SCOTT WALKER - JOANNA

JOANNA

SCOTT WALKER

SONGWRITERS: TONY HATCH & JACKIE TRENT

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: IT’S RAINING TODAY: THE SCOTT WALKER STORY(1967-1970)

LABEL: PHILIPS RECORDS

GENRE: POP

YEAR: 1968

 

          Noel Scott Engel(January 9, 1943 – March 22, 2019) better known by the stage name Scott Walker, was an American singer-songwriter, composer and record producer who resided in England. Walker was known for his baritone voice and an unorthodox career path which took him from 1960s teen pop icon to 21st-century avant-garde musician. Walker's success was largely in the United Kingdom, where his first four solo albums reached the top ten. He lived in the UK from 1965 and became a UK citizen in 1970.

          Rising to fame in the mid-1960s as frontman of the pop music trio the Walker Brothers, he began a solo career with 1967's Scott, moving toward an increasingly challenging style on late-1960s baroque pop albums such as Scott 3 and Scott 4(both 1969). After sales of his solo work started to decrease, he reunited with the Walker Brothers in the mid-1970s. From the mid-1980s onward, Walker revived his solo career while moving in an increasingly avant-garde direction; of this period in his career, The Guardian said "imagine Andy Williams reinventing himself as Stockhausen". Walker's 1960s recordings were highly regarded by the 1980s UK underground music scene, and gained a cult following.

        Walker continued to record until 2018. He was described by the BBC upon his death as "one of the most enigmatic and influential figures in rock history"

       "Joanna" is a song written by the English husband and wife song-writing team Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent which was first a song for the American singer-songwriter Scott Walker in 1968. The song was Walker's second solo single in the UK. The accompaniment was directed by Peter Knight.

         While credited to Hatch and Trent journalist Joe Jackson writes in his article "The Fugitive Kind" that Walker wrote a significant proportion of the lyric. Jackson quotes Walker as follows: 'that whole verse about "lived in your eyes completely" is mine and I wrote the last line in the song, "you may remember me and change your mind"'.

             "Joanna" was a major hit and is one of Walker's most popular recordings spending eleven weeks on the UK Singles Chart and peaking at number 7 in June 1968. An instrumental arrangement on the song was used as the theme for Walker's BBC TV series, Scott in 1969.

         The single was backed with the 1967 Scott album track "Always Coming Back to You". The accompaniment of the b-side was directed by Reg Guest. Japanese editions are backed with "The Plague", which was previously released as the b-side to "Jackie" in 1967.

Joanna

I can't forget the one they call Joanna

We owned the summer, hand in hand Joanna

And now she's always just a tear away

Goodbye you, you long lost summer

Leaving me behind you

Revealing things for lovers that may find you

I still hang on to every word that day, you passed my way

Joanna

You made the man a child again, so sweetly

He breathed your smile

Lived in your eyes completely

And on his heart there's still a trace of you

I love you but nothing in this world could make you mine

Yet still in time

Joanna

Joanna, you may remember me and change your mind

 

I love you but nothing in this world could make you mine

Yet still in time

Joanna

Joanna, you may remember me and change your mind.