Rochelle Vinsen - Introducing A New Star @ 320

Rochelle Vinsen was born in Wellington in 1946. She attanded Onslow College and as a sixth former had made the semi-finals of NZBC talent show "Have A Shot" singing with school band The Silhouettes.

She was signed to HMV in 1963 and went on to record eight singles for them between 1963 and 1965. Her debut single ‘Candy Kisses’ was the first HMV 45 to be released in a picture sleeve. The jacket featured a photo of Vinsen with the tag “Introducing A New Star” and informed that she “records exclusively for HMV”. 

While with HMV from 1963 to 1965, she recorded eight singles, including the NZ Top 10 hits ‘My Boyfriend Got A Beatle Haircut’ and the duet with Jim McNaught, ‘I Like Your Kind Of Love’. Studio musicians on the recordings included drummer Bruno Lawrence, Premiers guitarist Neil Harrap and Laurie Lewis and The Blockbusters. Her second single, Wanda Jackson’s ‘Let My Love Walk In’, featured violinists from the NZBC National Orchestra.

 At 17 years of age she went on her first tour, in the South Island with Jim McNaught, Freddie Keil and the Kavaliers and Lou and Simon. For the second week of the tour, Lou and Simon were replaced by Dinah Lee, who took the younger Vinsen under her wing.

By 1965 Vinsen concluded that to go any further in music she would have to move to Sydney. She stayed in New Zealand and her recording days were over.

In the early 1980s, Vinsen worked on the National Radio show Grampa’s Place that starred Goodbye Pork Pie and Smash Palace actor Des Kelly as Grampa and Vinsen as his grown-up daughter. Aimed at a preschool audience, the 10-minute spots were funded by the Education Department and lasted five years. One of the shows on stranger danger and inappropriate touching won a radio award in Japan. Courtesy of Radio New Zealand, two albums from the show were released on Kiwi Pacific Records under her married name Rochelle Brader, including her collection of children’s songs Rochelle’s Place.

The full and slightly sad story of a girl :

https://www.audioculture.co.nz/profile/rochelle-vinsen

Rochelle Vinsen - Introducing A New Star (2022)

1. Rochelle Vinsen - Candy Kisses

2. Rochelle Vinsen - Tie A Ribbon To The Apple Tree

3. Rochelle Vinsen - Let My Love Walk In

4. Rochelle Vinsen - Lipstick And High Heeled Shoes

5. Rochelle Vinsen - I Like Your Kind Of Love

6. Rochelle Vinsen - Too Hot To Dance

7. Rochelle Vinsen - Biggity Big

8. Rochelle Vinsen - I Was Only Foolin' Myself

9. Rochelle Vinsen - My Boyfriend Got A Beatle Haircut

10. Rochelle Vinsen - He's Mine

11. Rochelle Vinsen - Has Anybody Seen My Boyfriend?

12. Rochelle Vinsen - He Walks Like A Man

13. Rochelle Vinsen - Ska-Doo-Dee-Yah

14. Rochelle Vinsen - I Wanna Swim With Him

15. Rochelle Vinsen - We're In Love

16. Rochelle Vinsen - Sugar Candy

17. Rochelle Vinsen - I Hear You Knocking

18. Rochelle Vinsen - Everybody Loves A Lover

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