The Styrous® Viewfinder: Jack Scott

Showing posts with label Jack Scott. Show all posts

January 24, 2020

20,000 vinyl LPs 203: Jack Scott in Velvet Stereo

Jack Scott was born Giovanni Domenico Scafone, Jr., on January 24, 1936, in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. He is a Canadian/American singer and songwriter and was inducted into Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2011. He has been called "undeniably the greatest Canadian rock and roll singer of all time."

The was the very first stereo album I bought in the late 50's. It was a big deal back then; up to that point all recordings were monophonic. It was such a big deal that Carlton took the mono cover and applied STEREO in black felt letters vertically on the left front of the cover.

photos by Styrous®

Jack Scott vinyl LP front cover w/flock letters
cover photo photographer unknown
photo of album cover by Styrous®

Jack Scott was an incredible singer and musician. The album cover liner notes describe the twenty-two year old as the “Melting-Pot” miracle; A Canadian born, Italian hillbilly who worshiped Hank Williams and will take his place in the recorded Hall of Fame along with the Presleys, Boones and Comos. But it never happened; I never understood why he never became a popular icon of music. Some of the links below shine some light on that.

Jack Scott vinyl LP front cover detail w/black flock letters
cover photo photographer unknown
detail photo of album cover by Styrous®

All the songs on the album were terrific but, of course, I had my favorites; Goodbye Baby, The Way I walk, the VERY swooney My True Love, his Indiana Waltz and I'm Dreaming Of You are beautiful love songs; then there is Midge, a great song to dance to. He had a rich voice that promised a world of exciting adventures.

Jack Scott vinyl LP front cover w/flock letters
back cover photo photographer unknown
photo of album cover by Styrous®

Jack Scott was voted into Michigan Rock and Roll Legends in 2007. The Way I Walk was voted a Legendary Michigan Song in 2010. The Legends site has some really great information about Scott that I found fascinating (link below).

Jack Scott vinyl LP back cover detail w/flock letters
back cover photo photographer unknown
detail photo of album back cover by Styrous®

The Way I Walk was covered by Robert Gordon and The Cramps in 1977, Swamp Zombies in 1993, Danny Gatton in 1996 and 68, Comback and The Vees (formally the Jale) in 1998. My True Love was covered by Mina (link below) in 1999.

Jack Scott vinyl LP labels
photo by Styrous®

Tracklist:

Side 1:

A1 - Save My Soul
A2 - With Your Love
A3 - Leroy
A4 - No One Will Ever Know
A5 - Geraldine
A6 - I Can't Help It

Side 2:

B1 - Indiana Waltz
B2 - Midgie
B3 - My True Love
B4 - The Way I Walk
B5 - I'm Dreaming Of You
B6 - Goodby Baby

Credits:

    Backing Vocals – The Chantones (tracks: The Chantones)

Notes:

This is the first Stereo issue of this release from 1958. The label has the white circle with the black small C around the center hole. Also has the bold STEREO print on the left side of the label. Carlton took the mono covers and applied STEREO in black felt letters vertically on the left front of the cover. STLP 12/107 is also stamped in black ink on the bottom edge.
http://www.cvinyl.com/labelguides/carlton.php

Barcode and Other Identifiers

    Matrix / Runout: (A-Side Runout Stamped) STLP 12/107
    Matrix / Runout: (B-Side Runout Stamped) STLP 12/107

Jack Scott ‎– Jack Scott
Label: Carlton ‎– STLP 12/107
Format: Vinyl, LP, Stereo
Country: US
Released: 1958
Genre: Rock
Style: Rockabilly

Viewfinder links:

'desert island' vinyl LP
Mina

Jack Scott articles/mentions

Net links:

The Audiophile Man ~ Jack Scott: A struggle with stardom

Jack Scott Discography
Michigan Rock and Roll Legends ~ Jack Scott
Rockabilly Hall of Fame ~ Jack Scott

Rockabilly Hall of Fame ~ Jack Scott mentions

YouTube links:

Indiana Waltz

Goodbye Baby        Goodbye baby (live)
I'm Dreaming Of You
Midge
My True Love
The Way I Walk
The Way I Walk (live)

The Cramps ~ The Way I Walk (video)
Robert Gordon ~ The Way I walk
Mina ~ My True Love

Happy birthday, Jack.
61 years later, still lovin' the way you walk!

