Born and raised in Wellington, New Zealand, David Curtis at the age of thirteen decided to record a couple of songs for his parents. He played the tracks to his guitar teacher Jim Baker, who unbeknown to David asked EMI Records producer Alan Galbraith to have a listen. To record someone so young was unheard of but EMI contacted David and to his surprise invited him to go into their studio with Garth Young to record a demo and see how he sounded. They were impressed enough to record a single and the result was Wheel Of Fortune which became an immediate hit in 1970, selling over 17,000 copies and besides reaching number five on the national chart also created a couple of records along the way, David became the youngest artist ever to feature on the New Zealand Top Twenty, and also the youngest artist to make The finals in the Loxene Gold Disc Awards.
An album was recorded and those who immediately described his debut as a one hit wonder were soon proved wrong when the following year David recorded a second album which included Take Your Leave a song he had composed the music for (his mother wrote the lyrics) which was entered in the 1971 series of Studio One, going on to win the song-writing section. Take Your Leave proved to be another big seller reaching number three on the charts, with David going on to represent New Zealand at the Yamaha World Popular Song Contest in Tokyo, winning one of the major prizes.
Following this success and at the request of EMI in Japan, Take Your Leave, was specially recorded in Japanese, but interesting that by this time his voice was already changing and the re-recording had to be done in a lower key. Shortly after this David's voice broke completely bringing an abrupt halt to his career.
Specially recorded for this Very Best Of Release, Dave has added his adult voice to the original thirty three year old recording of Just A Closer Walk With Thee. Using the latest computer technology and with the help of his friend Larry Killip at Larry's studio, this unique duet along with the Japanese version of Take Your Leave, make for two very interesting special bonus tracks.
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