Time: 65:07
File: MP3 @ VBR ~316K/s
Released: 2022
Styles: R&B, Soul, Rock
Art: Front
01. Billy Ward - You Can't Keep A Good Man Down (2:03)
02. Billy Ward - Above Jacobs Ladder (2:29)
03. Billy Ward - A Little Lie (2:06)
04. Billy Ward - Bobby Sox Baby (2:58)
05. Billy Ward - Learning The Blues (2:28)
06. Billy Ward - St Louis Blues (1:54)
07. Jackie Wilson - Reet Petite (2:47)
08. Jackie Wilson - Come Back To Me (2:18)
09. Jackie Wilson - If I Can't Have You (1:46)
10. Jackie Wilson - Why Can't You Be Mine (2:04)
11. Jackie Wilson - Right Now (2:20)
12. Jackie Wilson - I'll Be Satisfied (2:03)
13. Jackie Wilson - Etcetera (2:25)
14. Jackie Wilson - You Better Know It (2:03)
15. Jackie Wilson - The Joke (Is Not On Me) (1:54)
16. Jackie Wilson - So Much (2:19)
17. Jackie Wilson - (So Many) Cute Little Girls (2:06)
18. Jackie Wilson - I Know I'll Always Be In Love With You (2:37)
19. Jackie Wilson - Come On And Love Me Baby (1:53)
20. Jackie Wilson - Sazzle Dazzle (2:00)
21. Jackie Wilson - Comin' To Your House (2:29)
22. Jackie Wilson - Im Comin' On Back To You (2:18)
23. Jackie Wilson - Love Train (3:12)
24. Jackie Wilson - Baby Workout (2:59)
25. Jackie Wilson - The New Breed (2:06)
26. Jackie Wilson & Linda Hopkins - Do Lord (2:23)
27. Jackie Wilson & Linda Hopkins - I Found Love (2:51)
28. Jackie Wilson & Linda Hopkins - Say I Do (2:05)
Another album in the Koko Mojo “Spotlight Series” that focuses on individual artists who have contributed much to music’s historical past is Jackie Wilson. Given the extra moniker “Mr. Excitement” because of his lively stage manner when performing live, the legend that was Jackie Wilson gave much to rhythm and blues, rock ‘n’ roll and early soul music. Album compiler Mark Armstrong gets to work once more and brings another twenty-eight tracks for your listening pleasure. The album showcases Jackie Wilson’s extraordinary operatic tenor vocal, and features his stint with Billy Ward and The Dominoes, before going on to perform as a solo artist. All is featured during ‘Spotlight On Jackie Wilson – Mr. Excitement’ with added liner notes providing details of Wilson’s career, and housed in an environmentally sound digipak. Turning attention to the playlist, with tracks selected from a ten-year period, it is Billy Ward and The Dominoes that kickstarts this album. Having replaced Clyde McPhatter as the vocalist in Billy Ward’s Dominoes in 1953, Jackie Wilson is heard as part of this setup during the first six numbers with, in particular, ‘St Louis Blues’ and ‘Learning The Blues’ demanding special praise. From excellent beginnings, the rest of this collection switches to Wilson’s solo performances from 1957, including the smash hit ‘Reet Petite (The Finest Girl You Ever Want To Meet)’, which brought him much fame and was reissued in the 80s securing #1 on the UK Singles Chart. However, there is more to Jackie Wilson than this one track, with examples as the ballad-esque ‘I Know I’ll Always Be In Love With You’, larger-than-life rhythm and blues of ‘Baby Workout’, to pop tendencies of ‘Love Train’, musically colourful ‘I’m Comin’ On Back To You’ and, as with many of his performances, charismatic ‘The Joke (Is Not On Me)’. With Brunswick housing most of the solo recordings, Jackie Wilson made a name for himself not only because of his incredible voice, but also for displaying skills as a songwriter and for his duet performances with Linda Hopkins featured during the end of this collection. All three songs performed with Linda Hopkins are absolute belters and could easily charge the national electricity grid given the astonishing power of both singers. Revealing itself to be a fascinating, not to mention important set of albums is Koko Mojo’s “Spotlight Series” given its norm of not adhering to predictable formulas when compiling such albums, but also serving as a reminder of incredible performers as the magnificent Jackie Wilson.
Spotlight On Jackie Wilson: Mr. Excitement (KMCD158)
