Jackie Wilson Biography, Photos and Posters

Jackie Wilson

Biography

Born: June 9, 1934
City and Country of Origin: Detroit, Michigan
Music Training: Ever Ready Gospel Singers Group
Awards: 1987 inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Top Recordings: "Reet Petite," "Lonely Teardrops," "That’s Why (I Love You So)," "I’ll Be Satisfied," "Night," "A Woman, A Lover, A Friend," "Alone At Last," "My Empty Arms," "Baby Workout," "Whispers (Getting’ Louder)"
Jackie Wilson Biography: Jack Leroy "Jackie" Wilson was an American soul and R&B singer, born in Detroit, Michigan. He was the only suviving son of father Jack, an alcoholic, and seldom employed mother Eliza Mae who was a powerful influence on young Jackie. He wasn't religious, but joined the Ever Ready Gospel Singers Group because he loved to sing. He was an habitual truant which twice landed him in the Lansing Correctional Institute. While there he learned to box. After he dropped out of school in the ninth grade in 1950, at the age of 16, he fought in the Golden Gloves. He became a Golden Gloves champion in Detroit.

Wilson first became active in the music business in his native Detroit. He joined Biily Ward & the Dominoes in 1953, replacing Clyde McPhatter. After losing McPhatter, the group's only major recording success with Wilson came in June of 1956 with the single "St. Therese of The Roses" that reached number 13 on the Pop charts.

Wilson's solo career began with 1957's "Reet Petite," written by the then-unknown Berry Gordy, Jr. and recorded on the Brunswick Records label with whom Wilson would remain throughout his career. He had his first top 40 hit in 1958 with "To Be Loved." At the end of that year he had his first big success with "Lonely Teardrops" that went to number 7 on the charts. The song, also written by Gordy, became his signature tune. That same year saw Wilson release his first LP titled He's So Fine.

Wilson's brand of soul and R&B helped him cross over to the mainstream, having several pop hits. His dynamic stage performances earned him the nickname "Mr. Excitement." His performance of "Lonely Teardrops" on the Ed Sullivan Show is considered one of the show's classics. In the 1960s, Wilson continued to record singles, many of them operatic, such as "Danny Boy" or "Night," others were up-tempo and exciting, such as "Baby Workout" in 1963.

His career began to suffer in the mid-60s, though he managed a brief revival by collaborating with [Carl Davis], a legendary Chicago producer. This resulted in two hits, "Whispers" and "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher." The revival was short-lived, though, and Wilson rarely charted in the 1970s.

Wilson converted to Judaism as an adult.

Although married to Frida Hood since 1951, Wilson was a notorious womanizer and was shot and wounded by one of his alleged lovers, Juanita Jones, on February 15, 1961, in a jealous rage as he returned to his apartment with another woman, fashion model Harlean Harris, an ex-girlfriend of singer Sam Cooke. In order to protect his reputation, his management concocted a story that Jones was an obsessed fan who threatened to shoot herself, and that Wilson's intervention concluded in his being shot. Astonishingly, the story was accepted, and no charges were brought against Jones. He was divorced from his wife in 1965, and married Harlean Harris in 1967. He stayed with her until his death.

Wilson suffered a massive heart attack while playing a Dick Clark show at the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, New Jersey on September 29, 1975, falling head-first to the stage; he was singing "Lonely Teardrops". A comatose Wilson lived in a hospital until his death at age 49. His medical costs were paid for by Elvis Presley, and The Spinners. Al Green, the soul singer, was one of the few artists who regularly visited a bed-ridden Jackie.

Wilson is interred in the Westlawn Cemetery in Wayne, Michigan.
Born: January 21, 1984

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