Jackie Wilson

1934-1984

Vocalist

Jackie Wilson was "a gifted singer of considerable range and an athletic showman who commanded a stage like few before or since," according to his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame biography. Wilson was a key figure of the late 1950s and early 1960s in American popular music, the singer of "Lonely Teardrops" and other numbers that have won places for decades in the playlists of oldies radio stations. His chilling long falsettos exerted an influence on the vocal acrobatics of the soul singers who followed him. Wilson enjoyed only intermittent success during his own career, sometimes failing to anticipate new trends in African-American music, but a busy schedule of reissues that followed his untimely death in 1984 has attested to his influence and enduring popularity.

Jack Leroy Wilson Jr. was born in Detroit on June 9, 1934. His parents, Jack and Eliza Wilson, had come to Detroit from Mississippi, and he grew up in Highland Park, Michigan, an auto-manufacturing enclave surrounded by the city of Detroit. By age six he was singing, and even before reaching adolescence he found that he could fit in with musicians singing blues or gospel music in the streets and storefront churches of Detroit. At 12 he joined a group called the Ever Ready

Gospel Singers.

The influence of gospel did not keep Wilson out of trouble, however (and as an adult he converted to the Jewish faith). He attended Highland Park High School but kept missing class and eventually dropped out. Sent to the Lansing Correctional Institute, he took boxing lessons and fought in Golden Gloves matches back in Detroit. He considered becoming a professional boxer. After marrying Freda Hood as a 16-year-old in 1951 and starting a family, he tried to buckle down to work at a Ford Motor Company foundry but lasted only two weeks. From then on, his income came exclusively from performing music.

Fortunately, Wilson quickly made his mark on the music scene. He started performing in nightclubs at age 15 and worked with a group called the Royals that also included future Four Tops lead vocalist Levi Stubbs. Wilson's career took a step up in 1953 when he won an audition to join the rhythm-and-blues vocal group Billy Ward and the Dominoes after one of its members joined the military. He got another break when the group's lead singer, Clyde McPhatter, departed to form the Drifters; Wilson was chosen as his replacement. Although the Dominoes did not match the commercial success they had experienced in the early 1950s with such songs as "Sixty Minute Man," Wilson's talents received national exposure. The Dominoes appeared in Las Vegas, and a young Elvis Presley became a lifelong admirer of Wilson after hearing him cover his hit "Don't Be Cruel."

After the Dominoes scored a pop top-ten hit with "St. Therese of the Roses" in 1956, Wilson decided to launch a solo career. He was signed to the Brunswick label by executive Nat Tarnopol, who became his manager. In Detroit, Wilson worked at rounding up new material. He met the young songwriters Berry Gordy Jr. and Roquel Davis at the Flame Show Bar, a nightspot that incubated much of the talent later showcased on the Motown label, and the pair gave him the novelty number "Reet Petite." Wilson released the song as a single in September of 1957 and scored a moderate hit in Britain as well as the United States.

The following year Wilson reached the pop top ten with another Gordy composition, "Lonely Teardrops"; the single was a major hit in African-American markets and became the vocalist's first million-seller. Through the late 1950s, Wilson was a major chart presence with such singles as "To Be Loved," "That's Why (I Love You So)," "Doggin' Around," and "I'll Be Satisfied," many of them composed or co-composed by Gordy. Part of his success was due to his ability to appeal equally to black and white audiences, and part of it was reportedly due to the spectacular choreography and raw energy of his stage shows; fans dubbed him "Mr. Excitement." Unfortunately, Wilson was active during the period just before the invention of videotape, and few visual records of his performances exist.

Gordy used some of the money he earned from the hits he wrote for Wilson to launch the Motown label, and Wilson's fusion of smooth pop styles with African-American idioms influenced many of that label's early successes. In retrospect, Wilson would likely have been a perfect fit at Motown, but he remained at Brunswick and was steered toward popular styles by Tarnopol. Many of his recordings of the 1960s featured string stylings by longtime Decca-label arranger Dick Jacobs, and he appeared at such pop clubs as New York's Copacabana and at various Las Vegas hotels. With African-American music moving in a rootsier direction in both Detroit and Memphis, Wilson hit top chart levels only intermittently in the early 1960s. He scored major hits with "Night" (1960), the upbeat "Baby Workout" (1963), and the socially relevant "No Pity (In the Naked City)" (1965). He released a flood of albums on the Brunswick label, but few sold in large numbers.

Nevertheless, Williams remained a strong concert draw. Tension surrounded his performances in the segregated South, and he was beaten by New Orleans police after a disagreement on one occasion. Female fans flocked to his shows; women, it is said, would rip his clothes off after he jumped into a crowd, and one of them shot and wounded him in 1961; a romantic triangle may have been involved. In the late 1960s Wilson enjoyed a string of hits recorded with Chicago soul producer Carl Davis, including "Whispers" (1966) and the top-ten hit "Higher and Higher." By 1970, however, his releases languished in the lower reaches of Billboard magazine's black-music charts. In all he landed 24 recordings in the magazine's top 40.

