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.