To his many fans, he was known simply as "Mr. Excitement," a singer whose music and stage presence influenced generations of performers, from Elvis Presley to Michael Jackson. Jackie Wilson: Lonely Teardrops looks at the life and career of this deeply troubled artist. Published briefly in a limited edition in the United Kingdom, this Routledge edit

Biography of singer Jackie Wilson who had twenty-four top forty hits during the '60s, suffered a heart attack in 1975 and remained in a vegetative state until his death in 1984.

American History, Black History and Music History. Known as Mr. Excitement and dubbed "The Black King of Rock 'n' Roll," Jackie Wilson was the greatest combination of singer and showman. The 11th artist elected into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, with one of the largest fan clubs of any American Artist. His story reads like fiction yet it's t

This book is a collection of inspiring stories and quotes from family, friends and Fans who loved Jackie.-- Brenda Wilson says, "As his daughter, I have devoted all of my efforts to keep his legacy and memory alive." --The Supremes' Mary Wilson said, "I finally got the chance to see Mr. Jackie Wilson when I was old enough to get into the Graystone Ballroom. It was one of my first concerts. We had started singing as the Primettes in 1959 and were doing local DJ shows in Detroit on the weekends. Seeing Jackie Wilson, a real pro, opened my eyes at the age of 14 to show business and, perhaps without my even realizing it, hooked me into being an entertainer."

There's no one quite like my big sister Jodie . . . Quiet, cautious Pearl has always adored her bold, brash, bad big sister Jodie. When their parents get new jobs at a grand, fusty old boarding school, Melchester College, the girls have to move there - and when they arrive, things start to change. Jodie has always been the leader - but now it's Pearl who's making new friends. Jodie just seems to be getting into more and more trouble - arguing with Mum, scaring the little children, flirting with the gardener. She really doesn't fit in with the posh teenagers at the school. Pearl begins to wonder if she needs Jodie as much as she used to. But when Firework Night comes around and a tragic event occurs, Pearl realises quite how much Jodie means to her . . . A touching, powerful story from the mega-bestselling Jacqueline Wilson, told with warmth and sensitivity.

The definitive biography of one of the best-loved musicians of the twentieth-century, who was stricken with illness & died at the height of her career.

A wonderfully written and engaging teenage memoir: read all about Jacqueline's problems with her family, her first love, her school life and her friends. Read extracts from her real diaries and the stories she wrote as a teenager; learn all about the music and books she loved, her troubled school life and her parents' difficult relationship. Written in Jacqueline's usual and inimitable style, this will be fascinating reading for her fans, and for anyone who's interested in what life in the UK was like in the fifties and sixties.

The story of Motown Records and how it changed the course of American music, as told by its founder—“an African American culture hero of historic stature” (The New York Times). Berry Gordy Jr., who once considered becoming a boxer, started a record company with a family loan of $800 in 1959. Gordy’s company, Motown Records, went on to create some of the most popular music of all time. By the time he sold the company nearly thirty years later, it was worth $61 million and had produced musical legends including Jackie Wilson, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, and the Jackson 5. Here, the revolutionary who shattered the color barrier in the American entertainment industry and forever changed the way the world hears music, shares his story of ambition and vision. From humble beginnings, Gordy amassed a fortune and became a musical kingmaker in the cultural heydays of the 1960s and ’70s. Quelling rumors and detailing his relationships with the artists he managed, Gordy pens “a vivid recreation of a great period and a seminal company in popular music” (Kirkus Reviews).

Early '70s Radio focuses on the emergence of commercial music radio "formats," which refer to distinct musical genres aimed toward specific audiences. This formatting revolution took place in a period rife with heated politics, identity anxiety, large-scale disappointments and seemingly insoluble social problems. As industry professionals worked overtime to understand audiences and to generate formats, they also laid the groundwork for market segmentation. Audiences, meanwhile, approached these formats as safe havens wherein they could re-imagine and redefine key issues of identity. A fresh and accessible exercise in audience interpretation, Early '70s Radio is organized according to the era's five prominent formats and analyzes each of these in relation to their targeted demographics, including Top 40, "soft rock", album-oriented rock, soul and country. The book closes by making a case for the significance of early '70s formatting in light of commercial radio today.

Few images of black Americans in the Civil War period exist or have survived, but now the granddaughter of a South Carolina slave has assembled the most comprehensive and significant collection of such rare images ever compiled. Bringing the truth of their daily lives to light, scenes of maternal affection, matrimony, war, and the grim reality of the master-slave relationship will help readers focus their perceptions of the black American experience in ways not otherwise available in modern history studies.