THE five-man Left Banke formed in New York in 1965. Their first record was Walk Away Renée, co-written by the 16-year-old keyboard player Michael Brown.
Brown said the song was about Renée Fladen-Kamm, the girlfriend of The Left Banke’s bassist Tom Finn. He said he had a crush on her and her presence in the control room when they were recording the song made his hands shake so much that they had to stop the session and do it later.
Co-writer Tony Sansone, however, claimed he was the primary author and that the name Renée was chosen at random.
The record, featuring Steve Martin Caro on vocals, was released in the US in 1966 and reached No 5 in the charts.
It appears at 222 in the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-songs-of-all-time-151127/the-left-banke-walk-away-renee-49558/
It was barely noticed in Britain but in 1967 The Four Tops released their (inferior) version in the UK and it reached No 3 in January 1968.
Omg! I haven’t thought about this song in a hundred years! It was a favorite back then – when I was all of 14 years old! Astounding how many of the words just roll off my tongue while I sing along!