Kim Krueger


It is fair to say that before Shona Laing came along, New Zealand women singers didn’t sing their own songs. Those who were selected to record were chosen on the strength of the overseas hits they covered, and their ability to sing and perform live on a nightclub stage. One of these was Kim Krueger.

Kim was born during World War II in Rarotonga, the eldest daughter of a Mormon missionary and baker, Fritz Bunge-Krueger. Samoa-born, Fritz married a Scottish/Māori, Maudina Ngawiki, whom he met while on a trip to New Zealand to purchase baking supplies. The family moved around the Pacific Islands on missionary work, staying first in Rarotonga, then Niue for a year, and on to Samoa, where Maudina died at the young age of 30. Fritz returned to New Zealand with 10-year-old Kim and his five younger children. 

Kim Krueger, on the road with the Showtime Spectacular tour, 1961.
Photo credit: Bruce King
Programme for the Everly Brothers' tour of New Zealand, September-October 1961. The support acts were the Howard Morrison Quartet and Kim Krueger. 
Photo credit: Kim Semenoff Collection
Kim Krueger living in Dallas, Texas, in the 1970s.
Photo credit: Kim Semenoff Collection
Kim Krueger, then Kim Scott, in Singapore, 1970: "We are enjoying life here."
Photo credit: Kim Semenoff Collection
Kim Krueger - I Can't Begin To Tell You (La Gloria, 1961). The song was first recorded by Bing Crosby in 1945. 
Kim Krueger at 40 in Whāngarei.
Photo credit: Kim Semenoff Collection
Kim Krueger and pianist/musical director Robert Walton on the Showtime Spectacular tour bus, 1961. 
Photo credit: Bruce King
Kim Krueger in Lew Pryme's entertainment column, 8 o'clock weekend newspaper, Auckland.
Photo credit: Kim Semenoff Collection
Kim Krueger, on the left, with her parents and two sisters. Her father Fritz Bunge-Krueger was born in Samoa; his father was German and his mother Samoan-English. Her mother Maudina Isabel Ngawiki was born in New Zealand, to Māori-Scottish parents; she passed away at the age of 30, when Kim was 10 and the eldest of six children. 
Photo credit: Kim Semenoff Collection
Kim Krueger in the 1961 Showtime Spectacular tour programme.
Photo credit: Chris Bourke Collection
Kim Krueger - I Fall To Pieces (La Gloria, 1961). The Hank Cochran-Harlan Howard song was made famous by Patsy Cline.
The Showtime Spectacular ’61 tour programme. The Howard Morrison Quartet topped a bill that also featured Toni Williams, Bob Paris, Kim Krueger, and magician Jon Zealando.
Kim Krueger modelling in Bangkok.
Photo credit: Kim Semenoff Collection
Kim Krueger, left, with her siblings, 1952. 
Photo credit: Kim Semenoff Collection
Kim Krueger modelling in Bangkok.
Photo credit: Kim Semenoff Collection
Kim Krueger's band in Australia.
Photo credit: Kim Semenoff Collection
Renaissance, 1970, outside the Singapore hotel in which they performed six nights a week. Peter Nelson is third from left, Billy Kristian is beside him, with a beard, and Wally Scott has the walrus moustache. 
"The Hawaiian Eye Bistro has new personality." Kim Krueger featured on a brochure for the Hawaiian Eye Bistro, Castlereagh St, Sydney.
Photo credit: Kim Semenoff Collection
Kim Krueger "has sparkling eyes and a sweet voice ... will take Australia by storm."
Photo credit: Kim Semenoff Collection
Kim Krueger, top left, with her karate class, Singapore, 1970. Lorraine Cooke (née Karaitiana) is beside her.
Photo credit: Lorraine Cooke Collection
Kim Krueger in Lew Pryme's entertainment column, 8 o'clock weekend newspaper, Auckland.
Photo credit: Kim Semenoff Collection
Kim Krueger with her son Julian in Singapore, 1970. 
Photo credit: Billy Karaitiana
Kim Krueger, right, with friends at the Church College of New Zealand, Hamilton, c.1959. 
Photo credit: Kim Semenoff Collection
Kim Krueger with the Folkstone Three, before the trio left for the UK.
Photo credit: NZ Teen Scene, 7 January 1963
Kim Krueger, aged 18, sings ‘Why Do You Whisper Green Grass’ with a quartet that won £50 in a Panmure talent show, 1961. Later that year she was on the same bill as the Everly Brothers and the Howard Morrison Quartet.
Photo credit: Kim Semenoff Collection
Compilation album of the acts on the 1961 Showtime Spectacular tour, on Harry M Miller's La Gloria label. 
Photo credit: Chris Bourke Collection
Those Were The Days (1968)
Kim Krueger while on the Showtime Spectacular tour, 1961. Trevor King Collection
Labels:

La Gloria

Kim Krueger, from the Gisborne Photo News, 16 May 1961. 
Kim Krueger in the Bangkok press. - Kim Semenoff Collection
Kim Krueger, c. 1960. Kim Semenoff Collection
Kim Krueger and Wally Scott. - Kim Semenoff Collection

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