678. Jr. Walker & the All Stars: “Baby You Know You Ain’t Right”
The ingredients all seem to be here for a raucous good-time All Stars jam, but the end result is oddly uninspiring.
Category Archives: Junior Walker and the All Stars
677. Jr. Walker & the All Stars: “Cleo’s Mood”
Berry Gordy was vindicated again, the record both gaining plenty of new fans, and selling well; people bought it and people played it, and I find that heartening. Certainly I like this a lot more than I might once have expected to. (8)
606. Jr. Walker & the All Stars: “Cleo’s Back”
Don’t get me wrong, this one’s still undeniably cool – I almost feel a compelling need to listen to it while wearing shades and cracking open a cold beer – but if you put a gun to my head and said I had to choose one Cleo, and only one, it wouldn’t be this one. Luckily, nobody’s ever going to force you to make that choice. (7)
605. Jr. Walker & the All Stars: “Shake And Fingerpop”
Very much the All Stars’ Wild One compared to Shotgun‘s Dancing In The Street, for good and ill. I like it a lot, but I like their previous two singles even more. (7)
576. Jr. Walker & the All Stars: “Tune Up”
Almost endearingly crazy, and it ends up being entirely likeable. Splendid stuff. (8)
575. Jr. Walker & the All Stars: “Do The Boomerang”
This is a messy, dirty kind of a record, little-loved and completely at odds with everything else Motown was aiming for in the spring of 1965. It’s also brilliant. Go figure. (9)
538. Jr. Walker & the All Stars: “Hot Cha”
The obvious skill and proficiency with which Hot Cha has been assembled doesn’t make me like it any more. Less Hitsville or Soulsville, this is more like Dullsville USA. Please don’t do this again, Junior. (3)
537. Jr. Walker & the All Stars: “Shotgun”
It is just a whole lot of fun. It’s also quite stupid, and proud of it (as with Stevie Wonder’s Fingertips, another unashamedly direct Motown stomper), but that plays in its favour; it’s a gas. (9)
462. Jr. Walker & the All Stars: “Monkey Jump”
It all balances out, more or less, into a mildly diverting instrumental that doesn’t cause revulsion but doesn’t live in the memory. There’d be much better, and much worse, from Junior Walker yet. (3)
461. Jr. Walker & the All Stars: “Satan’s Blues”
A great start, even if there was better to come. (7)
