Often overlooked today because of his somewhat lightweight repertoire, Jackie Wilson should still be considered one of the all-time R&B greats. With his soaring range, boundless energy and legendary live performance chops, there’s a reason they called him Mr. Excitement.

An important transitional figure in the evolution of R&B, Wilson can boast not only a dynamic weepy like “Lonely Teardrops” but other stone classics such as “You Got Me Walking”, “Reet Petite”, “Baby Workout”, “Whispers (Getting Louder)” and his last big smash, 1966’s “(You’re Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher”.

After some relatively lean years in the 1970s Wilson’s remarkable 20-year run as a force in pop music was ended by a massive heart attack while performing at a Dick Clark oldies show in 1975. He would never awake from the resulting coma and passed away in 1984. But while Jackie Wilson never quite had the impact of a Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, James Brown or Curtis Mayfield due to his inability to evolve into a true Soul singer and adherence to the 3-minute radio single, a good anthology of his recordings belongs in any serious R&B and Pop music collection. It can safely be said that no one has ever sung quite like him. He had such a unique sound, almost operatic, that no one even tried. There was only one Jackie Wilson and when you hear him you can’t mistake him for any other singer in the Pop canon.