The Walker Brothers

The Walker Brothers were an American pop group formed in Los Angeles in 1964 by John Walker (real name John Maus) and Scott Walker (real name Noel Scott Engel), with Gary Walker (real name Gary Leeds) joining shortly after. They adopted the name "Walker Brothers" as a show business touch, though they were unrelated. After moving to Britain in 1965, they achieved their breakthrough Top 20 single there with "Love Her", and went on have several UK Top 10 albums and Top 40 singles, including the No. 1 hits "Make It Easy on Yourself" and "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)", both of which also made the US Top 20 and Canadian Top 2. Between them was the UK No. 3 hit "My Ship is Coming In". They provided a unique counterpoint to the British Invasion (a period when British bands such as The Beatles dominated the U.S. charts) by achieving far more success in the UK than in their home country.

The trio split up in mid-1967, though they temporarily reformed for a tour of Japan in early 1968. Over the next eight years, each member pursued solo projects with varying degrees of success. In 1975, they reunited full-time, and scored a final Top 10 UK hit with "No Regrets". After releasing the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful album Nite Flights in 1978, the group again disbanded. John Walker remained active in the music business and toured as a solo act until his death in 2011. Scott Walker resumed his solo career and gained recognition as an avant-garde artist; he died in 2019. Gary Walker died in 2026.