Styrous® ~ January 24, 2020

20,000 Vinyl LPs Archive
MAIN MENU - Blog Articles
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December 21, 2019

Mina articles/mentions

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Salomé

mentions:
'desert island' vinyl LP list
“Just the cover, ma’am”
Elvis ~ All Shook Up & Otis Blackwell

Mina ~ Salomé
vinyl LP album cover detail
photo by Mauro Balletti
detail photo by Styrous®

Music Notes Articles
MAIN MENU - Blog Articles
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August 18, 2017

Sergei Rachmaninoff articles/mentions

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Oscar Peterson ~ Maharaja of the keyboard
Jack Scott and the birth of Stereo





Sergei Rachmaninoff
date & photographer unknown

Music Notes Articles
MAIN MENU - Blog Articles
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August 16, 2017

Duke Ellington articles/mentions

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A Drum Is a Woman

mentions:
William P. Gottlieb: Jazz photographer

Enoch Light ~ Musical Explorations In Sound
Gil Mellé ‎– The Andromeda Strain
Oscar Peterson ~ Maharaja of the keyboard
The Platters ~ Only You (And You Alone)
Max Roach
Jack Scott and the birth of Stereo
Sweets ~ Jitterbugging in the Forties


Duke Ellington
publicity photo

Music Notes Articles
MAIN MENU - Blog Articles

December 30, 2012

20,000 Vinyl LPs 16: Jack Scott and the birth of Stereo Pt 3

photo of album cover by Styrous®

RobGems.ca made a comment on my blog entry, Jack Scott and the birth of Stereo Pt. 1

It had such good information in it, I decided it needed to be more than just a footnote to a blog entry, so, I am reproducing it in its entirety (unedited but with links to his references) as an update to my two previous Jack Scott entries:

20,000 Vinyl LPs 10: Jack Scott & the birth of Stereo Pt. 1
20,000 Vinyl LPs 11: Jack Scott & the birth of Stereo Pt. 2

~ ~ ~

Anonymous December 27, 2012 2:43 PM

12/27/12
RobGems.ca wrote:

Yes, Jack Scott's first album on Carlton Records is great in true stereo (if you can find it; mono copies of this album are more common),but I hate to burst your bubble with this information:only ten of the twelve tracks are actually in true stereo. If you have a pair of headphones handy the next time you hear this stereo album,"My True Love" and "Leroy" are actually in fake electronic stereo! This single was probably recorded in mono before the rest of the album was recorded, and was issued as a single about three months before the album's arrival. Other than that, the rest of the album is most certainly in true stereo. And after the Carlton label went out of business in 1963, the stero master tapes were considered MIA for decades after that. Not even Jack Scott himself knew what happened to the stereo master tapes went to when a fan asked him about it in 1984. They were finally re-located around 1998,to be issued on a couple of stereo C.D.'s afterwards, about four decades of being lost. Two other rock-related true stereo albums from around this period were noteworthy: Duane Eddy's "Have Twangy Guitar, Will Travel" (with seven songs in tue stereo),and "The Teddy Bears' Sing" Album,released on Imperial Records(which caused Phil Spector to despise true stereo afterwards after listening to the results; he preferred to record his songs in mono.)

~ ~ ~

Thanks for helping me to make my blog better, RobGems.ca, VERY much appreciated.

Jack Scott website

The entire collection is for sale. Interested? Contact Styrous®

Styrous® ~ December 30, 2012

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September 18, 2012

20,000 Vinyl LPs 10: Jack Scott and the birth of Stereo Pt. 2

I started the Vinyl LP series because I have over 20,000 albums I am selling; each blog entry of the series is about an album from my collection. Inquire for more info.

~ ~ ~

(This is a continuation from 20,000 Vinyl LPs 10: Jack Scott and the birth of Stereo Pt 1)
(There is also an update in 20,000 Vinyl LPs 19: Jack Scott and the birth of Stereo Pt. 3 )

The Stereophonic Sound process was a new and revolutionary concept in recorded music in 1958. It was highly touted and the album I have by Jack Scott is a good example. It has the word "Stereo" prominently displayed in BIG, black flocked letters to emphasize this. It was my first stereo album.

(click on any image to see larger size)

photo of flocked 'Stereo' lettering by Styrous®

photo of flocked 'Stereo' lettering by Styrous®

Stereo WAS something special!

The word stereophonic derives from the Greek "στερεός" (stereos), "firm, solid"[2] + "φωνή" (phōnē), "sound, tone, voice"[3] and it was coined in 1927 by Western Electric, by analogy with the word "stereoscopic".

Clément Ader demonstrated the first two-channel audio system in Paris in 1881, with a series of telephone transmitters connected from the stage of the Paris Opera to a suite of rooms at the Paris Electrical Exhibition, where listeners could hear a live transmission of performances through receivers for each ear.

