When You Walk In The Room

[ozmag]

When you walk in the room for me is the quintessential Searchers song with one of the great guitar riff's of any era. Its always the song that gets the best reaction at live shows and still amazes me it was only a No 4 in the UK. It would be up there in my top 10 songs of all time.

I still enjoy Jackie De Shannon's original version where she has a lovely break in her voice that seems to fit the emotion of the song and I also like the Paul Carrack version where he starts off with the middle eight.

Other versions I've heard include, Bruce Springsteen's that he does live and IMHO not sung too well and Status Quo, which is OK. I hadn't heard of the country version before and I liked here voice but not the guitar part.

So if I had to vote on the best version, the complete package it would be

1 - The Searchers (by a country mile)
2 - Jackie De Shannon
3 - Paul Carrack


And I love Each Time, I think it may well have been a hit if released as a single
Cheers all Mike

[ozmag]

Jackie is one of the most underrated artists in Rock History and she should be in the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. She was the first female singer/songwriter of consequence (Carole King was mainly a songwriter in the early '60's, she didn't start performing until the end of the decade).

Here is Jackie lip synching "When You Walk In The Room". If you pay close attention at the beginning of the song, she starts miming a little early and you can see her catching herself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JRv6iCCYQo

The other Jackie De Shannon song I love which the Searchers covered is 'Cant help forgiving you' she is a wonderful talent

[jimk]

Without meaning to hijack the thread....After all these years, I never realized that Jackie De Shannon was a song writer. I just thought she was a performer. The things I learn on the RRF!
JimK

[JeffZ]

We all learn here Jim. I've learned more about the Searchers here reading Roy's posts than I ever could have discovered on my own. And I always end up wanting to learn more.

[dbailey62]

When you walk in the room for me is the quintessential Searchers song with one of the great guitar riff's of any era. Its always the song that gets the best reaction at live shows and still amazes me it was only a No 4 in the UK. It would be up there in my top 10 songs of all time.

I still enjoy Jackie De Shannon's original version where she has a lovely break in her voice that seems to fit the emotion of the song and I also like the Paul Carrack version where he starts off with the middle eight.

Other versions I've heard include, Bruce Springsteen's that he does live and IMHO not sung too well and Status Quo, which is OK. I hadn't heard of the country version before and I liked here voice but not the guitar part.

So if I had to vote on the best version, the complete package it would be

1 - The Searchers (by a country mile)
2 - Jackie De Shannon
3 - Paul Carrack


And I love Each Time, I think it may well have been a hit if released as a single
Cheers all Mike

I prefer the live version of Paul Carrack's rendition as it omits the drawn out melodramatic introduction of his studio version. It's good but it takes too long to get into the song. Man this guy has a voice!

[royclough]

Here three versions which may surprise some, I never knew untikl recently that Del had done it.

[einar]

There's a more recent version out, too! The Young Veins, a Californian group, covers it on their cd from this summer: Take a Vacation! Two tracks are included as "(international) bonus tracks", one of them WYWITR. Their style is melody, harmonies, guitars. I feel their de Shannon cover lacks the energy of the more famous version, but it is done in a similair way.

[nick_allen]

Of the last 3 that Roy posted, my favourite by far (slightly surprisingly to me) is Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas. Quite heavy for the period (I'm assuming it was done fairly close in time to the Searchers version) - another of those excitable Keith Moon-ish drummers Does anyone know for sure whether it actually was the Dakotas on the record, or session musicians?

[royclough]

There a lot of versions 40 I know of probably more, I think it was the Dakotas on this but not 100%, unless I'm mistaken I feel he may have reorded it before Searchers but record comapny decided not to release it in UK once Searchers version had been such a big hit

[jimk]

Of all the versions linked to in this thread, so far my favorite is the Searchers' version. And I'm really beginning to like this song a lot. Heaven only knows why the first time around it didn't make much of an impression on me.
JimK

[Memphis Blue]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1CO6j2RFlE[/youtube]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1CO6j2RFlE