#57: Walk Right Back by Anne Murray

City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFGO
Peak Month: April 1978
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #18
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #103
YouTube: “Walk Right Back”
Lyrics: “Walk Right Back”

In 1945 Morna Anne Murray was born in Springhill, Nova Scotia, a coal-mining town. Her father was a doctor and her mother was a registered nurse. Growing up she took piano lessons for six years and began taking vocal lessons at age fifteen in 1960. Anne loved music. It was the age of rock ‘n’ roll, and growing up she sang along with all her favourites – Buddy Holly, Bobby Darin and Connie Francis. However, Anne was also inspired by a wide variety of musical styles, including the classics, country, gospel, folk, and crooners such as Patti Page, Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney. She loved them all. In 1962 she gave one of her first public performances singing “Ave Maria” at her high school graduation. She went on to be part of the CBC variety show Singalong Jubilee in 1967.

A document on display at the Anne Murray Centre in Springhill, Nova Scotia, dated May 30, 1966, informed her: “Your signature on four copies of this letter will serve to engage your services for the 1966 Singalong Jubilee series. It is understood that you will be required to function either as a singer for a fee of seventy-one dollars and fifty cents ($71.50) per show or as a soloist for a fee of ninety-nine dollars ($99.00).” Her first album, What About Me, was released in 1968. Her signature song, “Snowbird” went to #6 in Vancouver and #8 on the BillboardHot 100. It established a following and 76 singles, 32 studio albums and 55 million record sales later, Anne Murray is one of the most awarded and honored recording artists in the Canadian music industry.

After “Snowbird” hit the charts, Anne Murray was in demand for television and stage appearances all over North America. She had hit the big time. The success of “Snowbird” was followed by hits on both the pop and country charts. She became a regular on The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, and her popularity increased even further. “Snowbird” was the first of three #1 hits in a row on the Canadian Country charts for Murray. A subsequent hit in Vancouver, “Sing High – Sing Low”, climbed to #5 in January 1971. Her fourth Top Ten on the Canadian Country charts was “It Takes Time”. It peaked on RPM Magazine’s Canadian Country chart at #6. However, it didn’t get any attention on the pop or country charts in the USA. Even on the pop charts in Canada it barely made the Top 30. However, in Vancouver the song climbed to #10. She released three more singles in 1971. The third, “Talk It Over In The Morning”, was her most successful that year.

Murray’s followup single was “Cotton Jenny” which made the Top 20 in Vancouver and numerous other Canadian radio markets. But it was her release of “Danny’s Song” later in 1972 that became her biggest hit to date, peaking at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1974 Anne Murray won a Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance for  “A Love Song”.

Anne Murray had more Top Ten hits in Vancouver during the 70’s. Her other Top Ten hits across the decade included “You Won’t See Me”, “You Needed Me” and “I Just Fall In Love Again”. From the ’70’s into the ’90’s, Anne Murray covered many songs. These include Doris Troy’s “Just One Look“, the Monkees “Daydream Believer”, the Beatles “Day Tripper” and “I’m Happy Just To Dance With You”, Bobby Darin’s 1962 hit “Things”, Carly Simon’s “That’s Not the Way (It’s S’posed To Be)”, Bruce Channel’s #1 hit from 1962 “Hey! Baby”, Gogi Grant’s #1 hit from 1956 titled “The Wayward Wind” and the Chordettes Top Ten hit from ’56 called “Born To Be With You”.

In 1978, she released  a cover of the Everly Brothers 1961 Top Ten hit “Walk Right Back”.

