The APRA Silver Scroll winners over the past five decades are a matter of record, however, the other finalists have been rather less well documented. To fill this gap the curators of The APRA collection at Hocken Collections in Dunedin have created this list of the non-winning finalists from 1965 to 1976.

We have attempted to add first names to writers where known, but have a few gaps. In several years some writers had multiple nominations and the odd strange name creeps in – how did US writer Lee Hazlewood find his name on the 1966 nominations as an example. It also seems that both sides of single were at times nominated as one entry. In 1972 Dave Jordan's 'Don't Let Me Lose You' was nominated twice – by two singers and this was repeated a couple more times over the next couple of years. The record was clearly as important as the song and the record was nominated instead of the composition.

Gray Bartlett

Wayne Mason with APRA's Pat Bell. Wayne would see his name on the finalists lists over and over between 1968 and 1976. He would, in 2001, be lauded as the composer of the best song of the previous 75 years for 'Nature' (the 1970 winner).

The Hi-Revving Tongues were nominated several times as a group, with Chris Parfitt (right) also getting the nod for his solo work

But to the list ...

Ray Columbus was nominated many times between 1965 and 1976 (winning twice, once with Mike Harvey). He's seen here in 1973 with Peter Downes, Stanley Black, Pat Bell and Alison Keenan.

Alan Galbraith appears in these lists as a writer several times but is hidden as a producer on countless of these records. He's seen here with composer/ arranger Brian Hands.

Tommy Adderley, seen here in the mid-1960s, would be nominated several times with Headband in the next decade

Larry Killip was nominated both as a writer and a performer 

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The Hocken Collections

Thank you to Amanda Mills without whom this page would not exist.