Earl Nelson / Jackie Lee - A Profile

Today Earl Nelson would have been celebrating his 94th birthday. In the late 50s he was a member of The Hollywood Flames. As Earl Nelson he only released a few singles, but he will be better known as one half of the duo Bob & Earl and under one of his many aliases Jackie Lee (he also went by Earl Cosby, Chip Nelson, Earnest Nelson and Jay Dee). The name was derived from his wife's name (Jackie) and his middle name (Lee).

He was born on 8th Sep 1928 in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and died on 12th Jul 2008 aged 79. His family relocated to L.A. in 1937 when he was 9 and he sang with many doo wop groups in the 50s starting with The Hollywood Flames around 1955 singing lead on their #11 Hot 100 hit "Buzz, Buzz, Buzz" in 1957. 

His first partner in Bob & Earl was Bobby Byrd (Robert James Byrd (aka Bobby Day) not Bobby Byrd of James Brown & The Famous Flames) who recorded "Rockin' Robin" in 1958 (on which Nelson sang background vocals) and wrote "Little Bitty Pretty One" both recorded by many including Michael Jackson for the former and The Jackson 5 the latter. They sang together as The Sounds then Bobby Day & The Satellites and Earl Nelson & The Pelicans.

Records by both Bob & Earl and Jackie Lee will be known to most followers of Northern Soul. His solo recording career began in 1957 with a single as Earl Nelson on Class (sounding very like Jackie Wilson on "No Time To Cry") and the same year and label the first Bob & Earl single appeared followed by another two on the label in 1958. His only other recordings as Earl Nelson appeared on on Ebb in 1959 and Duo Disc (1964/65). Others were released as Chip Nelson on Edsel (1960), Earnest Nelson on Runaway.

Bobby Byrd/Day left the duo to pursue a solo career and was replaced by Bob Relf of The Laurels and The Upfronts who had evolved from The Cubans / Little Caesar & The Romans. They hit with "Harlem Shuffle" in 1963 (#44 R&B). Their only other R&B chart entry came in 1966 with "Baby, It's Over" which went higher than "Harlem Shuffle" to #26, but how many of us know/remember that song (which is a deep soul song leaning towards doo-wop), but most will know "Harlem Shuffle". One of their most popular records on the NS scene was "My Little Girl" which was actually an instrumental by The Bob & Earl Band which was also released in the UK on Jay Boy, but a vocal was recorded by Bob Relf as Bobby Garrett.

As Jackie Lee, he had an R&B top 10 hit in 1965 with "The Duck" reaching #4 which resulted in a full album being released in 1965 with many of the tracks released as singles and received heavy rotation on Northern Soul dancefloors in the 70s.

In 1974 he released a highly sought after album by rare groove and modern soul aficionados as Jay Dee "Come On In Love" which was produced by Barry White who also wrote about half of the songs on the album.

Here's a playlist of 25 of some of his best recordings:

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