Junior Walker: formed in South Bend

1931 — the formation; the fame stands in Famous People

The sound was learned here: Junior Walker's Motown fame — the hits, the chart record, the career — stands in the Famous People section of this history and is not retold here. What belongs to this section is the formation, and the formation is South Bend's. He was born Autry DeWalt Mixon Jr. on June 14, 1931, in Blytheville, Arkansas — the year is stated here because Motown's publicity long planted 1942, a fabrication the Famous People record corrects from the documents — and he grew up in South Bend. An uncle gave the teenager his first saxophone. He played in his high school band here, and here, in his teens, he formed his first band, the Jumping Jacks. His models, as the biographical record names them, were the honking-tenor line of jump blues: Louis Jordan, Illinois Jacquet, Earl Bostic, Big Jay McNeely, Lee Allen, King Curtis, Sam "The Man" Taylor, and Lester Young — the saxophone as a rhythm instrument, honked and shouted through, which is the sound he carried out of this city.

He joined Billy "Stix" Nicks's Rhythm Rockers — Nicks on drums, Fred Patton on keyboards, Willie Woods on guitar and vocals — the two bands having sat in with each other before he joined. When Nicks was drafted into the U.S. Army, Walker took over the group and persuaded it to relocate to Battle Creek, Michigan, in the late 1950s; there the Rhythm Rockers became the All Stars, signed to Harvey Fuqua's Harvey label in 1961, and passed into Motown, where the South Bend-formed band made the records the Famous People entry documents — "Shotgun" (No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 1 R&B, 1965) and "What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)" (No. 4 Hot 100, No. 1 R&B, 1969) at their head. The circle closed: Nicks rejoined in 1966, replacing James Graves, and drummed the classic All Stars years, and after Walker's death on November 23, 1995, in Battle Creek, Nicks toured with a version of the All-Stars. The working band that Motown signed was assembled, rehearsed, and first heard — on local stages and on WNDU's Saturday show — in South Bend; that is this entry's claim, and it is the size the record supports.

Sources:

1. AllMusic biography of Junior Walker; Motown (uDiscover) artist record — the Blytheville birth of June 14, 1931; the South Bend upbringing; the uncle's saxophone; the high-school band; the Jumping Jacks; the list of tenor models; the Rhythm Rockers membership (Nicks, Patton, Woods); the takeover on Nicks's drafting and the Battle Creek relocation; the Harvey signing of 1961.
2. Billboard chart record as compiled in the standard chart references — "Shotgun," No. 4 Hot 100 and No. 1 R&B (1965); "What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)," No. 4 Hot 100 and No. 1 R&B (1969); the Famous People record carries the fame record in full.
3. Michigan Rock and Roll Legends record — the 1961 Harvey signing; Nicks's 1966 return replacing James Graves; the post-1995 Nicks-led All-Stars touring.
4. Famous People section of this history — Walker's full entry, including the correction of the planted 1942 birth year.