Wilson toured with the Dick Clark Revue and performed at other oldies-oriented venues in the early 1970s. Headlining the Dick Clark show in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, on September 25, 1975, Wilson was stricken by a massive heart attack. He hit his head while falling, and the resultant brain damage left him in a coma from which he never awakened. Prior to his own death in 1977, Elvis Presley helped pay Wilson's medical bills. Wilson died in Mount Holly, New Jersey, on January 19, 1984. In 1987 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. An 11-disc collection of Wilson's recordings was issued in 1999 by the Edsel label in Britain, where the singer had always maintained strong popularity, and by the early 2000s he was recognized as a classic figure of rhythm and blues. A play about Wilson's life, The Jackie Wilson Story (My Heart Is Crying…Crying), was written by Jackie Taylor and staged by the Black Ensemble Theater of Chicago.

At a Glance …

Born on June 9, 1934, in Detroit, MI; died on January 19, 1984, in Mount Holly, NJ; married Freda Hood, 1951; children: Tony, Thor. Education: Attended Highland Park High School, Highland Park, MI. Religion: Jewish (converted as adult).

Career:

Detroit clubs, vocalist, late 1940s-53; Billy Ward and the Dominoes, band member, and then lead vocalist, 1953-56; Brunswick label, solo artist, 1957-60s; Dick Clark Revue, performer, early 1970s.

Awards:

Inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1987.

Selected works

Singles (on Brunswick label)

"Reet Petite," 1957.

"To Be Loved," 1958.

"We Have Love," 1958.

"Lonely Teardrops," 1958.

"That's Why," 1959.

"I'll Be Satisfied," 1959.

"You Better Know It," 1959.

"Talk That Talk," 1959.

"Night," 1960.

"Doggin' Around," 1960.

"All My Love," 1960.

"A Woman, A Lover, A Friend," 1960.

"Alone At Last," 1960.

"Am I the Man?" 1960.

"My Empty Arms," 1961.

"Please Tell Me Why," 1961.

"I'm Comin' On Back to You," 1961.

"Years from Now," 1961.

"The Way I Am," 1961.

"The Greatest Hurt," 1961.

"Hearts," 1962.

"I Just Can't Help It," 1962.

"Baby Workout," 1963.

"Shake, Shake, Shake," 1963.

"Baby Get It," 1963.

"Squeeze Her—Tease Her," 1964.

"Danny Boy," 1965.

"No Pity (In the Naked City)," 1965.

"Whispers," 1966.

"I Don't Want To Lose You," 1967.

"(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher," 1967.

"Since You Showed Me How To Be Happy," 1967.

"I Get the Sweetest Feeling," 1968.

"For Once in My Life," 1968.

"Let This Be a Letter (To My Baby)," 1970.

"This Love Is Real," 1970.

"Love Is Funny That Way," 1971.

Albums

Lonely Teardrops, Brunswick, 1958 (reissued Diablo, 1998).

Doggin' Around, Brunswick, 1959.

So Much, Brunswick, 1960 (reissued Diablo, 1999).

Jackie Wilson Sings the Blues, Brunswick, 1960 (reissued Diablo, 1999).

My Golden Favorites, Brunswick, 1960.

A Woman, A Lover, A Friend, Brunswick, 1960 (reissued Edsel, 1999).

You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet, Brunswick, 1961.

By Special Request, Brunswick, 1961.

Body & Soul, Brunswick, 1962 (reissued Edsel, 1999).

Jackie Wilson at the Copa, Brunswick, 1962 (reissued Edsel, 1999).

Baby Workout, Brunswick, 1962 (reissued Edsel, 1999).

Shake a Hand, Brunswick, 1962 (reissued Diablo, 1999).

Somethin' Else!, Brunswick, 1964 (reissued Edsel, 1999).

Spotlight, Brunswick, 1965.

Soul Galore, Brunswick, 1966 (reissued Diablo, 1999).

Whispers, Brunswick, 1966 (reissued Diablo, 1999).

Higher and Higher, Brunswick, 1967 (reissued Diablo, 1999).

I Get the Sweetest Feeling, Brunswick, 1968 (reissued Edsel, 1999).

It's All a Part of Love, Brunswick, 1971.

You Got Me Walking, Brunswick, 1973 (reissued Edsel, 1999).

Nowstalgia, Brunswick, 1974.

Jackie Wilson's Greatest Hits, Brunswick, 1973.

This Love Is Real, Brunswick, 1973 (reissued Edsel, 1999).

Nobody But You, Brunswick, 1977 (reissued Edsel, 1999).

The Very Best of Jackie Wilson, Rhino, 1994.

The Jackie Wilson Story (4 vols.), Charly, 1999.

Best of Jackie Wilson (2 vols.), Collectables, 2003.

The Essential Masters with Billy Ward and His Dominoes, Varese Sarabande, 2004.

Jackie Wilson Live, Collectables, 2006.

History of Jackie Wilson (3 vols.), Edsel, 2006.

Sources

Books

Contemporary Musicians, vol. 3, Gale, 1990.

Periodicals

Times (London, England), September 14, 1999, p. 39.

Winston-Salem Journal (Winston-Salem, NC), July 31, 2001, p. B6.

On-line

"Jackie Wilson," All Music Guide,www.allmusic.com (March 17, 2007).

"Jackie Wilson," Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,www.rockhall.com (March 17, 2007).

Jackie Wilson—Mr. Excitement,www.jackiewilson.net (March 17, 2007).

                                                                —James M. Manheim