Child Star · 1970–1972
From the school playground to national TV, radio & a gold disc.
Discovered at thirteen by HMV producer Alan Galbraith, David became the youngest hit-maker New Zealand has produced. His 1970 rendition of Wheel of Fortune, backed by members of the NZ Symphony Orchestra, was an immediate commercial success and attained gold record status.
The single spent 11 weeks in the national top 20, peaking at #5 on 24 August 1970. It was a finalist in the 1970 Loxene Golden Disc Awards, finishing 3rd place in the final results.
David recorded two albums on the HMV label. In 1971, aged 14, he composed the music — to lyrics written by his mother — for Take Your Leave. It co-won the nationally televised Studio One Song Contest, spent 6 weeks in the top 10 peaking at #4, and became the 4th most successful charting release by a New Zealand artist in 1971.
TVNZ entered 5 songs into the Yamaha World Popular Song Festival '71, billed as the "Oriental Eurovision". Take Your Leave was the song selected to represent New Zealand. It made the final 12 out of 47 songs and won two "Outstanding Awards" — competing alongside the composers of ‘Love is Blue’ and The Brotherhood of Man’s classic ‘United We Stand’. He was selected to attend the festival the following year, with another of his original compositions, where he met ABBA, who were also competing, a year before their ‘Waterloo’ Eurovision win.
Take Your Leave was one of only 3 NZ releases included in the very first 20 Solid Gold Hits compilation, and it was a finalist in the 1971 APRA Silver Scroll.
David's boy soprano career came to an abrupt end when his voice broke in 1972. Across that two-year period, he is reported to have amassed around 60,000 records sold across 2 albums and 6 singles — in a market where 15,000 sales achieved gold-disc status.
Listen
The Very Best of David Curtis.
EMI · Very Best of · 2003
What came next
1975 — music school, The Hollies, and the UK.
After the child-star years, David studied at Wellington Polytechnic, toured with The Hollies and Leo Sayer, and spent a decade in London.