Artist · EveryDisc catalogue

jackie Wilson

Jackie Wilson (9 June 1934 — 21 January 1984) was an African American singer from Detroit who worked at the intersection of R&B and rock and roll. His full name was Jack Leroy Wilson, Jr. Jackie Wilson created his first vocal group at the age of 17. After changing members multiple times, it began to be called The Dominoes. Together with his group, he participated in Alan Freed's famous Moon Dog Ball show in March 1953, which was organized in Cleveland at the Arena stadium, which held 10 000 spectators. Even the great Elvis Presley imitated Wilson, and Michael Jackson considered him his dance teacher[3]. He converted to Judaism[4]. Wilson's best records were written and produced at the end of the 1950s by Detroit native Berry Gordy — the future founder of the recording giant Motown Records. The seed of the signature Motown sound is felt in such songs by Wilson as the single released in March 1958, Lonely Teardrops (1 place in the R&B charts, 7 place in Billboard Hot 100), as well as the later A Woman, A Lover, A Friend and Night. Wilson had a reputation as a ladies' man. In 1961, one of the fans who was stalking him inflicted a severe gunshot wound on him. The singer was out of show business for several years and therefore did not end up among the artists of the Motown firm that was being created at that time. He returned to the stage in the heat of the British Invasion, when the performance style characteristic of him already seemed old-fashioned. At the end of the 1960s, Chicago producer Carl Davis helped Wilson make several recordings in a more modern manner. In 1975, after performing Lonely Teardrops, Jackie Wilson lost consciousness and fell into a coma, from which he never emerged. Wilson's treatment was paid for until his own death by his close friend Elvis Presley. Jackie Wilson always gave his all at his live performances, charging the audience with energy. Studio recordings with typical 1950s pop arrangements provide a less complete picture of the scale of his vocal talent. Specialists in the history of pop music highly value the Black Elvis: thus, in November 2008, Rolling Stone magazine placed him in the 26 place on its list of the greatest vocalists of the rock and roll era[6]. When the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was created in 1987, Jackie Wilson's name was entered into it immediately. The true dimensions of his talent and contribution to the development of music become more understandable with an increase in historical distance.