“Walk Away Renee” by The Left Banke

"Walk Away Renee" came out on Smash as a single in July 1966, and it still sounds like a pop song that wandered in dressed for a chamber recital. Michael Brown wrote it with Bob Calilli and Tony Sansone and plays the harpsichord that gives it its stately, aching lilt, while Harry Lookofsky's strings swell around Steve Martin Caro's lead vocal and George Cameron and Tom Finn fill in behind him. John Abbott arranged it and played bass, and Jackie Kelso takes a flute solo that feels like a sigh.

It climbed to number 5 in America and hung around for 13 weeks, and it has come to stand as the very model of baroque pop. In 2005 Rolling Stone placed it at No. 220 among the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

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