Chuck Jackson
Good Things Come To Those Who Wait...
Charles "Chuck" Jackson, born on July 22nd 1937 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He started singing at just four years of age and by the age of nine was playing piano.
Like many black artists of that period he started from hard times and was picking cotton at just eight years old, he recounts that often he would get beatings for coming in from a hard days work the cotton fields with low weight.
Jackson's early broadcast performance was when a guy called Howard J Hughes heard him singing in church and invited him onto his local radio show. Earning just a few dollars per show, the young performer soon decided he could do better and joined the Ray Gospel Singers as lead baritone.
When Chuck graduated from South Carolina College, he was the only person to receive a musical scholarship from his school. That was an achievement in itself, considering it was an athletic college with no music department and that the young Jackson had ran off to stay with an aunt in Pittsburgh for two years. This year the school have honoured him with a doctorate.
Click the records for music
Chuck Jackson was to all intents and purposes raised by his grandmother and didn't get to meet his father until he was a teenager. His mother was also absent during the early years and he only met her three times before he was fourteen years old.
In 1957 he joined the Del-Vikings and their hits included Come Go With Me and Whispering Bells. After two years national service, Chuck decided to pursue a solo career and started touring with Jackie Wilson.
Apparently, after only the second show with Jackie Wilson, Chuck was called into the stars dressing room and told in no uncertain terms how the performances would go. "I don't want you to go out there and croon at people - I want you to kill em". Jackson took the advice and was soon rewarded with a contract. When I finished people were standing on their seats and I've continued doing the same show ever since. Chuck Jackson remained good friends with Jackie Wilson from that day on and in his own words "I adored him"
It was while opening Wilson's show that writer Luther Dixon and guitarist Florence Greenberg approached Chuck and signed him to their New York based Scepter / Wand recording label. Other artists with the label included Maxine Brown, Tommy Hunt, Dionne Warwick and The Shirelles. Chuck's first solo release I Don't Want To Cry on Wand hit the r&b charts and went on to the national charts in February 1961.
Chuck Jackson was soon provided material from legendary song writers Burt Bacharach and Hal David in the shape of I Wake Up Crying and The Breaking Point, plus Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller I Keep Forgettin'. Carole King and Gerry Goffin came up with I Need You whilst Pam Sawyer and Mark Barkan penned If I Didn't Love You.
Probably one of his best known hits is Any Day Now by Bacharach and Hillard and in Northern Soul circles These Chains Of Love and Good Things Come To Those Who Wait have become evergreens. Listing the work of this artist serves to remind us just how consistent his career has been. Hand It Over, I've Got To Be Strong, I've Got The Need, All Over The World - the list just goes on and on.
The man is a survivor, he's overcome an impoverished childhood, racial inequality and beaten heavy drinking in the seventies and eighties. He is a star in the truest sense of the word and has a warmth and personality that knocks you dead. Softly spoken, he is charming and a real gentleman and on his recent visit to the UK, he delivered a show of the highest quality.
With some 21 hits on Wand between 1961 and 1967 - Chuck Jackson transferred to Motown in 1967 and released Are You Lonely For Me Baby and Honey Come Back amongst others. In 1972 - he moved to ABC with R&B hits, I Only Get This Feeling and I Can't Break Away and then onto New Jerseys All Platinum label where you can find the wonderful I Got The Need.
Chuck Jackson's first single release on Motown, was a reworking of The Miracles' You Can't Let The Boy Overpower The Man In You, produced by Smokey Robinson. The flipside of that single Girls, Girls, Girls became a favourite in the UK. Album releases Chuck Jackson Arrives! and Goin' Back To Chuck Jackson delivered some great cover versions of work previously released by the likes of The Four Tops, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas and The Temptations.
His third album Teardrops Keep Falling On My Heart proved to be the final on Motown and these three albums are now available on a brand new double CD Chuck Jackson The Motown Anthology. In addition to the previously released albums there are several never-before-released recordings including his excellent version of Kim Weston's Helpless
For a full track listing - click the CD cover below:
To Order the new CD: email sales@soulmotion.co.uk
£13 plus shipping (£2 Europe, £3 rest of the world)
This is by no means the definitive guide to the man and his music, and we will surely hear more from him in the future. Chuck Jackson is a producer at the Apollo Theatre in New York working with the likes of Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder. During his recent UK appearance Chuck Jackson thrilled his fans as he worked his way through a two hour show.
Good Things Came To Those Who Waited
