Jackie Walker (born January 8, 1939) is an American rockabilly, doo-wop, West Coast teen rock & roll and pop singer.
Jackie Walker discovered his musical talent at an early age. At four he was often put on the dining room table to sing to gathered guests. At six he wrote his first song, words and music. By eight he was part of a 15-minute radio show, The Army Hour. He had his first record on Imperial when he was 14 with "Big Fat Fib / Little Too Little".
This was followed by 3 singles for Chevron Records, one of which was released in 1957 on Dot Records in a pop style mixed with country. At 17 he had a regional hit on Dot Records, Love Sublime. His next single Peggy Sue, on Imperial Records was a cover of the Buddy Holly hit. He entered UCLA to study music and in early 1958, Imperial released Only Teenagers Allowed with Joe Maphis on guitar.
The B-side Oh Lonesome Me was a cover of Don Gibson's recording which he performed on American Bandstand. Walker's last single on Imperial came out in the summer of 1958 with "Good, Good Feelin' , which was written by Johnny and Dorsey Burnette.
Jim Mitchell, Sally Stevens and Jackie Walker were students together at UCLA. With Jim Patton they formed a Quartet, The Baysiders. Jackie Walker had been experimenting with arrangements using one female versatile voice and three males. Jim had recorded some sides for Everest Records and was approached about doing the quartet. The Baysiders recorded some singles and an album for Everest Records entitled Over the Rainbow which included the title song that became another regional hit.
After the initial success, things stale-mated and Sally took a job with Ray Coniff Singers. She went on to become one of the best studio singers in Hollywood and has a huge amount of credits. Jim Patton became one of the lead disk-jockeys at KLOS in Los Angeles and died of an over-dose several years ago.
Walker continued his solo recordings for Everest, Montclare, Tidal (his own label) and Nico on which his last single according to Cat45 was in 1969. In later years, he successfully produced several Christian albums, TV shows and stage plays.
(Edited from Doo-Wop Blogg, Hydra Records, Discogs and Wikipedia)