Sonny Curtis wrote “Walk Right Back”. Sonny Curtis was born in a dugout in 1937 in Meadow, Texas. His parents were cotton farmers contending with the Dust Bowl of the Great Depression. He was a teenage pal and lead guitarist with Buddy Holly in Lubbock, Texas, in a pre-Crickets band called The Three Tunes. Sonny is his actual first name, not a nickname. Although Curtis had gone on the road with other musicians by the time Buddy Holly put together The Crickets in 1957, Curtis joined The Crickets after Holly’s death in 1959. Soon, he took over the lead vocalist role in addition to lead guitar. As the credits show, he was part of the band for the 1960 album In Style with The Crickets. On this album they recorded the original versions of two of Curtis’s best known songs, “I Fought the Law” (a hit for the Bobby Fuller Four in 1966) and “More Than I Can Say” (a hit for Leo Sayer sixteen years later.) He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1991.

The lyrics in “Walk Right Back” describe someone who is mystified about why their romantic partner walked out on them. The love they have for their departed sweetheart still burns within their heart. They implore them to come back since “I’m so lonesome every day.”

“Walk Right Back” climbed to #5 in Ottawa, and #17 in Vancouver. On the Canadian RPM pop singles chart Anne Murray’s cover stalled at #32. It failed to crack the Billboard Hot 100, stalling at #103.

Later in 1978, Murray released “You Needed Me”. The single topped the pop and country charts in Canada, and the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA. It also reached #2 in Australia, #5 in South Africa, #6 in New Zealand, and #7 in Ireland. She received a Grammy Award for the song in the Best Pop Vocal category.  In 1979, Anne Murray had three number-one hits on both the Canadian and US country charts : “I Just Fall In Love Again”, “Shadows In The Moonlight” and “Broken Hearted Me”.

In 1980, Anne Murray received another Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance for her recording of “Could I Have This Dance”.

In the 1980s, Anne Murray had more number-one hits on the Canadian Country chart including “It’s All I Can Do”, “Just Another Woman in Love”, “Nobody Loves Me Like You Do”, “Time Don’t Run Out on Me”, and a cover of the 1962 Bruce Channel number-one pop hit “Hey! Baby”. Between 1970 and 1986, Anne Murray charted 22 singles into the number-one spot on the RPM Canadian Country chart.

She also released a single in 2000 covering the Louis Armstrong classic “What A Wonderful World”. Over the decades she has released 32 studio albums.

Anne Murray is often cited as the woman who paved the way for other Canadian international success stories such as Alanis Morrisette, Nelly Furtado, Celine Dion, Sarah McLachlan and Shania Twain. Murray is also the first woman and the first Canadian to win “Album of the Year” at the County Music Association Awards for her 1984 album A Little Good News. Murray has received four Grammy Awards and twenty-four Juno Awards. On the Canadian Country charts, Anne Murray had 40 Top Ten hits, including twenty-two number-one records.

As well, Anne Murray was one of the featured singers on the Northern Lights recording of “Tears Are Not Enough”.

She has been received a Juno Award for Country Female Vocalist of the Year on nine occasions, and a Juno Award for Female Vocalist of the Year five times. Murray has been awarded the Order of Canada, and the Order of Nova Scotia. She also appears on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Canada’s Walk of Fame (in Toronto). On June 29, 2007, Canada Post issued the limited edition Anne Murray stamp.

The Anne Murray Centre, located in Springhill, Nova Scotia, houses a collection of memorabilia from both her personal life and professional career in a series of displays. The Anne Murray Centre, which opened on July 28, 1989, is a registered Canadian charity. As a non-profit association, all the revenue generated from its operation is used to provide employment for local people and for its ongoing maintenance. The Anne Murray Centre aims to foster tourism in the area and promote awareness of the music of Nova Scotia and Canada.

October 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
Anne Murray Bio, Anne Murray.com
Anne Murray Centre, Springhill, Nova Scotia.
“Anne Murray Talks Drugs, Divorce in ‘Painful’ Memoir,” CTV News, October 30, 2009.
Anne Murray Anne and Michael Posner, All of Me, (Vintage Books, 2009).
“Sonny Curtis bio,” Sonny Curtis.com.

CFRA 580-AM Ottawa Top Ten | April 14, 1978