Jack Scott (singer)

Scott spent his early childhood in Windsor, Ontario, across the river from Detroit, Michigan.[3] When he was 10, his family moved to Hazel Park, a Detroit suburb. He grew up listening to hillbilly music and was taught to play the guitar by his mother, Laura.[3] As a teenager, he pursued a singing career and recorded as "Jack Scott". At the age of 18, he formed the Southern Drifters.[3] After leading the band for three years, he signed to ABC-Paramount Records as a solo artist in 1957.[3]

After recording two good-selling local hits for ABC-Paramount in 1957, he switched to the Carlton record label and had a double-sided national hit in 1958 with "Leroy" (#11) / "My True Love" (#3).[3] The record sold over one million copies, earning Scott his first gold disc.[4] Later in 1958, "With Your Love" (#28) 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.[5]

He served in the United States Army during most of 1959, just after "Goodbye Baby" (#8) made the Top Ten. 1959 also saw him chart with "The Way I Walk" (#35). Most of his Carlton master tapes were believed lost or destroyed until Rollercoaster Records in England released a vinyl EP, "Jack Scott Rocks", and CD, The Way I Walk, which were for the most part mastered from original tapes rather than the disc dubs used for previous reissues.

At the beginning of 1960, Scott again changed record labels, this time to Top Rank Records.[3] He then recorded four Billboard Hot 100 hits – "What in the World's Come Over You" (#5), "Burning Bridges" (#3) b/w "Oh Little One" (#34), and "It Only Happened Yesterday" (#38).[3] "What in the World's Come Over You" was Scott's second gold disc winner.[6] Scott continued to record and perform during the 1960s and 1970s.[3] His song "You're Just Gettin' Better" reached the country charts in 1974.[3] In May 1977, he recorded a Peel session for BBC Radio 1 disc jockey John Peel.

Scott had more US singles (19), in a shorter period of time (41 months), than any other recording artist except for The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino and Connie Francis.[7] He wrote all of his own hits, except one: "Burning Bridges."[5]

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 or blues".[5][8]

In 2007, Jack Scott was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.[9] In 2011, he was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. Later Scott was nominated for the Hit Parade Hall of Fame. He continued singing and touring and lived in a suburb of Detroit.

Scott died of congestive heart failure on December 12, 2019, at the age of 83. His niece, singer and actress Rio Scafone, announced his death on her Facebook page, stating that he had suffered a massive heart attack on December 8 and there was nothing they could do for him. Scott died four days later, in the afternoon.[10][11]

• List of Canadian musicians
• Music of Detroit

• Bluelight Records
• Rockabillyhall.com
• History-of-rock.com
• Jack Scott music article
• Jack Scott discography at Discogs