My first exposure to the wonderful baritone voice of Chuck Jackson came from religiously buying the Kent compilations, which were essential purchases in my formative record buying years.  His recordings of  I Keep Forgetting, Hand It Over and Two Stupid Feet have stayed with me from the first time I heard them, all those years ago. His take on Any Day Now is definitely in my top twenty of all time on the soul tip.

So it was fitting that on the day of writing this blog in memorium to Chuck, that I saw the following on the Facebook page of Ady Croasdell, who of course was a driving force behind the Kent label. It is repeated here with Ady’s kind blessing…

‘There are confirmed reports that one of the very greatest soul singers of all time, Chuck Jackson died on February 16th.
His 60s and 70s recordings are hugely important works, revered as much now as on release. I Keep Forgetting, Any Day Now, Hand It Over, What’s With This Loneliness, I’ve Got The Need, Tell Him I’m Not Home, These Chains Of Love, Two Stupid Feet, What Am I Gonna Do Without You and many, many more have left a marvellous body of work in his name.
No one did more in furthering Chuck’s career than my original 6TS partner Randy Cozens who taped his then little-known tracks he adored in the early 60s for his friends in the late 70s and 80s, thereby spreading the word and raising Chuck up with the top US soul singers for us Brits.
That devotion then spread to a younger generation in Europe and even back in the States when Randy compiled and wrote the sleeve notes for the first Kent LP. Kent then accessed the Wand record vaults and made several great previously unissued tracks available on the “Good Things” LP.
With the renewed interest in his recordings, Chuck got to sing in England at the Great Yarmouth Northern Soul Weekender around 1990 and other European dates followed.
His passing will be deeply felt around the world.’

Amen to that. Charles Jackson was  born in the July of 1937, in Winston Salem, North Carolina, one of five children of Mother, Lucille. He grew up  never knowing his father. He picked cotton as a young child, in the care of his grandparents in Latta, South Carolina, whilst his mother moved to Pittsburgh in search of work.

His route to being a professional vocalist, began in church choirs and gospel groups from the age of 6, and so good was he even at that tender age, he had his own radio show aged just 8.

His voice won him a scholarship to South Carolina State College, but on the stipulation, he passed his high school diploma. Sadly, in the day of segregation in the South of the US, his local school had closed, and he was denied entry elsewhere, due to his colour.

Suspecting that at that time, he might not get to the college, he travelled to Pittsburgh to join his mother and her family . There, he was drawn to the jazz clubs of the area and watched and learned from the likes of Horace Silver and Art Blakey.

 ‘Thank God I did it, because today I incorporate jazz and pop into my rhythm-and-blues performance. It’s a wonderful mix; I picked it up from sneaking in and listening.’

After a stint in the US Navy, by 1956, he had returned to the South and was at last able to use his scholarship, enrolling at SCSC and majored in music. All around him was chaos however and inevitably, he got caught up in the one of the first large scale battles of the burgeoning civil rights movement. 

On a following return to Pittsburgh, he joined the Doo Wop group the 5 Mellows. Then he released the single Willette in 1957, when lead vocalist for the Doo-Wop group The Del-Vikings, who were soon part of a 90-day national tour called the ‘Fantabulous Rock & Roll Show Of 1957’ in the company of Ray Charles, Larry Williams, Joe Turner, and Bo Diddley, among others.

The group then opened for  Jackie Wilson at the Apollo Harlem, after which Wilson told him, he was good enough to be a solo performer. Taking the advice,  he went on the road as part of the Jackie Wilson Revue, learning stage craft from the main man himself, as he opened for the star attraction up and down the country.

With his matinee idol looks and tremendous voice, he soon became hot property, and after a bidding war, signed with Wand Records as part of his new contract with Scepter records, who were big news having had hits with Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? Dedicated to The One I Love and Soldier Boy by The Shirelles as well as Louie Louie by The Kingsmen and Twist and Shout by the Isley Brothers.

Chuck had over 20 hits during this period working with many of the great song writers from the famous Brill Building, such as Luther Dixon who wrote I Don’t Want to Cry  with Carole King working up the arrangement. Chuck then became one of the first to record a Burt Bacharach tune, namely Any Day Now which became a big national top 40  hit and perhaps the song most associated with him throughout his career. His backing singers on the session were the sisters Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick and their aunt Cissy Houston, mother of Whitney.

Berry Gordy then bought Chuck out his contract at Scepter/Wand and signed  him to Motown in 1967. There, he had a few hits with singles and albums, but ultimately, he regretted the decision to leave Wand.

‘One of the worst mistakes I ever made in my life.’

Despite the lack of further personal chart success, his work as a producer/engineer/arranger found him the company of Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Natalie Cole, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Tom Jones  – ‘It’s Not Unusual’ was originally written for Chuck – Michael McDonald, Boys 2 Men, Aretha Franklin and Stanley Turrentine among others.

And when Chuck  performed his old numbers, he found he had not been forgotten by his army of fans, such as when he performed here in the UK, such as the legendary gig in Great Yarmouth as mentioned earlier by Ady, and also at Nottingham and Morecambe, where he was feted with much acclaim.

In his time, Chuck recorded for Clock, Wand, Motown, ABC, EMI, and Platinum and released a total of  24 albums. His duet with his lifelong friend Dionne Warwick If I Let Myself Go won a Grammy nomination in 1986.

Among his many accolades, he is in the Apollo Theatre’s Hall of Fame for headlining more shows there than any artist in the history of that iconic Harlem venue. On the 4th October 2015, Chuck  was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame.

He died on February 16^th, 2023, aged 85.

Dionne Warwick – ‘Another heartache has come my way. Chuck Jackson has made his transition. He was my label mate on Scepter Records and was like a big brother to me. I’ll truly miss his daily calls checking on me and his wonderful voice. 

Rest in heavenly peace my dear friend.’ 

 

The Mumper of SE5

Read The Mumper’s other weekly musings on ‘The Speakeasy’ blog page

 

 

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