Walk On By - The Stranglers

Circa 1977.

This is a cover version of Dionne Warwick's classic which the Stranglers made their own. It seems to perfectly encapsulate the textures of soul from Warwick with an aggressive layer of proto-punk rock of the Stooges fused with the Doors from the late 60's era.

The Stranglers are one of the longest-surviving bands to have originated from the UK punk scene of the mid to late 70's. Their original lead singer was Hugh Cornwell.

Formed in early 1974 in Guildford, they originally built a following within the mid-1970s pub-rock scene. While their aggressive, no-compromise attitude had them identified by the media with the emerging UK punk rock scene that followed, their idiosyncratic approach rarely followed any single musical genre, and the group went on to explore a variety of musical styles, from new wave, art rock and gothic rock through the sophisti-pop of some of their 1980s output. They had major mainstream success with their 1982 single "Golden Brown". Their other hits include "No More Heroes", "Peaches", "Always the Sun", "Skin Deep" and "Big Thing Coming".