852 Junior Walker and the All Stars “Shotgun” 1965

“Born Autry DeWalt II in 1942 in Blythesville, Arkansas, the saxophonist was nicknamed Junior by his stepfather, whose name was Walker. When he turned professional in 1962, he took up the stage name of Junior Walker while still signing his compositions with the DeWalt monicker. Walker’s honking, hard-driving style was heavily influenced by Earl Bostic, a Lionel Hampton sideman and one of the early exponents of the R&B and jazz crossover genre. In the late Fifties, Walker met up with the guitarist Willie Wood in the South Bend area of Indiana and formed the band Jumping Jacks. In 1961, an over-excited fan jumped on stage in Battle Creek, Michigan, and shouted ‘These guys are all stars.’ The name stuck…Detroit was the place to be for black musicians in the mid-Sixties and Junior Walker was keen to join label-mates like the Temptations, the Four tops and the Supremes in the charts. In 1965, while playing a gig in Benton Harbor, Michigan, he spotted two teenagers doing an unusual dance they called the Shotgun: Walker went back to his motel room, penned an infectious tune he simply called ‘Shotgun’ and recorded it as soon as he was back in Detroit” (Pierre Perrone, The Independent (London), 25 Nov. 19950).   

Junior Walker and the All Stars “Shotgun”