Walter Jackson(1938-1983)
- Soundtrack
Walter Jackson was '60s Chicago soul at its sweetest and, occasionally,
most mainstream. In the mid-'60s, he had a brace of solid R&B hits --
"Suddenly I'm All Alone," "It's an Uphill Climb (To the Bottom),"
"Speak Her Name," "Welcome Home," "A Corner in the Sun" -- without ever
rising higher than the lower reaches of the Top 100. Recording for the
OKeh stable, which was home to the top Chi-Town soul talent, he
benefited for a time from the production services of local masters Carl
Davis and Curtis Mayfield, who handled the Impressions, Major Lance,
Gene Chandler, and others. His sides employed similar punchy brass and
strings, but in a smoother, more urbane fashion; Jackson was also
comfortable with occasional outings into pure supper-club pop with nary
a trace of R&B. Jackson had already recorded for Columbia (and
unsuccessfully auditioned for Motown) when OKeh A&R director Davis saw
him at a Detroit piano bar in 1962. Stricken with polio as a young boy,
Jackson had never let his disability get in the way of his musical
ambitions, performing on crutches. Impressed with his commanding voice,
Carl Davis thought of Walter as a Nat King Cole type of singer, and
procured material for Jackson from Mayfield, Van McCoy, Chip Taylor,
and other top-notch songwriters. Despite the obvious pop crossover
potential of Jackson's recordings, he remained obscure to white
listeners. During the latter part of his stay with OKeh, he was
reassigned from Davis' stable to producer Ted Cooper. Jackson had a few
hits with Cooper, but there was little success after the late '60s,
although he recorded for a few more labels before dying of a cerebral
hemorrhage in 1983.