Joanna

Album: The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine: The Very Best of Scott Walker (1968)
Charted: 7
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Songfacts®:

  • This MORish composition by the husband and wife team Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent was released as Scott Walker's second solo single. However it proved to be a particular tension for the ex-Walker Brothers frontman. Former Walkers bandmate Gary Leeds, who played on the track, recalled to Mojo magazine January 2013: "Scott got really fed up with doing 'The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)' but the one he really hated singing was 'Joanna.' I'd be, Everybody likes it! And he'd say, 'I just don't like singing it.' I think it was because he was so gifted, and singing was so easy for him, almost like talking, y'know? And Scott wasn't satisfied with just that, he wanted new lyrics, to test the voice, to push everything else into another art form. All Maurice (King, manager) wanted to do was make Scott another Andy Williams or Sinatra."
  • An instrumental arrangement on the song was used as the theme for Walker's 1969 BBC TV series, Scott.

Comments: 3

  • Alexa from West YorkshireScot had the most beautiful voice. The song was made for him, and lovers, who parted waves many years ago. Memories of a time way back, ah, when we were young.
  • Michael from Devon UkA beautiful song, an amazing voice, evoking such memories of 1968...
  • Tony Lawrence from Victoria. Bc. Canada“You breathed your smile, and dimmed your eyes completely”. (This is the correct line in the lyrics)
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