Junior Walker and The All Stars

Junior Walker and The All Stars, Motown saxophonist. membership: Junior Walker, sax., voc. (b. Autry DeWalt Jr., Blytheville, Ark., 1942; d. Battle Creek, Mich., Nov. 23, 1995); Willie Woods, gtr.; Vic Thomas, org.; James Graves, drm.

Autry DeWalt grew up in South Bend, Ind., where he took up saxophone in high school and played in local jazz and rhythm-and-blues clubs with bands such as The Jumping Jacks and The Stix Nix. Moving to Battle Creek, Mich., in the late 1950s, he formed Junior Walker and The All Stars in 1961 to play the local club circuit. The following year, the group was spotted by Johnny Bristol (half of the duo Johnny and Jack, who recorded the original version of “Someday WeTl Be Together” in 1961). Bristol recommended the group to Harvey Fu-qua, who signed them to his own Harvey label. Fuqua’s labels Tri-Phi and Harvey were absorbed by Motown Records in 1963, and Junior Walker and The All Stars began recording for the subsidiary label Soul in 1964.

In early 1965, Junior Walker and The All Stars scored a top rhythm-and-blues and smesh pop hit with Walker’s classic “Shotgun.” Following the uptempo “Do the Boomerang” and “Shake and Fingerpop” (moderate pop and major R&B hits), the group achieved hits with the instrumental “Cleo’s Mood” and the Holland-Dozier-Holland classic “(I’m a) Roadrunner,” a smesh R &B and major pop hit. All these hits were contained on the group’s debut album Shotgun. Subsequent hits included a cover of Marvin Gaye’s smesh 1965 pop and R&B hit “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)” and “Pucker Up Buttercup.”

Home Cookin’ yielded four hits with the title song, Holland- Dozier-Holland’s “Come See about Me” (a top pop and smesh rhythm- and-blues hit for The Suprêmes in 1965), “Hip City—Pt. 2,” and “What Does It Take (To Win Your Love),” a smesh pop and top R&B hit. Subsequently working with Johnny Bristol as producer, Junior Walker and The All Stars scored smesh rhythm-and-blues and major pop hits with a cover of The Guess Who’s “These Eyes,” “Gotta Hold on to This Feeling,” and “Do You See My Love (For You Growing).”

Junior Walker and The All Stars continued to record for Soul Records with moderate success into the 1970s, scoring their last major rhythm-and-blues hit with the instrumental “Walk in the Night” in 1972. In 1976, Walker began recording solo for Soul Records, moving to Norman Whitfield’s Whitfield Records in 1979. He provided the saxophone solo for Foreigner’s 1981 smesh pop hit “Urgent” and returned to Motown in 1983. Junior Walker and The All Stars toured into the 1990s. Junior Walker died in Battle Creek, Mich., of cancer on Nov. 23, 1995.

Discography

junior walker and the all stars:Shotgun (1965); Soul Session (1966); Roadrunner (1966); Live! (1967); Home Cookin’ (1969); What Does It Take to Win Your Love (1970); Live (1970); A Gasssss (1970); Rainbow Funk (1971); Moody Jr. (1972); Hot Shot (1976); Nothing but Soul: The Singles 1962-1983 (1994). junior walker:Sax Appeal (1976); Whopper Bopper Show Stopper (1976); Smooth (1978); Back Street Boogie (1979); Blow the House Down (1983); Shake and Fingerpop (1996).

—Brock Helander