The Lost Bobby Scott

If I could sing and accompany myself on piano, I'd want to sound like Bobby Scott. The pianist and singer-songwriter (1937-1990) started out in the early 1950s as a superb jazz pianist and composer-arranger (Bethlehem, Verve, ABC-Paramount), shifting to pop-rock and R&B in the early 1960s (Mercury and Atlantic) before switching to pop and jazz (Columbia) mid-decade and assorted labels in the 1970s and '80s. As a composer, Scott was prolific. He is probably best known for co-writing two major Billboard Hot 100 hits—A Taste of Honey and He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother (the Hollies).

Everything Scott recorded in the jazz and pop space is worthy. But for some strange reason, he has been forgotten today by many labels. Like Don Elliott and Gary McFarland, Scott was impossibly talented and extraordinarily tasteful. In some regards, I suppose Scott's fate was a shifting of the times. The music changed, leaving enormously gifted artists from the 1950s like Scott without an audience. A shame, considering he is the unheralded king of the saloon song.

Today, the web gives artists a fighting chance to build an audience. Back in the late 1960s and '70s, you were washed up without a new album, a booking agent and lots of friends in the radio and television business. Whatever the reasons for Scott's dimming light today isn't important. I'm here to tell you that he was an enormous vocal talent and a “compleat musician," to quote the title from one of his LPs.

Among the albums that are sadly out of print are his three Verve releases (Sings the Best of Lerner and Lowe, Serenata and Plays the Music of Leonard Bernstein), though I hear these may be available as digital downloads soon. Also missing are his Atlantic albums (The Compleat Musician and A Taste of Honey) his four Columbia releases (Star, From Eden to Canaan, Forecast: Rain With Sunny Skies and My Heart in My Hands) and his album for Warner Bros (Robert William Scott). Others also are unavailable for assorted labels.

This is unacceptable, and I hope someone out there makes these albums available again. Now that I've stated my case, let me back up my claims:

Here's Wand'rin Star from Sings the Best of Lerner and Lowe.

Here's Scott playing piano and singing I Won't Cry Anymore from My Heart in My Hands.

Here's I Only Miss Her When I Think of Her from Star.

Here's Wild World from Eden to Canaan.

Here's Don't Let It Go to Your Head, which went unreleased.

Here's Nothing's Going to Change, also unreleased.

JazzWax tracks: To fully fall in love with Bobby Scott's voice and piano, download For Sentimental Reasons here. Don't think about it. Just do it. If you need an incentive, here's That Sunday, That Summer.