“Walk on By” by Dionne Warwick

Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote "Walk on By" with Dionne Warwick in mind in 1963, and the single she cut for Scepter Records, with Bacharach producing, turned into one of the classiest heartbreakers of its day. It climbed to number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Cash Box R&B chart in June 1964, then picked up a Grammy nomination for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording the next year.

Plenty of singers have taken a crack at it since, in arrangements that barely resemble one another, but it's Warwick's cool, unhurried soul reading that the Grammy Hall of Fame inducted in 1998. The song also turns up on her album Dionne Sings Dionne from that same year, the release these countdowns credit.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.