In 1931, Alan Blumlein (considered one of the most significant engineers and inventors of his time) developed at EMI (Electric and Musical Industries, Ltd.) and, in 1933, patented stereo records, stereo films, and also surround sound. EMI was formed in March 1931 by the merger of the Columbia Graphophone Company and the Gramophone Company, with its "His Master's Voice" record label. Both firms had a history extending back to the origins of recorded sound.

Harvey Fletcher of Bell Laboratories investigated techniques for stereophonic recording and reproduction. One of the techniques investigated was the "wall of sound", which used an enormous array of microphones hung in a line across the front of an orchestra. Up to 80 microphones were used, and each fed a corresponding loudspeaker, placed in an identical position, in a separate listening room. Several stereophonic test recordings, using two microphones connected to two styli cutting two separate grooves on the same wax disc, were made with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra at Philadelphia's Academy of Music in March 1932. The first (made on March 12, 1932), of Alexander Scriabin's Prometheus: Poem of Fire, is the earliest known surviving "intentional" stereo recording.

"Accidental" stereophonic recordings from these years also exist. On some occasions, RCA Victor used two microphones, two amplifiers and two recording lathes to make two simultaneous but completely separate recordings of a performance. Although this may have been done to compare the results obtained with different microphones or other technical variations, the reasons for this procedure have not been definitely established. Normally, only one of the resulting pair of recordings was released, but the other-channel recording was sometimes used for a foreign issue or survived in the form of a test pressing. When such pairs of recordings have been located and matched up, authentic stereophonic sound has been recovered, its character and degree of spatial accuracy dependent on the fortuitous placement of the two microphones and the accurate synchronization of the two recordings.

Recovered stereophonic versions of two recordings made in February 1932 by Duke Ellington and His Orchestra have been issued on LP and CD under the title Stereo Reflections in Ellington and are also included in the 22-CD set The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition.

There were Carnegie Hall demonstrations by Bell Laboratories on April 9 and 10, 1940, with recordings that had been made by the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Leopold Stokowski, who was always interested in sound reproduction technology. Stokowski personally participated in the "enhancement" of the sound. The demonstration held the audience "spellbound, and at times not a little terrified", according to one report. Sergei Rachmaninoff, who was present at the demonstration, commented that it was "marvellous" but "somehow unmusical because of the loudness." "Take that Pictures at an Exhibition", he said. "I didn't know what it was until they got well into the piece. Too much 'enhancing', too much Stokowski." (I love that!!) An aside, Emerson, Lake and Palmer recorded an album entitled, Pictures At an Exhibition, in 1971. It was a live recording of a rock version of the music suite by Modest Mussorgsky. (I see the potential for another blog entry.)

In 1952, Emory Cook (1913–2002), who already had become famous by designing new feedback disk-cutter heads to improve sound from tape to vinyl, developed a "binaural" record. This record consisted of two separate channels, cut into two separate grooves running next to each other. Each groove needed a needle, and each needle was connected to a separate amplifier and speaker. This setup was intended to give a demonstration at a New York audio fair of Cook's cutter heads rather than to sell the record; but soon afterward, the demand for such recordings and the equipment to play it grew, and Cook Records began to produce such records commercially. Cook recorded a vast array of sounds, ranging from railroad sounds to thunderstorms. By 1953, Cook had a catalog of about 25 stereo records for sale to audiophiles. (I have several of these recordings so I see an article on these in the offing.)

In 1954, Concertapes and RCA Victor, among others, began releasing stereophonic recordings on two-track prerecorded reel-to-reel magnetic tape. Audiophiles bought them, and stereophonic sound came to at least some living rooms. Stereo recording became widespread in the music business by the 3rd quarter of 1957. (I have many of these reel-to-reel tapes so perhaps that is another new blog article on the horizon.)

Audio Fidelity Records released the first mass-produced stereophonic disc in November 1957. They introduced them to the public on December 13, 1957 at the Times Auditorium in New York City. (I have many of their records as well. Lordy, I'm going to be busy for quite a while.)

After the introduction, the other spur to the popularity of stereo discs was the reduction in price of a stereo magnetic cartridge, for playing the disks, from $250 to $29.95 in June 1958. (Still pricey by 1950's standards; to give some kind of reference point, $29.95 was more than my portion of the monthly rent I split with two other guys with whom I shared a five-room apartment on Nob Hill. Yep, we paid $75 a month; $25 went a LONG way back then. You can't even think about renting a one-room studio on Nob Hill these days for under $2,000.)

