I’ve always thought of today’s classic song of the day as an instrumental, but it really isn’t. “Shotgun” by Junior Walker & the All Stars actually has lyrics, and they’re sung by Junior Walker himself. There’s a story behind that.
“Shotgun” wasn’t actually recorded by Junior Walker’s real band. Berry Gordy (who co-produced the track with Lawrence Horn) thought the All Stars were a little rough for recording, so he had saxophonist Junior Walker record the tune with members of Motown’s Funk Brothers, including Eddie Willis on guitar Johnny Griffith on Hammond organ, James Jamerson on bass, and Jack Ashford on tambourine.
Junior Walker, who wrote “Shotgun,” played the tenor sax on the recording. Junior also provided the vocals when the scheduled singer failed to show. This was Junior’s first time singing and he originally intended his vocals to be a guide to be rerecorded by the other singer. Berry Gordy liked Junior’s singing, however, and his vocals stayed on the final recording.
Motown released “Shotgun” on its Soul subsidiary label in February of 1965. It went all the way to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on Billboard’s R&B Singles chart—and remains an R&B standard today.
“Shotgun” is also famous for its opening drum lick, with its syncopated sixteenth notes on the snare drum. That fill is known in the drumming community as the “Shotgun” fill, and you can hear it replicated in all manner of subsequent recordings—most notably down the toms by Phil Collins in his “In the Air Tonight.” Who actually played that fill on “Shotgun” is subject to dispute, as detailed records weren’t kept back then. It’s likely to have been either Benny Benjamin, Richard “Pistol” Allen, or Larrie Londin, a future Nashville cat who started out playing Motown tracks. It sounds more like Pistol than Benny or Larrie to my ears, but we may never know for sure.
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, drummer Stewart Jean explaining how to play the “Shotgun” fill. It’s easy—and you can use it in almost any song!
