Junior Walkerwas the stage-name of Autry DeWalt Mixon, who was born in 1931 in Blytheville, Arkansas, and grew up in South Bend, Indiana. Mixon played the saxophone in High School and played in several bands, before signing for Harvey Fuqua’s Harvey label in 1961. When Fuqua subsequently sold his labels to Berry Gordy in 1963, Mixon moved to Motown’s Soul label and started recording as Junior Walker & the All Stars. Their first single “Satan’s Blues”, released in August 1964, is a Jazzy, Bluesy instrumental, pretty laid-back when compared with later recordings. It was produced by Berry Gordy and Lawrence Horn, Motown’s sound engineer, but failed to chart.
Jr. Walker & the All-Starsstarted 1965 with a bang. Walker had written a tune called “Shotgun”, which builds on the style of his 1964 release. For the recording session, Walker (tenor sax), Willie Woods (lead guitar) and Victor Thomas (keyboards) were joined by some of the Funk Brothers, with Eddie Willis on rhythm guitar, Johnny Griffiths on Hammond organ, James Jamerson on bass, Benny Benjamin on drums and Jack Ashford playing his magical tambourine. Everything was ready to go, but the lead singer who had been booked failed to show up. The session went ahead with Junior Walker singing lead vocal instead, and Berry Gordy and Lawrence Horn, who were producing, decided that the track was fine.
The public agreed, pushing the single to number four on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart and number one on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart for four non-consecutive weeks. It later received a Grammy nomination for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording in 1965.
To take advantage of this major breakthrough, the Motown team started working on an album for the group. Twelve tracks were chosen, mostly co-written by Walker and Woods with input from other Motown stalwarts including Harvey Fuqua, Hank Cosby, and Lawrence Horn, who produced the album with Berry Gordy. The “Shotgun” album was released in May and charted at number 108 on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart, but went to number one on the Billboard Soul & R&B albums Chart.
Three singles were taken from the album for release on the Soul label during the remaining months of 1965. These were “Do The Boomerang”, “Shake and Fingerpop” and “Cleo’s Back”. All three are good dance tunes and all made it into the top ten of the Billboard R&B Singles Chart and the top fifty of the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. It was an excellent year for the All-Stars and Junior Walker.
The band started the new year in similar vein with the release of their album “Soul Session” on January 1st. It is a collection of twelve Blues-based instrumental tracks, which took the group into the charts. The album reached number one hundred and thirty on the Billboard Hot 200 Albums Chart and number seven on the Billboard R&B Albums Chart.
Junior Walker 1966
Photo: Trade Ad in Billboard Magazine (Wikimedia Commons)
Soul released another album in the Summer, entitled “Road Runner”, which contains four tracks that were issued as singles during 1966. “(I’m A) Road Runner” is a Holland, Dozier, Holland composition, which had previously featured on the group’s 1965 album “Shotgun”. It sold well in the USA and the UK, taking the group to number twelve on the Official UK Pop Singles Chart, number twenty on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart and number four on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart. The All Stars were backed for the recording by Funk Brothers James Jamerson (bass), Eddie Willis and Joe Messina (guitars), and Johnny Griffith (piano). Further contributions came from Mike Terry (baritone sax), Norris Patterson (tenor sax) and the Elgins’ singer/songwriter Johnny Dawson (tambourine).
The follow-up was another Holland, Dozier, Holland song, “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)”. Billy Nicks (drums) and James Jamerson (bass) joined the All Stars on the session, with production in the hands of Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol, who had worked with Junior Walker before he joined Motown. The single’s USA chart performance was slightly better than its predecessor, peaking at number eighteen on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart and number three on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart. In the UK it went to number twenty-two on the UK Official Pop Singles Chart.
The third single of the year was the old Berry Gordy/ Janie Bradford song “Money”, played just by the group and produced by Berry Gordy and Lawrence Horn. It was less successful. The fourth release was “Pucker Up Buttercup”, which was co-written by Danny Coggins, Johnny Bristol and Harvey Fuqua. A feature of the songs on the “Road Runner” album is the switch from pure instrumental tracks to a sequence of Soul tracks with Junior Walker singing lead vocal. The new approach worked well, as the album reached number sixty-four on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart and number six on the Billboard Soul & R&B Albums Chart.
In September,1967, Junior Walker & the All Starsalso had an album released by Soul, “Live!”, which featured all their successful singles. It reached number one hundred and nineteen on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart and number twenty-two on the Billboard R&B Singles chart.
Earlier in the year the group’s 1966 single release “Pucker Up Buttercup” had reached number eleven on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart and number thirty-one on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. They continued that level of success with two further singles in 1967, “Shoot Your Shot” and “Come See About Me”, that again made entries on both charts. Their strong stage performance helped to secure their popularity.
