Every New Zealand #1 single…
3
Star Crossed Lovers
Topped the NZ chart: from 12 June 1970 for 4 weeks (non-consecutive).
I’d never heard of Craig Scott before. But apparently he was a heartthrob for New Zealand woman of a certain age, charming with his warm croon and idol looks.
Non-stop TV appearances, and a seemingly never-ending string of radio friendly hit singles resulted in ubiquitous public recognition. Posters adorned the walls of thousands of teenage girls. It became essential for him to move flats every few weeks, as each time his new address was quickly discovered. Fan mail poured in.
Audioculture
He was originally part of a band named Klap. Their name hindered their career opportunities….
“On Sundays we used to go to the YMCA and do tea time with about three other bands, and it was run by the Presbyterian Church in Dunedin. And of course they said to us, Look, we can’t advertise you with a name like that’. So we had another sweeter name than that for when we did Sunday.”
Craig Scott, NZ Herald, 2023
Scott was huge in New Zealand in the early 1970s, hosting the music show Happen Inn. He enjoyed a number of hits, but this cover of a Shakespeare-inspired Neil Sedaka track was his only chart topper.
Scott has a warm voice, but like Engelbert Humperdinck, it feels too safe to be interesting. It feels more like the early 1960s than the early 1970s.
The harpsichord-sounding keyboard is a nice touch, and there’s some impressive resonance in Scott’s voice when he hits the big notes in the chorus. But it feels more like product than anything artistically interesting.
Scott quit music in the late 1970s. He later started New Zealand’s first video rental business, and is now a real estate agent in Arrowtown.
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Aphoristic Album Reviews is almost entirely written by one person. It features album reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.
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Graham Fyfe has been writing this website since his late teens. Now in his forties, he's been obsessively listening to albums for years. He works as a web editor and plays the piano.
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You just introduced me to Craig Scott. At least, I don’t believe I had ever heard of him before. I would say “Star Crossed Lovers” isn’t a terrible song, but it’s not particularly memorable. It seems to me much of Scott’s popularity was fueled by this TV show and that the ladies evidently liked his looks.
To go from a recording artist to a video rental business manager to a real estate agent is an interesting career path. But I guess Scott might be better off than had he continued as a music artist.
I’d never heard of him. Seems huge with a certain generation of NZers, but obscure otherwise…
I think his career-change decision was correct – I think he was already going out of fashion, and punk wouldn’t have helped.
He is a new one to me! He has a pleasant voice and like you said…it sounds more like a product but not a bad one. I think of Donny Osmond and David Cassidy…although I have more respect for Cassidy. I think he could have made some kind of music career without his tv family.
It’s pretty understandable that he didn’t break big outside of NZ. I like him, but you have to be really freaking good to make it as an out-of-era interpretative singer.