The 500 - #236 - Mr. Excitement - Jackie Wilson

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #236
Album Title: Mr. Excitement
Artist: Jackie Wilson
Genre: R&B, Rock, Soul, DooWop
Recorded: 1952-1975

Released: November, 1992
My age at release: 27 
How familiar was I with it before this week: Not at all

Is it on the 2020 list? No
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: To Be Loved

Although I wasn't familiar with this 1972 song anthology until recently,  during my first listen I realized  I had heard many of the songs before. Thanks to American crooner Jack Leroy Wilson Jr, who amassed a catalogue of hits that have permeated pop culture for decades. For example, his biggest hit, (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher, features prominently in Ghostbusters II; Disney's The Kid, Death To Smoochy, Stranger Things 3; and in commercials for Colgate Total toothpaste,  Gain Flings fabric softener, and Qatar Airways.

Mr. Excitement is not only the name of this anthology, it is also the nickname ascribed to Jackie Wilson, a trail-blazing American singer and master showman.. Born in Highland Park, Michigan, in 1934, he formed the group The Falcons, which featured his cousin, Levi Stubbs, later of Four Tops fame. After spending time with a few other doo-wop and R&B groups, including The Dominoes, Wilson became a solo performer and hit the charts in 1959 with what became  his signature song, Lonely Teardrops.

Over the next 27 years, Wilson released more than 50 charting singles in multiple genres, including soul, doowop, rock and roll, R&B, and easy listening. He died at the age of 49 in a manner that seemed scripted for a bad Hollywood movie. In a cruel bit of irony, while performing  Lonely Teardrops at the Latin Casino in New Jersey in 1975, he had a heart attack and collapsed just as he reached the words, "my heart is crying".  The audience applauded, thinking it was part of the act. Cornell Gunter of The Coasters rushed from  backstage to Wilson's side. He was able to revive him, but Wilson spent the next nine years in hospitals, mainly in a semi-comatose state until his death on January 21, 1984.

The mausoleum in Wayne, Michigan where Jackie and his mother are buried.

Reading about a slim, 42-year-old suffering a massive heart attack was a sobering thought for me, a 58-year-old beefy Canadian. However, there was an unusual explanation. Wilson wanted to sweat profusely during performances because, as he confided to Elvis Presley, "the chicks love it". Consequently, he took salt tablets and drank litres of water before going on stage each night. Doctors concluded that high salt levels contributed to his heart attack and difficulties with recovery. Ruined financially by hospital bills, a fund-raiser was organized following his death to purchase his mausoleum.

Wilson performing on stage to his adoring female fans.

The story that struck me most while reading up on Wilson was one about his arrest in 1967 on "morals charges". He and his drummer, Jimmy Smith, were taken into custody by South Carolina police for "entertaining two white women in their motel room". I was two in 1967 and 50 years  later I sometimes have to remind myself that I was alive at a time when racial injustice and segregation were zealously enforced in the U.S. through notorious Jim Crow laws. Often, I think of those events being something from well before my time on the planet -- but they were not.

A sign from the time of Jim Crow segregation.

Wilson was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. His operatic, multi-octave vocal range and energetic, athletic stage presence made him a tough act to follow. In fact, his stagecraft at live shows has been cited as an inspiration by a host of legendary artists such as Elvis Presley, James Brown, Teddy Pendergrass and Michael Jackson.

Mr. Excitement indeed!