The first four mass-produced stereophonic discs available to the buying public were released in March, 1958:

– Johnny Puleo and his Harmonica Gang Volume 1 (AFSD 5830)

– Railroad Sounds of a Vanishing Era (AFSD 5843)

– Lionel Hampton and his Orchestra (AFSD 5849) and

– Marching Along with the Dukes of Dixieland Volume 3 (AFSD 5851).

By the end of March, the company had four more stereo LPs available (with the exception of the Lionel Hampton album, I have them all; ok, one more blog entry).

By 1968, the major record labels stopped making monaural discs.

also see:

20,000 Vinyl LPs 10: Jack Scott and the birth of Stereo Pt 1

There is an update on this subject in
20,000 Vinyl LPs 19: Jack Scott and the birth of Stereo Pt. 3 )

Jack Scott website

The entire collection is for sale. Interested? Contact Styrous®

Styrous® ~ September 18, 2012

20,000 Vinyl LPs Archive
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September 16, 2012

20,000 Vinyl LPs 9: Jack Scott and the birth of Stereo Pt. 1

photo of album cover by Styrous®

(click on any image to see larger size)

I started the Vinyl LP series because I have over 20,000 albums I am selling; each blog entry of the series is about an album from my collection. Inquire for more info.

~ ~ ~

I don't recall where, when or with whom I first heard a stereo recording but I recall I was blown away and hooked. It was recorded music as I'd never heard it before. I was astounded!

I remember the first stereo album I bought. It was by Jack Scott who was born Giovanni Domenico Scafone Jr., on January 24, 1936, in Canada. I like the name, G. D. Scafone, Jr., however, in those days an ethnic name didn't work if you wanted to be an established entertainment profile and names had to be "Americanized" to make a person palatable to American "taste", whatever that was or even now is.

photo of album cover back by Styrous®

Scott sang rock-a-billy in a lightly twangy, tenor (slightly on on the baritone side at times) type of voice that made teen-aged girls swoon. Of course, teen-aged girls did that a lot in the fifties (well, they did it in the forties, and the sixties, so I guess not much was different). Every guy felt super cool when he sang, The Way I Walk (YouTube).

I remember dancing with a lovely girl named Ann to his slow, sexy ballad, "My True Love" (YouTube), and getting all hot 'n horny (me, not her, or so I though at the time). I remember desperately wanting, but her not giving in; proper girls didn't do that in the 50's so I never forced it (it would be another 10 years before the sexual revolution would relieve me of my restrictions). To this day I can still remember hearing Jack's smooth, sexy voice crooning the lyrics while we bumped and rubbed against each other as we danced and my barometer rose (I got that expression from Mark Thompson, a local weatherman in SF decades ago; he was signing photos of himself somewhere and on everyone's photo he wrote, "May your barometer always rise.", I thought it was a great euphemism).

I ran into Ann a decade or so later and she had become a beautiful, loving mother to a delightful girl. I met her husband and got to know them over a period of time. During that time, when we were alone once, Ann told me that all those years ago she'd almost given in several times, "If you'd only pushed a little harder" (oh, my, isn't life grand?!?). Somehow, I lost touch with her again. I hope she's well.

You can hear Scott's music on YouTube, of course:

My True Love on YouTube
Leroy on YouTube

No One Will Ever Know on YouTube
The Way I Walk on YouTube

Goodbye Baby (my favorite song on the album) on YouTube
Goodbye Baby a later version of the song on YouTube.

photo by Styrous®

A great big thanks to Jack Scott for starting me off to a new world of Stereophonic listening pleasure.

Ann vanished a long time ago but she and the song we danced to linger on in my memory. So, to my sweet, lovely, Ann, wherever she may be, thank you as well.

Jack Scott website

Styrous® ~ September 16, 2012

The skinny on stereo continues in
20,000 Vinyl LPs 11:
Jack Scott and the birth of Stereo Pt 2

And there is an update in
20,000 Vinyl LPs 19:
Jack Scott and the birth of Stereo Pt. 3

The entire collection is for sale. Interested? Contact Styrous®

20,000 Vinyl LPs Archive
101 Reel-to-Reel Tapes Archive
MAIN MENU - Blog Articles

July 15, 2012

20,000 Vinyl LPs Archive Pt 1

I started the Vinyl LP series because I have over 20,000 albums I am selling; I also have pre-recorded, reel-to-reel tapes (see link below). Each blog entry is about an album from my collection. Contact Styrous® for more information.