A Trubute to Jackie Wilson

Having grown up in the 1950s and 1960s, I naturally grew up listening to Rock ‘n Roll. Many of the performers were white, like Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis, and many were black, like Little Richard, Chuck Berry, the Drifters, and many others. Regrettably, skin color was a big deal then in America as the Civil Rights movement was still struggling.  When it came to music, people forgot about race. We all just enjoyed each others’ music.

One the biggest stars of that era was Jackie Wilson (1934-1984), who came out of Detroit before the era of Motown took off. His signature song was “Lonely Teardrops”, one of his earliest hits.

Looking back on Jackie Wilson today, I think he was so under-rated in terms of his versatility. I have picked out two of his other hits, not as big as “Lonely Teardrops”, but both of which were my two favorites of his. They are very different from each other. In the below video, “Baby Workout”(1963), You see an example of Wilson’s electrifying stage performance and his great dancing ability. This was performed on the show, “Shindig”.

Now go back to 1960, when Wilson released this incredible love song, “Alone at Last”, an adaptation of Tschaikovsky’s Piano Concerto Number One.

Wilson lived a turbulent life. In 1961, he was shot in New York by a jealous girlfriend. Even more sadly, Wilson’s last years were tragic. In 1975, he was struck by a massive heart attack on stage and  spent his final years bedridden. In addition, like so many other black performers of the age, Wilson was exploited by unscrupulous record producers who cheated him out of his royalties.

It is sad to read of Wilson’s short, turbulent life. It is also sad to compare his music for what passes as music today. As I have said before, the dominance of hip-hop and rap seems to have replaced one of our great American art forms-black music. Where did all the Jackie Wilsons go?