Walk, Don't Run (song)

"Walk, Don't Run" is an instrumental composition written and first recorded by jazz guitarist Johnny Smith in 1954. The tune is essentially a contrafact of the chord changes to the standard "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise".

After hearing a Chet Atkins recording of "Walk Don't Run", the Tacoma-based instrumental rock band the Ventures released their version of the tune as a single in spring 1960 on Dolton Records. This version made the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at #2 and reaching #3 on the Cash Box magazine chart for five weeks in August and September 1960. The Dolton release of this record had two backing sides, the first release (Dolton 25) had "Home", and after initial sales were so great (to gain royalties), the B side was replaced with a Bogle-Wilson original composition, "The McCoy" (Dolton 25-X).

This single, their first national release, vaulted the Ventures' career. The song was recorded before the band officially had a drummer. The Ventures' website lists "the drummer on Walk, Don't Run as Skip Moore, not Howie Johnson as many assume. Skip was given the choice of $25 or 25% of the money the record would make for playing on the session. He took the $25". Bob Bogle played the lead guitar part on this first Ventures recording of the song. The band would later rerecord the song in 1964 (see below), and would become the first band to score two top ten hits with two versions of the same song.

Walk, Don't Run

Walk, Don't Run is a 1966 Technicolor comedy film starring Cary Grant, set in Tokyo during the Olympic Games in 1964. The movie marked the last appearance by Grant in a feature film, and is a remake of the 1943 film The More the Merrier.

This was also the final film of director Charles Walters.

Plot

Sir William Rutland (Cary Grant) is an important English businessman who arrives in the city two days early and is greeted by the housing shortage caused by the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. While at the British Embassy seeking help, he notices an announcement of an available apartment and decides to check the place out. He finds himself at the residence of Christine Easton (Samantha Eggar), who insists that it would be improper to take him in as a housemate. She forgot to advertise that she would prefer to rent to a woman. Easton eventually lets Rutland stay—half because she is persuaded it is her patriotic duty to take him in and half because of Rutland’s own self-assured pushiness.

Walk, Don't Run (album)

Walk, Don't Run is the debut album by The Ventures, featuring cover versions of well-known songs and original compositions.

The Ventures were on one of their first tours as Liberty Records began compiling their first album and were still on the road by the time of the front cover photo shoot. As a result, four employees from Liberty's stockroom (with two wearing sunglasses) were posed as if they were falling or tripping over instruments with model Barbara Grimes walking in front of them. A photo of the actual Ventures was originally featured on the back cover, but to avoid possible confusion when compared to the "stand-ins" on the front cover it was replaced with an outline-drawn version of the same photo.

The LP was recorded at Joe Boles' home studio in Seattle, Washington, as was their second album. His was a local studio where other early Dolton artists also recorded.

Released on Liberty's Dolton subsidiary in December 1960, Walk, Don't Run became a big seller, peaking at #11 on Billboard and earning The Ventures a gold record (their first of three) for over 500,000 copies sold.