"Walk On By" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David for singer Dionne Warwick in 1963.
In 1998, the 1964 release by Dionne Warwick on Scepter Records was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
[9] The original version of "Walk On By" by Dionne Warwick was recorded at Bell Sound Studios in New York City,[10] the same late November/early December 1963 session that yielded her hit "Anyone Who Had a Heart".
[15] Other musicians included Artie Butler on organ, Paul Griffin on piano, Irwin Markowitz and Ernie Royal on trumpet, Bill Suyker and Allen Hanlon on guitar, Max Pollikoff, Charles McCracken, Eugene Orloff, Julius Held, and George Ockner on violin, Harold Coletta on viola, Lucien Schmit on cello, Paul Winter on saxophone, and George Devens on percussion.
The Toronto folk-rock group Bobby Kris and the Imperials released a fairly straight-ahead cover version in late 1965.
Isaac Hayes released a cover version of "Walk on By" in 1969 on the album Hot Buttered Soul, transforming the song into a twelve-minute funk vamp.
in "Warning"; in 1995, by Faith Evans in "No Other Love", from the album Faith; 2Pac in "Me Against The World", in 1998 by McGruff in "Harlem Kidz Get Biz"; in 1999, by MF DOOM in "Dead Bent"; in 2000, by Wu-Tang Clan in "I Can't Go to Sleep"; in 1996, by Hooverphonic in "2 Wicky"; in 2005, by Hip Hop Pantsula in "Let Me Be", from his album YBA 2 NW; and in 2016 in Beyoncé's "6 Inch".
[29] This six-minute version of the song features extended Hammond organ and guitar solos which Gene Becker of AllMusic likened to the Doors' "Light My Fire".
[31] The single's chart performance may have been impaired by the fact that an EP featuring the song had been given away with the first 75,000 copies of the band's album Black and White.
The Average White Band cut a lightly disco-tinged version (featuring reggae and funk underpinnings) that charted in 1979.
A reviewer from Music Week rated the track five out of five, adding that the song "is given a fine treatment by Gabrielle, whose voice fits perfectly.