Walter Jackson

Walter Jackson was born on March 19th, 1938 in Pensacola, Florida, and raised in Detroit, Michigan. As a child he became ill with polio, and as a result he used crutches for the rest of his life. He first recorded as a member of a vocal group, the Velvetones, on the Deb label in 1959, and then decided to pursue a solo career, singing in Detroit nightclubs. He was able to arrange an audition for Motown, which believe it or not he failed. Fortunately he was discovered later on by Columbia Records' A&R man Carl Davis, who was impressed with his powerful voice.

undoubtedly one of the greatest and most prolific soul singers of all times.[/gdlr_quote

Carl persuaded him to move to Chicago in 1962, and signed him to the label. His first solo record, "I Don't Want To Suffer", was not a hit (Huge 2 sided collector record), and after a few more releases he was transferred to Columbia’s subsidiary label OKeh. There, he had his first hit with "It's All Over", written by Curtis Mayfield and produced by Mayfield and Davis, which made it to no. 67 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1964.
Davis continued to provide songs for Jackson from such writers as Mayfield and Van McCoy, and he had a string of hits on the R&B chart in the mid 1960s, although none rose above the lower reaches of the pop charts. Among the most successful were "Suddenly I'm All Alone" (no. 13 R&B, no. 96 pop, 1965), "Welcome Home" (no. 15 R&B, no. 95 pop, 1965), "It's An Uphill Climb To The Bottom" (no. 11 R&B, no. 88 pop, 1966), and "Speak Her Name" (no. 22 R&B, no. 89 pop, 1967). Davis also promoted Jackson as an album artist, releasing three LPs by him on OKeh - It’s All Over, Welcome Home (1965), and Speak Her Name (1967), together with a greatest hits collection.[ He moved to Cotillion Records in the late 1960s, and then on to the Brunswick label, with diminishing commercial success. However, in the mid-1970s he moved to Davis' new Chi Sound label and had one of his biggest hits with a version of Morris Albert's 1975 pop hit "Feelings". Jackson's version reached no. 9 on the R&B chart and no. 93 on the pop chart in 1976. The following year, his version of Peter Frampton's "Baby, I Love Your Way" reached no. 19 on the R&B chart. He finished up his career back on Columbia but had limited commercial success with those releases.
The above chronicles Walter Jackson’s career from the perspective of commercial success. However, commercial success aside, Walter was undoubtedly one of the greatest and most prolific soul singers of all times. He had 2 tremendous careers, the first in the sixties on Columbia and Okeh, and then again in the seventies on Cotillion, Chi-Sound and Columbia. His seventies recordings were extremely popular in Jamaica and are still played in heavy rotation on the radio. Almost every record he released was a great record that featured his powerful and soulful voice. His original recordings such as “Suddenly I’M All Alone”, were classics that are as powerful today as they ever were. His covers such as “Baby, I Love Your Way” were interpretations that took something simple and made it special the way only he could. He was truly an unsung vocal master and like so many other geniuses, was only allowed to stay with us for a short while. Walter Jackson died of a cerebral hemorrhage on June 20th, 1983 at the very young age of 45.