Frederick Anthony Jackson (born October 2, 1956) is an American

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

. Originally from New York, Jackson began his professional music career in the late 1970s with the California funk band Mystic Merlin. Among his well–known R&B/soul hits are " Rock Me Tonight (For Old Times Sake)" (1985), " Have You Ever Loved Somebody" (1986), " Jam Tonight" (1986), " Do Me Again" (1990), and " You Are My Lady" (1985). He contributed to the soundtrack for the 1989 film, '' All Dogs Go to Heaven'' with the Michael Lloyd-produced duet "Love Survives" alongside

Irene Cara Irene Cara Escalera (March 18, 1959 – November 25, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and actress of Black, Puerto Rican and Cuban descent. Cara rose to prominence for her role as Coco Hernandez in the 1980 musical film '' Fame'', and f ...

. He also appeared in the movie '' King of New York''.

Biography

1956–1980: early life and education, Mystic Merlin

Born in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...

section of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, Jackson was trained as a

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

singer from an early age, singing at the White Rock Baptist Church of Harlem. There he met Paul Laurence, who would later become his

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

and

songwriting A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

partner. After completing school, Jackson joined Laurence's group LJE (Laurence Jones Ensemble) and played the New York

nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gen ...

scene. During the late 1970s, Jackson moved to the West Coast and sang lead with the band Mystic Merlin (with whom he released three studio albums, 1980-1982), but soon returned to New York to work with Laurence at the Hush Productions company.

1981–2013: solo career

Jackson sang on demo recordings of Laurence's compositions, and also served as a

backing singer A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are used ...

for

Melba Moore Beatrice Melba Hill or Beatrice Melba Smith (sources differ) (born October 29, 1945), known by her stage name Melba Moore, is an American singer and actress. Biography Early life and education Moore was born Beatrice Melba Hill or Beatrice Melba ...

after she saw his nightclub act in 1981. In 1984, Jackson landed a

recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist (or group), where the artist makes a record (or series of records) for the label to sell and promote. Artists ...

with

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

, and released his debut album, '' Rock Me Tonight'' in 1985. The Laurence-penned title track stormed the R&B chart, spending six weeks at number one, and made Jackson an instant hit on urban contemporary

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a trans ...

. "You Are My Lady" gave him a second straight R&B chart-topper, and also proved to be his highest-charting single on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, peaking at No. 12. With "He'll Never Love You (Like I Do)" and "Love Is Just a Touch Away" also hitting the R&B Top Ten, ''Rock Me Tonight'' topped the R&B album

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

and went

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platin ...

. Jackson issued the follow-up ''Just Like the First Time'' 1986, on the heels of a number one R&B

duet A duet is a musical composition for two performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece, often a composition involving two singers or two pianists. It differs from a harmony, as the performers take turns performing a solo s ...

with Melba Moore, "A Little Bit More" (from her album ''A Lot of Love''). Another platinum seller, ''Just Like the First Time'' continued Jackson's dominance of the R&B singles charts; "Tasty Love," "Have You Ever Loved Somebody," and "Jam Tonight" all hit No. 1, while "I Don't Want to Lose Your Love" went to No. 2. The pace of Jackson's success slowed with the 1988 release of ''Don't Let Love Slip Away'', which nonetheless featured another two R&B chart-toppers in "Hey Lover" and "Nice 'N' Slow." The title track of 1990's ''Do Me Again'' and "Love Me Down" duplicated that feat, and "Main Course" just missed, topping out at No. 2. Even so, Jackson's earlier placings in the lower reaches of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 had long since disappeared, and some critics charged that his albums were growing too similar to one another. Jackson appeared as a lounge singer on the 1989 ''

The Golden Girls ''The Golden Girls'' is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris that aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning seven seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Bea Arthur, Betty White ...

'' episode "Two Rode Together" and sang the Disney song "

It's a Small World "It's a Small World" is a water-based boat ride located in the Fantasyland area at various Disney theme parks worldwide, including Disneyland, Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California; Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida ...

" to Sophia. Also in 1989, Jackson sung the duet "Love Survives" with

for the soundtrack to the film '' All Dogs Go to Heaven''. Seeking a new beginning, Jackson parted ways with Capitol/EMI in late 1993, and signed with

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Com ...

/ BMG Records. His label debut, ''Here It Is'', appeared the following year, with diminished commercial returns. Following a Christmas album, Jackson split with RCA and recorded ''Private Party'' for the smaller Street Life imprint of Scotti Brothers Records in 1995. Several years of silence ensued, until Orpheus issued ''Life After 30'' in late 1999; the equally low-key release ''Live in Concert'' followed in 2000. After returning to the charts with ''It's Your Move'' in February 2004 (Martland Entertainment), Jackson released his tenth

studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery ( ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial desig ...

album, ''Transitions'', in September 2006 on the record label Orpheus Music. At the end of 2010, Jackson released a new album on the Entertainment One Music label, entitled ''For You'', and produced by hit songwriter Barry Eastmond. The album featured the single "I Don't Wanna Go".

