Chuck Jackson — “Forgive My Jealousy”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 13, 2024

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

1,174) Chuck Jackson — “Forgive My Jealousy”

Forgive my incredulity, but how was this irresistible number from Jackson’s (see #405) first Motown album, ‘68’s Chuck Jackson Arrives, not a hit? How was it not covered by 100 artists? Heck, it wasn’t even an A-side!

Richard Williams:

Chuck Jackson was a matinee idol among his generation of soul singers in the early 1960s, displaying the looks and the bearing to match the elegance of his singing. He shared . . . an understated masculinity that would be lost in the subsequent decade . . . . Jackson . . . infused the songs he recorded with deep emotions made all the more powerful by the restraint of his delivery.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/feb/23/chuck-jackson-obituary

While it was still active, Jackson’s official website said:

Possessing one of the most elegant baritone voices in the annals of recorded music . . . . [Jackson’s] seductive rasp is emblematic of his inimitable style . . . . Tom Jones was heavily influenced by Chuck when he touched down on American soil with the smash that was originally written for Chuck, “It’s Not Unusual.” . . . [I didn’t know this!] . . . [Jackson received] the Apollo Theatre’s Hall of Fame Award . . . for headlining more shows there than any artist in the history of the historical Manhattan venue [I didn’t know this!]

http://www.chuckjackson.org/bio.html

Richard Williams tells us that “[s]teeped in gospel music from an early age, [Jackson] made his first radio broadcast at six years old and was a choir leader by the age of 11.” (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/feb/23/chuck-jackson-obituary) Pittsburgh Music History adds that:

At 14 he began sneaking into jazz clubs to watch drummer Art Blakey and pianist Horace Silver. They always kicked him out, but he said in an interview that it was worth it. “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.”

https://web.archive.org/web/20190321210631/https://sites.google.com/site/pittsburghmusichistory/pittsburgh-music-story/r-b–funk/chuck-jackson

Williams continues Jackson’s story:

Segregation led him to drop out of a scholarship to South Carolina State College and to move north to Cleveland, where he joined the Raspberry Gospel Singers. Leaving the group after a year, he served in the US Navy before moving in 1957 to Pittsburgh, where he sang The Lord’s Prayer to Joe Aberbach, a local music promoter. Aberbach had little use for gospel music, but secured Jackson a place in the Del-Vikings, a mixed-race vocal group whose national hits included Come Go With Me (1957) and whose baritone singer was leaving. While on tour with the group a few months later, Jackson met the singer Jackie Wilson, already an established star, who encouraged him to follow his own example and strike out as a solo artist. Jackson toured as Wilson’s support act, performing for the first time at the Apollo theatre in Harlem, and made his first recordings for small labels such as Clock and Beltone before being signed in 1961 by the producer and songwriter Luther Dixon to Florence Greenberg’s Scepter/Wand company . . . .

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/feb/23/chuck-jackson-obituary

Pittsburgh Music History takes it up:

Working with talented Brill Building writers and arrangers Jackson had 21 hits records on the Scepter/Wand label through most of the sixties. His first single on Wand, “I Don’t Want to Cry”, that he co-wrote with Luther Dixen was arranged by Carol King. It reached number 5 on the R&B charts and broke into the Top 40 in 1961. Scepter/Wand paired Jackson with the budding song writing team of Hal David and Burt Bacharach who wrote his next hit single “I Wake Up Crying” which peaked at No. 13 on the R&B Charts. Jackson, Bacharach, and David hit pay dirt with the next single “Any Day Now’. which hit number 2 R&B and No. 23 on the Top 40 in 1962. Scepter paired Jackson in duets with Doris Taylor and Maxine Brown. Jackson and Taylor scored a number 5 R&B hit with the energetic song “Beg Me” in 1964. Working together Maxine Brown and Jackson recorded the classic tunes “Baby Take Me” and the 1965 number 10 R&B hit “Something You Got”. . . . Smokey Robinson told Jackson that if he ever left Scepter, Motown would sign. Taking Smokey up on the offer Barry Gordon bought out Jackson’s contract from Scepter/Wand in 1967. Jackson recorded three albums on Motown and several successful singles . . . .

https://web.archive.org/web/20190321210631/https://sites.google.com/site/pittsburghmusichistory/pittsburgh-music-story/r-b–funk/chuck-jackson

Well, not that successful commerically. Richie Unterberger notes that “Jackson was (perhaps understandably) lost in the shuffle during his four years at Motown”(https://www.allmusic.com/artist/chuck-jackson-mn0000103033) and Andrew Hamilton explains:

Chuck Jackson’s failure at Motown had little to do with the material, and everything to do with the choices for singles and lackluster promotion. “(You Can’t Let the Boy Overpower) The Man in You” did nothing for either the Miracles or Jackson; it was the only single released from [a] set of 12 above-average tracks. Better choices for singles were [songs such as] . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/album/chuck-jackson-arrives%21-mw0000845295

Yes, any failure had little to do with the material and everything to do with the choices for singles and lackluster promotion. The material, of course, included “Forgive My Jealousy”, and the choices for singles did not include “Forgive My Jealousy”.

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