Jack Scott


Jack Scott is a singer/songwriter from the Detroit area who had a number of hits in the late 50's and early 60's. He met with success as both a rock-and-roll and country artist, is adept as a guitar player and is known for having a good sense of humor.

Born Jack Scafone, Jr. in Windsor, Ontario, Canada in 1936, Jack was given a guitar at age eight by his guitar-playing father. The family moved to the Detroit suburb of Hazel Park in 1946, where as a boy Jack would listen to Hank Williams and Roy Acuff on the radio. Eventually he came to perform himself on local radio and formed a band that he called the Southern Drifters.

In 1957 he managed to sign with ABC-Paramount and recorded two records that met with little success. Producer Joe Carleton left ABC-Paramount to form his own Carlton label and that turned out to be a stroke of luck for Jack Scott. Recording for Carlton with his deep baritone and characteristic humor, he came up with a rocking song about a friend in prison titled Leroy. The other side of the record was a sad ballad called My True Love. Both songs were a smash in the Summer of 1958, the first going to #11 and the other as far as #3. Twenty-two-year-old Jack Scott had arrived.

He followed it with Geraldine backed by With Your Love, the latter of which was a minor hit, and in early 1959 he returned to the top ten with Goodbye Baby and had another success with The Way I Walk before leaving the Carlton label.

He signed with what would prove to be short-lived label, Top Rank, and came up with a number of hits for them in 1960. The most notable of these were two top ten entries, What In The World's Come Over You and Burning Bridges. On all of the records that Jack put in the top forty for Carlton and Top Rank, of which there were a total of nine, he was backed up on vocals by a group known as the Chantones.

In 1961 he switched to the Capitol label and continued to record. In less than four years Jack Scott managed to put 19 songs in the top 100. Rock and Roll began to change in the early 60's and when the Beatles arrived with the British Invasion, things became quite different. By 1963 Jack was with Groove, a subsidiary of RCA, and was recording country music. He moved from label to label, returning to ABC and then on to GRT, Jubilee, Dot, and his own Ponie. His final top forty rock-and-roll record had been It Only Happened Yesterday with Top Rank in 1960.

In 1977 Jack Scott toured Europe, performing with Buddy Knox and others. His rich voice and selection of material are fun to listen to today, if you can find his records anywhere.


Most Recent Update: March 12, 2009

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