Chuck Jackson (Born 22/07/1937)

He rejoined his mother in Pittsburgh when he was fourteen and, although he was offered a scholarship to South Carolina State College, he ran away because, he said "When all the racial demonstrations started in the South, I went North and joined a gospel group, the Raspberry Singers for almost a year....."
He also sang with the Del Vikings from 1957 for a couple of years, but the group had already had their major hits before Jackson joined the group and he never recorded with them, only toured. It was while on tour with the group that he was advised by Jackie Wilson to pursue a solo career.

Chuck stayed with Jackie until his first hit - and although he first recorded for Beltone in 1960, his first success was on the Wand label with 'I Don't Want To Cry'. He remained with Wand until 1967 and during his time there had hits with 'I Wake Up Crying', 'Any Other Way', 'I Keep Forgettin'', 'Beg Me', 'Tell Him I'm Not Home' and, of course, the Bacharach-David composition 'Any Day Now'. The latter was apparently written especially for him after Bacharach had confessed his admiration for Jackson's vocal talents. Throughout this period, Chuck also had a few duet successes with stablemate Maxine Brown.

In 1967 Jackson left Wand for Motown at friend Smokey Robinson's suggestion. Although he had a number of successes there ('Are You Lonely For Me', 'Honey Come Back') there were no really big hits and his chart success began to lose its momentum as Chuck seemed to get lost in the Motown machine. He moved on to Dakar and, after one single ('I Forgot To Tell Her'), on to ABC, shortly before the company went bust!
Occasional recordings have followed, including releases on the Channel Records label where he was reunited with Wand's founder Florence Greenberg and in 1989 England's Ian Levine produced him on the 'All Over The World' single on Nightmare/Motor City Records. Chuck came over to England the following year to headline at the Northern Soul Festival in Great Yarmouth and he has been a huge favourite on the Northern Soul circuit ever since. There are a number of compilations around. The See For Miles "EP Collection Plus" is worthwhile but possibly the best introduction is the Kent release "Good Things"

Jackson's great 1960s records were very much of their time and place and the pop-soul production with the brass and string arrangements were typical New York. Nowadays the productions do appear a little shrill and dated but his emotional vocals are always worth listening to and, taken on its own terms, his best work is certainly worthy of reappraisal. Unless you only like your soul deep and down home, he's definitely worth a listen.