Nancy Sue Wilson (February 20, 1937 – December 13, 2018) was an American singer and actress whose career spanned over five decades, from the mid-1950s until her retirement in the early 2010s. She was especially notable for her single "

(You Don't Know) How Glad I Am "(You Don't Know) How Glad I Am" is a song written by Jimmy Williams and Larry Harrison. In the US, its best-known recorded version is that by Nancy Wilson, a hit single for her, in the summer of 1964. Overview Wilson, who had been recording s ...

" and her version of the standard "

Guess Who I Saw Today "Guess Who I Saw Today" is a popular jazz song written by Murray Grand with lyrics by Elisse Boyd. The song was originally composed for Leonard Sillman's Broadway musical revue, ''New Faces of 1952'', in which it was sung by June Carroll.Origin ...

". Wilson recorded more than 70 albums and won three Grammy Awards for her work. During her performing career, Wilson was labeled a singer of

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

, R&B,

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' ( ...

, and

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest att ...

; a "consummate actress"; and "the complete entertainer". The title she preferred, however, was "song stylist". She received many nicknames including "Sweet Nancy", "The Baby", "Fancy Miss Nancy" and "The Girl With the Honey-Coated Voice".

Early life

Nancy Wilson was born on February 20, 1937 in Chillicothe, Ohio, to Olden Wilson, an iron foundry worker, and Lillian Ryan. Wilson attended Burnside Heights Elementary School and developed her singing skills by participating in church choirs. She attended West High School in Columbus, Ohio where she won a talent contest and was rewarded with a role as a host for a local television show. She then went on to attend Ohio’s Central State University where she pursued her B.A. degree in education.

Career

When Wilson met Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, he suggested she move to New York City for career opportunities. In 1959, she moved to New York to try to hire Adderley's manager and get a contract with Capitol Records. Within four weeks of her arrival in New York she got her first big break, a call to fill in for

Irene Reid Irene Reid (September 23, 1930 – January 5, 2008) was an American jazz singer. Early life Reid was born and raised in Savannah, Georgia. She sang in church and in high school in Georgia, and moved to New York City in 1947 after her mother d ...

at "The Blue Morocco". The club booked Wilson on a permanent basis; she was singing four nights a week and working as a secretary for the New York Institute of Technology during the day. John Levy sent demos of "

", "

Sometimes I'm Happy "Sometimes I'm Happy" is a popular song. The music was written by Vincent Youmans, the lyrics by Irving Caesar. The song was originally published in 1923 under the title "Come On And Pet Me," with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and William Cary D ...

", and two other songs to Capitol. Capitol Records signed her in 1960. Wilson's debut single, "

", was so successful that between April 1960 and July 1962 Capitol Records released five Nancy Wilson albums. Her first album, ''Like in Love,'' displayed her talent in

Rhythm and Blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

. Adderley suggested that she should steer away from her original pop style and gear her music toward jazz and ballads. In 1962, they collaborated, producing the album '' Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley'', which propelled her to national prominence with the hit R&B song, "

Save Your Love For Me Save, SAVE, or Saved may refer to: Places *Save (Garonne), a river in southern France *Save River (Africa), a river in Zimbabwe and Mozambique * Sava, a river in Eastern Europe also known as Save *Savè, Benin, a commune and city * Save, Govur ...

", and Wilson would later appear on Adderley's live album '' In Person'' (1968). Between March 1964 and June 1965, four of Wilson's albums hit the Top 10 on '' Billboard''s Top LPs chart. In 1963, "Tell Me The Truth" became her first truly major hit, leading up to her performance at the Coconut Grove in 1964 – the turning point of her career, garnering critical acclaim from coast to coast. ''

TIME Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' said of her, "She is, all at once, both cool and sweet, both singer and storyteller." In 1964 Wilson released what became her most successful hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 with "

", which peaked at No. 11. From 1963 to 1971 Wilson logged 11 songs on the Hot 100, including two Christmas singles. However, "Face It Girl, It's Over" was the only remaining non-Christmas song to crack the Top 40 for Wilson (No. 29, in 1968). Danny Kaye-Nancy Wilson - 1965

After making numerous television guest appearances, Wilson eventually got her own series on NBC, ''The Nancy Wilson Show'' (1967–1968), which won an Emmy. Over the years she appeared on many popular television shows from ''

I Spy I spy is a guessing game where one player (the ''spy'' or ''it'') chooses an object within sight and announces to the other players that "I spy with my little eye something beginning with...", naming the first letter of the object. Other players a ...

