Shindig -Jackie Wilson - Baby Workout

[Edie Antoinette]

I loved Shindig..but lookit them dancers!!! LOL!!! Help Meeeeeeee!!!! LOL

[Sylvia Fedrick]

Thank you for sharing!!

[Shelley "SoleMann" King]

Them dancers all off beat, i bet Jackie was cracking up inside...ROFLMBO

[Edie Antoinette]

They was tryin so hard...hilarious! He probably had to block them out of his sight lest he get off beat too...lol

[Lydell Jackson]

That was a bad man! Girl you are a trip!!! That's why a lot of folks wanted to be black without being black!!! "Singdig"

[Edie Antoinette]

Lydell, I ain't mad at em...lol Sole has heard my Jackie Wilson story, but I went to see Jackie at The Regal in Chicago in the early 60's. I went all by myself too and sat in the balcony.

Mr. Wonderful came on stage and tore the roof off the place with his electricity! During one of his numbers as fans screamed and held out their arms to try and touch him (which made me secretly jealous)..he invited a lady to come on stage! Well.........this lady in a red dress ran up there and wonder of wonders---he wrapped his arms around her after singing a few bars to her---and laid a kiss on her that melted the whole mic!!!! My eyes were wide as saucers and my heart pounded like a jack hammer.

It was then, that I resolved that when I grew up--I was gonna buy me a red dress and marry Jackie Wilson!

[KnightD12]

2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #68 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Jack Leroy Wilson would be much higher on my list.
Wilson suffered a massive heart attack while playing a Dick Clark show at the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, New Jersey on September 29, 1975, falling head-first to the stage while singing "Lonely Teardrops". The blow to the head Wilson suffered left him comatose. For the next eight years and four months, he was in a vegetative state until his death at age 49. Al Green, the soul singer, and Elvis Presley were some of the few artists who regularly visited the bed-ridden Wilson. A little known fact is that when he found out that Jackie was broke, Dick Clark paid all of Jackie's medical bills up to the day he passed away.

[Edie Antoinette]

Wow!!!! That puts Dick Clark up a notch in my book. That was very good of him to do that!
Here's part of a blog that I did on a young Sonny "Jackie" Wilson. To hear the actual recording, visit the blog:
Memory Lane With Edie2k2

"The Rainy Day Blues"
by Sonny Wilson [Jackie Wilson]
on dee gee 4000 A
released in 1952

Left: Photo of Jackie Wilson, known as "Sonny Wilson" on his first records (when he was 17 years old).

JACKIE WILSON

(1934 - 1984)

---

Jackie Wilson is a product of Detroit, being born there on June 9, 1934, and attending Highland Park H.S. It is reputed that at age sixteen (1950) he won a "Golden Glove" championship in the "Motor City", after lying about his age to enter. This is myth! The truth is, he did lie to gain entry into the Golden Gloves contest. When his mother learned he was practicing the art of pugilism, she made him quit! This may have had a role in his pursuing a singing career. In the very early years he sang, along with Levi Stubbs of the yet-to-be Four Tops, in local clubs.

Billy Ward came upon the then 18 yr. old Jackie Wilson In 1953, at Detroit's Fox Theater. Ward, was looking to replace his recently departed lead singer; Clyde McPhatter of Billy Ward and The Dominoes. At this time Ward realized Jackie's range, vocal gymnastics, and showmanship -- not to mention the ability to simply belt out a song -- were such that no one could match Jackie Wilson.

At 23 (1957) Jackie left Ward's tutelage, went solo and signed with the Brunswick label. His career witnessed momentum when he began performing songs co-written by fellow Detroiter Berry Gordy, later the founder of Motown. These included "Reet Petite", "To Be Loved" and "Lonely Teardrops."

Brunswick was never able to settle on a particular musical style for Wilson. He often crossed between R&B and pop. Jackie favored the latter where he could use his truly astonishing range to good effect. Under the orchestral arrangements of Brunswick's Dick Jacobs, Jackie's recordings were frequently backed by an abundance of brass and string instrumentation.

Fans (including me) believe Jackie Wilson was incapable of making a bad record. Some contend his output represents, at best, a mixed bag (my late father was numbered among this group). Everyone must admit however, Jackie's best is undoubtedly some of the most thrilling music to emerge from the late '50s and early '60s. Students of the art say his presence on stage is not at all unlike that exhibited by the "Godfather of Soul" in his heyday, James Brown. Musical scholars have noted Jackie's singing style compared with the likes of Sam Cooke.

There are other Cooke parallels too, unfortunately. In 1961, while staying in a N.Y.C. hotel, Jackie Wilson was shot and seriously wounded by one of the many women with whom he was involved. As a result of this incident he lost a kidney and had to carry the bullet in his body for the remainder of his days.

The British invasion sent Wilson's career into the doldrums. It took a new producer, Carl Davis, to revitalize him. Davis produced the timeless soul classics "Whispers" (1966) and "Higher and Higher" (1967).

Jackie Wilson was still appearing on the charts -- albeit low on the lists -- when at 41 he suffered a stroke and collapsed onstage in Cherry Hill, NJ, on September 29, 1975. On this night he was performing in a Dick Clark's Traveling Oldies Revue. Ironically, at the time he was singing his signature song, "Lonely Teardrops." He lingered on for another eight-and-a-half years, supposedly totally comatose. Like many things in Jackie's life, this fact too is disputed. Some claim he was not in a coma, but rather alert, totally paralyzed and unable to react to any stimuli.

Jackie Wilson died on January 21, 1984, in Mount Holly, NJ, at Burlington County Memorial Hospital. The official cause of death was listed as pneumonia. He further suffered the indignity of being buried in an unmarked grave in Detroit. This sad state of affairs was later corrected in 1987. Jackie was survived by his wife Harlean, sons Anthony, John and Thor and daughters Jacqueline, Denise, and LaShawn. Daughter Denise was subsequently killed in a drive-by shooting in 1987.

In 1987 Jackie Wilson was post-humously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame -