"Deadlier Than the Male" | ||||
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Single by The Walker Brothers | ||||
B-side | "Archangel" | |||
Released | December 1966 [1] | |||
Recorded | 1966 | |||
Genre | Pop, baroque pop | |||
Length | 2:32 | |||
Label | Philips Records, Star-Club (Germany) | |||
Songwriter(s) | Scott Engel, John Franz | |||
Producer(s) | Reg Guest | |||
The Walker Brothers singles chronology | ||||
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"Deadlier Than the Male" is a song written by American singer-songwriter Scott Walker under his real name of Scott Engel with UK record producer Johnny Franz. The song was first recorded and released by Walker's pop group The Walker Brothers as their eighth single in 1966. The accompaniment was directed by Reg Guest. The song was the title track for the 1967 British action film Deadlier Than the Male which featured the character of Bulldog Drummond.
The song's title is a reference to the 1911 Rudyard Kipling poem "The Female of the Species," which includes the line, "The female of the species must be deadlier than the male", and also refers to Sapper's earlier Drummond book The Female of the Species.
"Deadlier Than the Male" was a minor hit spending six weeks on the UK Singles Chart and peaking at No. 32. [2] The single was released concurrently that December with the EP Solo John/Solo Scott . The low sales of the single may have been hit by the label's strategy of releasing them both at once. [3]
The single is essentially a Scott Walker solo release as he sang lead vocals and wrote/co-wrote both tracks. Previously Scott had only contributed album tracks and b-sides. "Deadlier Than the Male" is also notable for having been Walker's first A-side.
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Deadlier Than the Male" | S. Engel, J. Franz | 2:32 |
2. | "Archangel" | S. Engel | 3:48 |
Chart (1966) | Peak position |
---|---|
UK Singles Chart [2] | 32 |
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Noel Scott Engel, better known by his stage name Scott Walker, was a British-American singer-songwriter, composer and record producer who resided in England. Walker was known for his emotive baritone voice and his unorthodox stylistic path which took him from being a sophisticated teen pop icon in the 1960s to becoming an avant-garde musician in the 21st century. Walker's success was largely in the United Kingdom, where his first four solo albums reached the top ten. He lived in the UK from 1965 onward and became a UK citizen in 1970.
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The Walker Brothers were an American pop group of the 1960s and 1970s that included Noel Scott Engel, John Walker and Gary Leeds. After moving to Britain in 1965, they had a number of top ten albums and singles there, including the No. 1 chart 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. In between the two was the lesser US hit "My Ship is Coming In", which was another major hit in Britain, where it reached No.3 in the charts. The trio split up in 1968, but reunited in the mid-to-late-1970s and scored a final top 10 UK hit with "No Regrets".
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"(Baby) You Don't Have to Tell Me" is a song by New York songwriter Pete Antell and first recorded by singer Bobby Coleman. The obscure song was later recorded and released by the American pop group the Walker Brothers as their sixth single in 1966. The accompaniment was directed by Reg Guest.
"Another Tear Falls" is a song written by Burt Bacharach with lyrics by Hal David which was first a song for the American singer Gene McDaniels in 1962 for the British film It's Trad, Dad! as well as the flip side of his hit single "Chip Chip" and was later recorded and released by the American pop group The Walker Brothers as their seventh UK single in 1966. The accompaniment was directed by Reg Guest.
"Lights of Cincinnati" is a song written by the English songwriters Tony Macaulay and Geoff Stephens which was first a song for the American singer-songwriter Scott Walker in 1969. The song was Walker's third solo single in the UK. The accompaniment was directed by Peter Knight.
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