It was later adapted and re-recorded by Chet Atkins in 1956, and was a track on the LP Hi-Fi In Focus. This arrangement was the inspiration for the version by The Ventures in 1960 (though the Ventures' arrangement is recognizably different from Atkins' finger-picked style) and achieved world-wide recognition, being regarded by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the top 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time.

After hearing a Chet Atkins recording of "Walk Don't Run", the Tacoma-based instrumental rock band The Ventures released their version of the tune as a single in spring 1960 on Dolton Records. This version made the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at #2 and reaching #3 on the Cash Box magazine chart for five weeks in August and September 1960. The Dolton release of this record had two backing sides, the first release (Dolton 25) had "Home", and after initial sales were so great (to gain royalties), the B side was replaced with a Bogle-Wilson original composition, "The McCoy" (Dolton 25-X).

This single, their first national release, vaulted the Ventures' career. The song was recorded before the band officially had a drummer. The Ventures' website lists the drummer on Walk, Don't Run as Skip Moore. Skip was given the choice of $25 or 25% of the money the record would make for playing on the session. He took the $25". Bob Bogle played the lead guitar part on this first Ventures recording of the song. The band later rerecorded the song in 1964 (see below), and became the first band to score two top ten hits with two versions of the same tune.

In the UK, the tune was covered by the John Barry Seven, whose version, while only peaking at #11 on the Record Retailer chart, compared to the Ventures' #8, outcharted them by reaching the Top 10 on other UK charts, such as that of the NME.

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