Scott Walker

Scott Walker's early solo career was successful in Britain; his first three albums, titled Scott (1967), Scott 2 (1968) and Scott 3 (1969) all sold in large numbers, Scott 2 topping the British charts. There were also early indications that this concentrated attention was not conducive to his emotional well being. He became reclusive and somewhat distanced from his audience. During this time, he combined his earlier teen appeal with a darker, more idiosyncratic approach hinted at in songs like Orpheus on the Images album. Walker drove a fine line between classic ballads, his own compositions and Brel covers, all delivered inimitably.At the peak of his fame in 1969, he had his own British TV series, Scott, featuring solo Walker performances of ballads, big band standards and introductions of his own and Brel compositions. In recent interviews he admitted that a self-indulgent complacency crept into his choice of material and his reliance on slow tempos by his third album.Walker released his fourth solo LP, Scott 4, his first made up entirely of his own material. The ballads and Brel were gone and the sound was pared down. The album failed to chart and was deleted soon after. It has been speculated that the decision to release the album as "Noel Scott Engel" rather than his stage name contributed to its chart failure.