{"id":40848,"date":"2008-04-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-very-best-of-jackie-wilson\/"},"modified":"2008-04-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-22T00:00:00","slug":"the-very-best-of-jackie-wilson","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-very-best-of-jackie-wilson\/","title":{"rendered":"The Very Best Of Jackie Wilson"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are two inherent problems with evaluating any recording by R&B great Jackie Wilson. <\/p>\n

The first is the simplest: Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> was a much better showman than a recording artist. On stage, Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> was electric; performers as varied as Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson (who, before he was a punch line, put on a pretty good show himself) have praised his live genius, a genius that nevertheless only remains in a few scattered filmed performances.<\/p>\n

The second issue is harder to quantify. Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s song choices and recording style on his longtime label, Brunswick<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, seemed almost perversely chosen to emasculate his earthy soul sound. Instead of being firmly in the same camp as Ray Charles, two-thirds of his recorded tracks make him sound like a poor man\u2019s Johnny Mathis. In the search for chart respectability, Brunswick<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> took a pit bull and dressed him up like a poodle, and the result was predictably mediocre. Early in his career, Wilson had a professional relationship with Motown\u2019s Berry Gordy — put on the list of great musical \u2018what-ifs\u2019 the concept of Jackie Wilson recording with greats like Smokey Robinson.<\/p>\n

So The Very Best Of Jackie Wilson<\/i> really isn\u2019t. Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s very best was done onstage or was never recorded, forced instead to be a dilution of his true sound. If I sound disappointed, it\u2019s because I am; I have added to my list of musical regrets the fact that Jackie Wilson is dead and that his record label were fools.<\/p>\n

There are a few good tracks on The Very Best Of<\/i>. There is the standard \u201cHigher and Higher,\u201d which is still one of the most upbeat songs ever recorded. Classics like \u201cLonely Teardrops\u201d and \u201cReet Petite (The Finest Girl You Ever Want To Meet)\u201d have worn well, and there are a few lesser known gems like \u201cDoggin\u2019 Around,\u201d the danceable \u201cBaby Workout,\u201d and \u201cNo Pity (In The Naked City).\u201d But most of this CD is filled with middle-of-the-road drek like \u201cNight\u201d (which has one of the worst background choruses ever<\/b>) and the maudlin \u201cMy Empty Arms.\u201d By the time that Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> took on \u201cDanny Boy\u201d (\u201cDanny Boy<\/b>,\u201d for the gods\u2019 sake; it\u2019s rare you hear a track that would make both Ciaran Nagle and Ray Charles puke), I was hiding under my desk, begging it to stop.<\/p>\n

In summary, there is no The Very Best Of Jackie Wilson<\/i>. The very best of Jackie Wilson died when he had a massive heart attack on stage in 1975. All we have left are leavings, might-have-beens, and the sad legacy of an unfulfilled greatness. Damn shame, that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":29299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8181],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-40848","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-jackie-wilson","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40848"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}