Reports of the death of Chuck Jackson are circulating on
social media this morning, which were unconfirmed, but official
announcements are now beginning to emerge. It is being reported that he
died last Thursday (16 Feb) aged 85. Jackson, whilst perhaps not
particularly well known in the mainstream, is highly regarded on the UK
rare soul scene for many recordings from the 60s and 70s.
Chuck Jackson was born 22 Jul 1937 in Winston-Salem, NC, and grew up in
Latta, SC, where he sang in a gospel group before moving to Pittsburgh, PA
aged 13.
He was one of the first singers to have success recording material by
the recently departed
Burt Bacharach
and his writing partner Hal David. His hits include "I Don't Want to Cry," "Any Day Now", "Something You Got" with Maxine Brown but to rare soulies he is known for "I've Got The Need", "Love Lights", "Beautiful Woman", "I Only Get This Feeling", "Take Off Your Make Up" "Waiting In Vain", "No Tricks", "All Over the World", "What's With This Loneliness", "These Chains Of Love", "Hand It Over", "Good Things Come To Those Who Wait", "It Must Be Love" with Yvonne Fair, "Walk Away From Love", "That's Me Lovin' You" in particular, along with many others. (Note: links to YouTube on
titles that aren't available on Spotify but some alternate versions
have been included where found).
Aged 20, he was the lead singer of The Dell-Vikings. The story of this group is pretty convoluted as the original
membership splintered with some being signed to Mercury and the
remaining members, including Jackson, recorded on Fee Bee. When he
left to go solo he was spotted by Luther Dixon when opening for Jackie
Wilson at the Apollo and signed to Wand (a subsidiary of Specter).
He released around half a dozen singles between 1957-1960, his first
on Dot as Kripp Johnson (a member of The Dell-Vikings) & Chuck
Jackson (which as reissued on Fee Bee), followed by one on Petite in
1959 and three on Clock 1959-60. His first single on Wand, "I Don't Want To Cry" (co-written with Dixon) in 1961 was a hit reaching #5 R&B and
#36 Hot 100 and would be one of only three R&B Top 10 hits he
achieved. A couple of other singles appeared on Beltone (a reissue of
a Clock single) and Atco, presumably trying to cash in on his Wand
hit. Another few were released on Wand without any chart success until
he recorded a Bacharach & David song "Any Day Now", his biggest hit reaching #2 R&B and #23 Hot 100, in 1962.
He continued to record for Wand until 1968 when he bought himself out
of his contract and signed for Motown which he would later regret as
his time at Motown was short-lived releasing three albums and around
seven singles between 1968-71. His last of around eleven albums for
Wand was a combined album with Tammi Terrell.
One single for Dakar in 1972, followed by four on ABC, which included
a couple of modern soul favourites
"I Only Get This Feeling" and "Take Off Your Make-Up" (also recorded by Lamont Dozier), and an album, "Through All Times", and then he joined Sylvia Robinson's All Platinum empire in 1975.
He released six singles (including "Love Lights") and an album "Needing You, Wanting You" which included "I've Got The Need" which wasn't released as a single stateside but was paired with "Beautiful Woman" in the UK. Spooky & Sue covered it on Dutch label Negram.
After leaving All Platinum his recording career waned with only one
single on Channel in 1978 and an album on EMI America in 1980 which
produced two singles one of which contained two Bob Marley songs and
his version of "Waiting In Vain" is a modern soul in-demander. He covered Dan Hill's "Sometimes When
We Touch" on Sugar Hill in 1981 which appears to be a promo only and
that seems to be his last US single, although two further albums were
recorded, one with Cissy Houston (which has a duet version of "Waiting
In Vain") in 1992 and a solo album in 1998.
In 1989 he recorded "All Over The World" on Ian Levine's Nightmare logo and in more recent years several
previously unreleased recordings and reissued songs have featured on
UK labels, mainly Kent.
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