Jack Scott

Jack Scott (born Giovanni Domenico Scafone, Jr.; January 24, 1936 – December 12, 2019) was a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. He was best known for his string of country music and rockabilly hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Scott was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame in 2007 and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2011.

Scott was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, to Italian-American parents. He spent his early childhood in Windsor, across the river from Detroit, Michigan. 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.

As a teenager, Scott 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-Paramount Records as a solo artist in 1957.

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" (No. 11) / "My True Love" (No. 3). The record sold over one million copies, earning Scott his first gold disc. Later in 1958, "With Your Love" (No. 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.

He served in the United States Army during most of 1959, just after "Goodbye Baby" (No. 8) made the Top Ten. 1959 also saw him chart with "The Way I Walk" (No. 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.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.