Wallace & Walter Scott (The Whispers) - A Profile

Twin brothers Wallace ('Scotty') and Walter Scott celebrate their 79th birthday today. They are founding members of The Whispers formed in Watts, CA, in 1964. The other three original members were Gordy Harmon, Marcus Hutson, and Nicholas Caldwell. In 1973 Harmon injured his larynx in a driving accident and was replaced by former Friends of Distinction member Leaveil Degree. Marcus Hutson left the group in 1992 due to his illness (prostate cancer) and after his death in 2000 the group vowed to never replace him and since then they performed as a quartet until Nicholas Caldwell died of heart failure in 2016 leaving the group as a trio of Walter, Scotty and Leaveil Degree. The group was inducted into the Official R&B Music Hall of Fame in 2014.

They released around nine singles on Dore between 1964-67 and then joined Ron Carson's Soul Clock where they released five singles and had their breakthrough hit "Seems Like I Gotta Do Wrong" (which has just been covered by The Notations). In 1970 they signed to New York's Janus label but continued to be produced by Carson up until 1975 with a few of their recordings getting into the lower reaches on the Hot 100. One of them did much better in the UK "A Mother For My Children" which got to #54 on the UK chart in 1973.

They joined Soul Train formed by Soul Train host Don Cornelius and Dick Griffey in 1975 which was closed down in 1977 and reformed as Solar (Sound Of Los Angeles Records) by Griffey alone. It was on Solar that they had their biggest hit to that date "And The Beat Goes On" which they have re-recorded just two weeks ago. Again, it did better in the UK reaching #2 whilst #19 stateside. It was followed by "Lady" (#28), a cover of The Temptations "My Girl" (a non- US single which reached #26 in UK), "It's A Love Thing" (#28 Hot 100 / #9 UK) and another UK hit with "I Can Make It Better" #44 which didn't register in the US.

An anonymous comment left on the post for their re-recording of "And The Beat Goes On" after I asked 'why now?" suggests that they are re-recording some of their songs so that they own the rights to them.

It went flat for them in the US until "Rock Steady" in 1987 although they had four minor hits in the UK but since then only one of their singles has charted. I am, of course, talking about the Hot 100 as almost 50 of their records have charted on R&B chart with 15 top 10 and two of those reaching #1. ("And The Beat Goes On" and "Rock Steady").

Sadly, for me at least, these two songs are not truly representative of their music as they are both dance tunes. Most of their 60s and early 70s sides are much more soulful. Their "Bingo" album, in particular, which had all the Philly big hitters involved in the shape of Baker, Young & Harris, Allen Felder, Bunny Sigler, Vince Montana et al, who all left PIR to join Salsoul in 1975.

The group has released around twenty three albums to date, the last in 2009 "Thankful" was a gospel album. The Scott brothers also released an album as a duo Walter & Scotty "My Brother's Keeper" in 1993

As there is simply far too much quality material, rather than spread it thin with their later material, the playlist focusses on their 60s and early 70s recordings i.e. Dore, Soul Clock & Janus recordings only from 1964-1975. Much of their Dore and Soul Clock songs were written by members Nicholas Caldwell and Gordy Harmon with Dee Irvin contributing a few of  them.

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