Jack Scott (singer)

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Jack Scott (born Giovanni Dominico Scafone Jr., January 24, 1936, Windsor, Ontario, Canada) is an Canadian/American singer and songwriter. He was the first white rock and roll national star to come out of Detroit, Michigan.

He has been called "undeniably the greatest Canadian rock and roll singer of all time." [1]

Scott was born in Windsor, Ontario and spent his early childhood in this city just across the river from Detroit. When he was 10, Scott's family moved across the river to Hazel Park, a Detroit suburb. He grew up listening to hillbilly music and was taught to play the guitar by his father.

As a teenager, he pursued a singing career and recorded as 'Jack Scott.' At the age of 18, he formed the Southern Drifters. After leading the band for three years, he signed to ABC as a solo artist in 1957.

After waxing two good-selling local hits for ABC-Paramount Records in 1957, he switched to the Carlton record label and had a double-sided national hit in 1958 with "Leroy"/"My True Love". Later in 1958, "With Your Love" reached the Top 40. In all, six of 12 songs on his first album became hit singles. On most of these tracks, he was backed up by the vocal group, the Chantones. [2]

He served in the United States Army during most of 1959, just after "Goodbye Baby" made the Top Ten. 1959 also saw him chart with "The Way I Walk."

At the beginning of 1960, Scott again changed record labels, this time to Top Rank Records. He then recorded four Billboard Hot 100 hits - "Oh, Little One," "It Only Happened Yesterday," "What In the World's Come Over You" and "Burning Bridges." The latter two made it to the Top Five.

Jack Scott had more U.S. singles (19), in a shorter period of time (41 months), than any other recording artist - with the exception of the Beatles. [3]. Jack wrote all of his own hits, except one: "Burning Bridges." [4]

His legacy ranks him with the top legends of rock 'n' roll. In fact, it has been said that "with the exception of Roy Orbison and Elvis Presley, no white Rock and Roller of the time ever developed a finer voice with a better range than Jack Scott, or cut a more convincing body of work in Rockabilly, Rock and Roll, Country-Soul, Gospel, Country-Pop or Blues". [5][6]

Jack was recently nominated for the Hit Parade Hall of Fame. You can vote for him by going to www.hitparadehalloffame.org

Scott is still actively singing and touring today and resides in a suburb of Detroit. His official website address is www.jackscottmusic.com

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dave Marsh - author of Born to Run and co-editor of The Rolling Stone Record Guide - 1990
  2. ^ Jack Scott Music
  3. ^ Billboard Magazine
  4. ^ Jack Scott Music
  5. ^ Bruce Eder All Music Guide to Rock 3rd Edition 2003
  6. ^ Jack Scott Music

[edit] External links


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