Jackie Wilson

In his teens he was a Golden Gloves boxer but his mother dissuaded him from pursuing a career in the ring. It was as a boxer that he met another aspiring young pugilist, Berry Gordy Jr. (who would go on to form Motown Records).

Gaining fame in his early years as lead vocalist of Billy Ward's R&B vocal group, The Dominoes, Wilson went solo in 1957 and recorded over fifty hit singles over a repertoire that included R&B, pop, soul, doo-wop and easy listening.

His old boxing pal Berry Gordy turned out a series of effervescent pop hits for Wilson: the squealing Reet Petite, the bluesy To Be Loved, Lonely Teardrops (Wilson's first million-seller, in 1958), That's Why (I Love You) and I'll Be Satisfied. 

These initial hits, all recorded for New York's Brunswick Records, seemed to auger well for a long and prolific career.

The hits did indeed keep coming, at least for a while: Talk That Talk (1959), Doggin' Around (1960), Night (1960), A Woman, A Lover, A Friend (1960), Alone At Last (1960), the incendiary Am I The Man? (1960), The Tear Of The Year (1961), Baby Workout (1963) and Shake! Shake! Shake! (1963).

But the seeds of Wilson's ultimate professional disarray had been sown the moment he had signed with Brunswick, which encumbered him with a stable of bland and utterly bluesless white arrangers and musicians. 

That Wilson was so often able to transcend the label's hack musical settings - replete with gooey string sections and "ooh"-ing white choruses - was a tribute to his talents.

Just as often, though, his own quasi-operatic inclinations led him into such schlocky (but popular) productions as Night, and - much later in his career - even a whole album of Al Jolson standards.

But not even being shot by a female fan in a New York City hotel in 1961 could slow him down for long.  

In his heyday in the late Fifties and early Sixties, Wilson - billed as 'Mr Excitement' - was a master showman. 

Blessed with striking good looks and a near operatic vocal range, he would take the stage in tight, Continental-cut sharkskin suits and whip audiences into a clothes-tearing frenzy with his syncopated spins, sudden knee-drops and piercing, blues-drenched wails.

His professional fortunes began to dwindle around 1967, when he had his last major hit with (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher. By the Seventies, Jackie Wilson had been relegated to the oldies circuit.

On 29 September 1975 he suffered a heart attack while performing Lonely Teardrops on stage at the Latin Casino dinner theatre in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, as part of a Dick Clark rock-revival show. He remained, for the most part, comatose for the next eight years.

On 8 January 1984 he was moved from an old age home to a hospital in Mount Holly, New Jersey. He died there thirteen days later, on 21January 1984, at the age of 49.

By the time of his death he had become one of the most influential soul artists of his generation. His music inspired a broad range of younger artists - Otis Redding, John Fogerty and Rita Coolidge all covered his early hits, and Van Morrison wrote Jackie Wilson Said (later a hit for Dexys Midnight Runners) about him.