2014–present: later career

On August 26, 2014, Jackson released the single "Love & Satisfaction," written by Dustin "Dab" Bowie, Gregory Bowman, Kameron Corvet, Bertram Ford Jr, and Selasi "The African Kid," and released by the entertainment company Climax Entertainment. The single received some positive reviews and airplay, and allowed Jackson to reintroduce himself as he toured internationally in support of the release, as well as appear with artists

Jeffrey Osborne Jeffrey Linton Osborne (born March 9, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and lyricist. He is the former drummer and lead singer of the American R&B/soul group L.T.D., with whom he began his musical career in 1970. Biography Earl ...

Peabo Bryson Robert Peapo "Peabo" Bryson (born April 13, 1951) is an American singer and songwriter. He is known for singing soul ballads (often as a duet with female singers) including the 1983 hit " Tonight, I Celebrate My Love" with Roberta Flack. Bryson ...

, and

Stephanie Mills Stephanie Dorthea Mills (born March 22, 1957) is an American singer and songwriter. She rose to stardom as " Dorothy" in the original seven-time Tony Award winning Broadway run of the musical ''The Wiz'' from 1974 to 1979. The song "Home" from t ...

at various performances and festivals. In late 2016, Jackson announced that he was recording a new album and that a new single would be released early the following year to mark his true return to recording studio and on May 1, 2017, the lead single "One Night" from his forthcoming album ''Love Signals'' was released via Climax and reached No. 1 on the internet radio Indie Soul chart associated with the Internet Broadcasters Alliance on June 12, 2017, while reaching in the top 50 of independent R&B, smooth jazz, and soul charts around the US and Europe. In January 2018, Jackson appeared on the cover of ''STS Entertainment and Fashion Magazine''. He performed in Albany, GA on April 21, 2018, at a Soul Music festival along with the 69 boys and various other performers. In August 2019, it was announced that Jackson would perform later that month as the headlining act of the 37th annual African World Festival, hosted by the

Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, or The Wright, is located in Detroit, Michigan in the U.S.; inside the city's Midtown Cultural Center is one of the world's oldest independent African American museums. Founded in 19 ...

. In 2019, Jackson released the single "A Million Ways". A fiction piece in the November 25, 2019 issue of

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

, by

John Edgar Wideman John Edgar Wideman (born June 14, 1941) is an American novelist, short story writer, memoirist, and essayist. He was the first person to win the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction twice. His writing is known for experimental techniques and a focus ...

, titled Arizona, is written as a letter to Jackson.

Controversy

In August 1988, the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

music magazine '' NME'', reported that Jackson had verbally attacked

George Michael George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou; 25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016) was an English singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the most significant cultural icons of the MTV generation and is one of the best-selling music ...

in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' over his black music chart success.

Discography

* '' Rock Me Tonight'' (1985) * '' Just Like the First Time'' (1986) * '' Don't Let Love Slip Away'' (1988) * '' Do Me Again'' (1990) * '' Time for Love'' (1992) * '' Here It Is'' (1994) * '' Private Party'' (1995) * '' Life After 30'' (1999) * '' It's Your Move'' (2004) * '' Personal Reflections'' (2005) * '' Transitions'' (2006) * '' For You'' (2010) * ''Love Signals'' (2018)

Tours

*Tasty Love Tour (1986–87) *Hey Lover Tour (1988–89) *Do Me Again Tour (1991) *Finer with Time Tour (Summer 2014) *One Night Tour (Spring/Summer 2017)

Awards

* 1985 – nominated for

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

: Best New Artist * 1985 – nominated for Grammy Award: Best Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance – Male (" You Are My Lady"). * 1986 – nominated for

American Music Award The American Music Awards (AMAs) is an annual American music awards show, generally held in the fall, created by Dick Clark in 1973 for ABC when the network's contract to air the Grammy Awards expired, and currently produced by Dick Clark Produc ...

for Favorite Male Artist – Soul / Rhythm & Blues * 1988 – won American Music Award: Favorite Soul / Rhythm & Blues Single (" Nice 'N' Slow").

References

External links

Freddie Jackson
a
Wenig-LaMonica Associates
*
My Space PageFreddie Jackson 2012 Audio Interview at Soulinterviews.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Freddie 1956 births Living people American soul singers People from Harlem Singers from New York City RCA Records artists Ballad musicians American funk singers American contemporary R&B singers 20th-century African-American male singers 21st-century African-American male singers