The Way I Walk: The Music of Jack Scott: Musicians of Note

By Robert F. Reynolds

The Way I Walk: The Music of Jack Scott tells how the Canadian born son of an Italian immigrant rose to rockabilly fame, but got lost in the shuffle as the music continued to evolve.  Scott scored hit after hit as deejays flipped his records over and turned both sides into hit songs.  In 1958, all six sides of his three records scored in the top 100 with two of them being top ten and a third side hitting #11.  Canada claims Scott as its "Greatest rock and roll singer of all time," although he had been a Detroit resident for ten years when his hits started coming in.  Other artists with less recording credentials found their way into the R&R Hall of Fame, while Jack Scott continues to be ignored.  You may not recognize his name, but you certainly know his songs:  What In the World's Come Over You;  Burning Bridges; The Way I Walk; Leroy; Go Wild Little Sadie; Geraldine; My True Love; and other gems. His music is still played on the radio and finds its way into the movies.   Jack Scott... The Way I Walk. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert F. Reynolds
• Release date: Oct 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223885603

Robert F. Reynolds

Robert F. Reynolds has penned several books, including: A Perilous Place; Thunder Bay; El Paso Run; The Rabbit's Tale; Along the Quay; Gray Wolf Pass; Mackinac Drift; Orchids and Sand; Molasses Men; Ernesto Juarez; Stiller's Creek; A Dark and Curious Place; A Fine Gray Rain; and others.  He's also written several music related books in his The Music of.... series. 

Book preview

Robert F. Reynolds

The Way I Walk: The Music of Jack Scott

Introduction

Although he is barely considered on the fringe of early R&R favorites, Jack Scott successfully realized a more than fifteen-year recording career and was a fan favorite long after.

Scoring multiple top ten hits, there was a time when Jack Scott was considered Canada’s greatest rock and roll singer.  Perhaps he still is. 

But it wasn’t in Canada where he reached his initial rock and roll stardom.

Scott eventually achieved success after his family moved across the Detroit River and took root in the Detroit area.

With a growling blend of country-flavored rock, the rugged looking baritone from across the border scored an array of top ten singles while bouncing from record label to record label.  Like many, you’ve probably heard some of his music, but can’t place the name.  That’s an unfortunate part of his subdued legacy. 

Not only was Jack Scott a crossover singer, he was a cross border artist.  One rockabilly website aptly described Scott as a Canadian-born, Italian hillbilly.

Rock on and read on...

Part One

Chapter 1  

Born Giovanni Domenico Scafone, Jr, to an Italian-American family in Windsor, Ontario, Canada on January 24, 1936, the family home was a stone’s throw across the Detroit River from Detroit.

To offset the effects of the Great Depression, the small Ontario community of Windsor had annexed three nearby towns as a means to capture more tax revenue.  Back in the day, it had been a major rum supplier smuggling illegal booze across the river into Detroit during prohibition years.  Now, it was more of a suburban oasis a short distance across the Ambassador Bridge from Detroit’s motorcar industry. 

Born in 1906, Giovanni Scafone Senior emigrated from his native Calabria, Italy to Windsor in 1931.  For simplicity’s sake, he went by the name Jack after his arrival in Canada. 

Young Scafone’s mother, Laura, born in 1915 and several years younger than her husband, was a U.S. citizen. 

Giovanni Senior learned to speak English by listening to the radio, of which programs such as Tarzan of the Apes, Charlie Chan, The Jack Benny Program, Amos and Andy, and The Eddie Cantor Show popularized the airwaves. A good many of the shows took the name of their sponsor, like the Maxwell House Show Boat, Fleischmann’s Yeast Hour (featuring Rudy Vallee), Armour Program, Chevrolet Program, and the enticing mineral salt laxative sponsor, Sal Hepatica Revue.  By the time little Giovanni was born, The Green Hornet had taken to busting crime throughout the listening area.  If a person were to communicate and be entertained, he had better learn English. 

In the late January chill of an Ontario winter, Giovanni Scafone Jr. was born on Windsor’s Cataraqui Street, a short distance from the Detroit River and almost directly across from downtown Detroit. 

On the day of his birth, January 24, January 1936, area temperatures ranged between a high of 9 degrees and a bone-chilling low of -4.  Welcome to your new home, little Giovanni.  This is what area winters are like. 

Growing up, the Scafone boy had little time to become attached to his neighborhood as the family moved briefly to Lillian Street, and then moved again to Alymer Street, near the Ambassador Bridge.  All three Scafone residential locations were within close proximity of one another.

Young Scafone grew up listening to country and hillbilly music, which was more common than one might expect for Western Ontario and Southeastern Michigan. Listening to the Louisiana Hayride and the Grand Old Opry became one of his favorite past times. Among his favorites at the time were Eddy Arnold, Red Foley, Ernest Tubb and Hank Williams, but the truth was he just loved that music. 

The Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame website reports that