty years later it puts me in heaven.

I will now listen to 'Old Codger'. I suggest you do too.

They're doing a "Light My Fire" jam in the middle of the song! Great track. Love The Stranglers.

JP , this is what you Yankee Doodle Dandies call FIRE ! It was a free single with the Black and White album… It’s one if those great covers that do justice to the original but abs stand alone and unique .. Burt Bacharach didn’t rate it but he was a gifted old fart so he doesn’t count - love it ✊ 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Love this song great pick.

Anyone notice when Dave started the keyboard slide at 4:30 Pacman started on the record deck then finished when Dave ended 😂 T I M I N G!!! Another good review from the band of my youth!

When you’re listening you are hearing this we heard this 45 years ago live is even better

Dave Greenfield was the English Ray Manzarek. Stranglers were criminally underrated.

Great teaction, thanks :)

One of my favourite covers of all time. I also like the original by Dionne Warwick. Maybe you should also react to this.

As regards Burt Bacharach, there's the 2006 mash-up compilation titled "Dirt Bacharach" by R.I.A.A. _aka_ Robotic Intergalactic Astro Artists. That is, if Bacharach songs chopped into collage with Nine Inch Nails, Alanis Morrissette, Sex Pistols, Public Enemy, Cranberries, Korn, NWA (among others) would tickle your curiosity.

When a cover version is done right...

Deffo in my top 5 stranglers track sublime! Ray M is a great call very doors. Amazing how New Wave can have a prog keyboard player and no one notices 😂

The best version imo

Great cover of a good Burt Bacharach song. Very different to the original song.

You must hear the Issac Hayes version.

I'm interested in where you get your track choices from, as you seem to be working through my music collection! The Stranglers, Yes, Rush, Zeppelin, David Sylvian, Kate Bush, Elbow. Thanks for the channel!

So great to see your enjoyment in listening to music by the Stranglers , a band I have loved since their first album. I think its time for you to take the next step and listen to their third album 'Black and White' cited as being the first 'post punk' alum.

A 7 " came with a limited amount of the First Release of the Black & White LP in 1978. The tracks on the 7" "Ware Walk On By", "Mean To Me" & "Tits". It was also released as a normal 7" in 1978 with "Old Codger" & "Tank on the B Side. "Tank" was also on the Black & White LP.

Lyrically, what incredible lyrics they produced,as musicians brilliant, together we got the stranglers

I love the bass playing here. Also, the instrumental goes on for so long that I sometimes almost forget what I'm listening to, a jarring effect ehen they return to the song. Same with performances of Billy The Mountain (Frank Zappa) where the solo section is left in.

"Ah-choo" from you! Gesundheit is my reply. While The Stranglers, "Walk On By"! I love the organ, guitar solo, and fuzzed-out bass, great cover! Peace and Love.

Black and White is still one of my favourite albums. Way ahead of it's time. JJ Burnel is such a great bassist and the reason why I play. This track shows how good the Stranglers were.

The Stranglers always had a knack for a good melody in their own songs, so I guess it should come as no surprise that they would cover the greatest melodicist of them all Burt Bacharach who just passed away this year.

Although not included on the Black and White album (except on a limited edition bonus disc), their cover was released on 45 rpm and reached number 21 in the United Kingdom.

Released in 1978 on white vinyl, if I can recall,it came with the black and white album

Saw them earlier this year- they still have it. Almost brought the house down!

The og writers of the song Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote the song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" for the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. 1969.

Considering your massive Stranglers output on your channel, I can hardly believe this song hadn't popped up already sooner! 😅 And it's the longer album version too, yay! 🤩👍 As already mentioned, this is a great cover of a Dionne Warwick song composed by Hal David and Burt Bacharach, in the style of The Doors' song 'Light My Fire' 😊 Played in an awesome way, especially that bass 😍 And Hugh proves all those wrong who claim he's not good on guitar 😁 Another great cover that I'm recommending to you is 'I Who Have Nothing' by Manfred Mann's Earth Band from the early 80's, originally a Ben E. King song from the 60's 😀👍

I’ve always thought Dionne Warwick’s version reflects how the songwriter wants to be seen by the outside world while The Stranglers really capture how they are feeling inside. Absolute belter when they perform this live!

brilliant cover one of the best covers out there

I used to watch them play live in the 1970s at the Nashville pub in London, before they supported Patti Smith and got famous....They played every week there and were something else live,,Walk on By is recorded from around that time.. Their first album gives you a good idea of what they sounded like.

Great review,never seen you applaud a song before.As others have said,Black and White,and The Raven are essential listening.Never tire of this song

Made me laugh when he said ‘sounds like the Doors’. I thought it will do in a minute when they do the solo😂

Amazing reaction Justin! Definitely Black and White album next though, as it shows their progression from their first two albums.

JP, glad you enjoyed your stroll in the trees...

One of the best cover versions, although Hugh Cornwell's version of Cream's "White Room" is a blast

One of my favourite cover versions of any song!

Simply the best cover song ever recorded (2nd would be Stiff Little Fingers: "Johnny Was" and 3rd is Judas Priest: "The Green Manalishi...")

When you said it sounded like The Doors that was my first impression when I first heard it back in 1978. I always thought had The Doors continued with Jim Morrison they would've sounded something like a punky Stranglers. Epic track.

Allegedly, Bacharach himself said that of all the covers of all the songs that he and Hal David wrote, this was his favorite; it sounded exactly like how he would have written it for a man to sing.

During the late '70s and through the '80s J.J.B and Bruce Foxton topped the list of best bass players in the music press "readers polls" in either 1st or 2nd places respectively. Guess who consistently topped the best keyboard player for several years: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NME_Award_winners#NME_Awards_1977

So, JP, you really need to listen to the original recording sung by Dionne Warwick to appreciate the irony (oh, sorry, I forgot, Americans don't do irony) in the Stranglers version. I think you would also appreciate and enjoy the live track 'Tits' on the extended version of the Black and White album - tongue firmly inserted into cheek!

The Best Cover Ever !!! The Stranglers meet the Doors !!!

The Dionne Warwick and Issac hayes versions both come in from the side of sadness,where the stranglers come in from the side of anger and menance. All 3 are superb..This is the way to do a cover,bring something new to a classic song,and the stranglers do that,almost making it into a totally different song

The organ solo reminds me Dave Sinclair from Caravan. Please check it in a reaction.

Walk on by was a single but the album Black and White from the same time is my favourite of theres.. This band stuck a lot of great tracks on B sides and freebee singles in albums too. Check out these 3.....Choosey Suzie, Fools Rush Out and Cruel Garden.

Love your stuff mate. Check out the Black And White and The Raven albums and their best single Imho Five Minutes.

punk meet s jazz ...i love them...best bassist, after lemmy

Banger!

I wonder what Burt thought of this version? It still surprises me that people these days are not familiar with classic 1960s songs. The original (Warwick version) was a huge, huge record and I think Justin ought to check it out, first to see how different the Stranglers version is, and, second, to see how good a songwriter and arranger Burt Bacharach was. I reckon that in the 1980s or even the 1990s it would have been unthinkable not to have heard the original, because of radio airplay. I guess radio listening has just declined a lot since those days, although I could be wrong.

I like the drums and organ and bass

As others stated, this sounds like the instrumental from "Light My Fire". The keyboards and guitar especially.

RIP Dave and Jet.......

Down in the sewer, live in paris on youtube 😊

Perfect, said enough.

Utterly tragic last few lost Dave to Covid in 2020 and Jet to old age in 2023.

Love 'em. Always a bit 'tongue in cheek.' This classic translated really well.