Biography
Autry DeWalt II entered the world on 14 June 1931 in Blytheville, Arkansas, and left it on 23 November 1995 in Battle Creek, Michigan. Motown Records listed his birth year as 1942. Exposure to jump blues and R&B ensembles during the early 1950s prompted him to pick up the saxophone. While still in his mid-teens he assembled the Jumping Jacks and began performing under the name Junior Walker, taken from a nickname he had carried since childhood. By 1961 his growing local stature drew the attention of Harvey Fuqua, the former Moonglow who ran his own label. Fuqua placed Walker on the Harvey imprint and granted him unrestricted freedom to cut a string of raw, saxophone-driven instrumentals. In 1964 Walker moved with Fuqua to Motown, where he refined a fusion of gritty R&B and Detroit soul that found its clearest expression in the 1965 single “Shotgun.” The track’s insistent horn figures and responsive vocals positioned him as Motown’s foremost practitioner of unvarnished R&B, a standing reinforced by follow-up successes such as “Shake And Fingerpop” and “Road Runner.” Holland/Dozier/Holland produced the latter and urged Walker to commit instrumental renditions of material they had supplied to other acts on the roster.
His approach grew increasingly melodic toward the end of the decade, culminating in the 1969 U.S. Top 5 entry “What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)?” That release also represented the height of his chart impact; subsequent efforts to recapture the same formula met steadily diminishing interest, and after 1972 the All Stars entered the studio only on an occasional basis. Hot Shot, issued in 1976 and overseen by Brian Holland, signaled a shift toward the rising disco sound, a direction pursued across two additional albums released the same year—Walker’s initial outings billed as a solo performer. In 1979 he joined several other Motown artists in relocating to Whitfield Records. When that association stalled, he rejoined Motown in 1983 for Blow The House Down, an attempt to regain earlier momentum. The lighthearted single “Sex Pot” briefly revived echoes of his signature sound, yet his most notable commercial moment of the 1980s arrived via a guest appearance with Foreigner, whose hit “Urgent” featured his memorable saxophone solo. He succumbed to cancer after a two-year struggle in November 1995.
His approach grew increasingly melodic toward the end of the decade, culminating in the 1969 U.S. Top 5 entry “What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)?” That release also represented the height of his chart impact; subsequent efforts to recapture the same formula met steadily diminishing interest, and after 1972 the All Stars entered the studio only on an occasional basis. Hot Shot, issued in 1976 and overseen by Brian Holland, signaled a shift toward the rising disco sound, a direction pursued across two additional albums released the same year—Walker’s initial outings billed as a solo performer. In 1979 he joined several other Motown artists in relocating to Whitfield Records. When that association stalled, he rejoined Motown in 1983 for Blow The House Down, an attempt to regain earlier momentum. The lighthearted single “Sex Pot” briefly revived echoes of his signature sound, yet his most notable commercial moment of the 1980s arrived via a guest appearance with Foreigner, whose hit “Urgent” featured his memorable saxophone solo. He succumbed to cancer after a two-year struggle in November 1995.