'' (more or less playing herself as a Las Vegas singer in the 1966 episode "Lori", and a similar character in the 1973 episode "The Confession" of ''The F.B.I.''), '' Room 222, Hawaii Five-O, Police Story, The Jack Paar Program, The Sammy Davis Jr. Show (1966), The Danny Kaye Show,

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour ''The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour'' was an American comedy and variety show television series hosted by the Smothers Brothers and initially airing on CBS from 1967 to 1969. The series was a major success, especially considering it was sc ...

, Kraft Music Hall,

The Sinbad Show ''The Sinbad Show'' is an American sitcom starring comedian David "Sinbad" Adkins that was premiered on September 16 of 1993 on Fox. The show's main plot is about a bachelor taking in two orphaned children. Chuck Brown performed this sitcom's t ...

,'' '' The Cosby Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Carol Burnett Show,

Soul Food Soul food is an ethnic cuisine traditionally prepared and eaten by African Americans, originating in the Southern United States.Soul Food originated with the foods that were given to enslaved Black people by their white owners on Souther ...

, New York Undercover,'' and recently '' Moesha'', and '' The Parkers.'' She also appeared on '' The Ed Sullivan Show,'' '' The Merv Griffin Show,'' '' The Tonight Show,'' ''

The Arsenio Hall Show ''The Arsenio Hall Show'' is an American syndicated late-night talk show created by and starring comedian Arsenio Hall. There have been two different incarnations of ''The Arsenio Hall Show''. The original series premiered on January 3, 1989, ...

'' and '' The Flip Wilson Show.'' She was in the 1993 Robert Townsend's '' The Meteor Man'' and in the film, ''The Big Score.'' She also appeared on '' The Lou Rawls Parade of Stars'' and the ''March of Dimes Telethon''. She was signed by Capitol Records in the late 1970s and in an attempt to broaden her appeal she cut the album ''Life, Love and Harmony'', an album of soulful, funky dance cuts that included the track "Sunshine", which was to become one of her most sought-after recordings (albeit among supporters of the rare soul scene with whom she would not usually register). In 1977 she recorded the theme song for ''

The Last Dinosaur is a 1977 Japanese/American tokusatsu co-production, co-directed by Alexander Grasshoff and Tsununobu Kotani (the latter billed as Tom Kotani),Galbraith IV, Stuart (1994). ''Japanese Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films''. McFarland, p. 379 ...

'', a made-for-TV movie which opened in theaters in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. In the 1980s, she recorded five albums for Japanese labels because she preferred recording live, and American labels frequently did not give her that option. She gained such wide popularity that she was selected as the winner of the annual

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

Song Festivals. In 1982, Wilson recorded with Hank Jones and the Great Jazz Trio. In that same year she recorded with the Griffith Park Band whose members included Chick Corea and Joe Henderson. In 1987 she participated in a PBS show entitled ''Newport Jazz '87'' as the singer of a jazz trio with John Williams and Roy McCurdy. In 1982, she also signed with CBS, her albums here including ''The Two of Us'' (1984), duets with Ramsey Lewis produced by Stanley Clarke; ''Forbidden Lover'' (1987), including the title-track duet with Carl Anderson; and ''A Lady with a Song'', which became her 52nd album release in 1989. In 1989, ''Nancy Wilson in Concert'' played as a television special. In the early 1990s, Wilson recorded an album paying tribute to

Johnny Mercer John Herndon Mercer (November 18, 1909 – June 25, 1976) was an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer, as well as a record label executive who co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessmen Buddy DeSylva and Glenn E. Wallic ...

with co-producer

Barry Manilow Barry Manilow (born Barry Alan Pincus; June 17, 1943) is an American singer and songwriter with a career that spans seven decades. His hit recordings include " Could It Be Magic", " Somewhere Down the Road", " Mandy", " I Write the Songs", " C ...

entitled ''With My Lover Beside Me''. In this decade she also recorded two other albums, '' Love, Nancy'' and her sixtieth album '' If I Had My Way''. In the late 1990s, she teamed up with MCG Jazz, a youth-education program of the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, nonprofit, minority-directed, arts and learning organization located in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

. In 1995, Wilson performed at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and the San Francisco Jazz Festival in 1997. In 1999, she hosted a show in honor of

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...

entitled ''Forever Ella'' on the A & E Network. All the proceeds from 2001's '' A Nancy Wilson Christmas'' went to support the work of

MCG Jazz Manchester Craftsmen's Guild (MCG) is a nonprofit art, education, and music organization established in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1968. Courses include ceramics, photography, digital arts, and painting to over 500 young people each year and 3, ...

. Wilson was the host on NPR's '' Jazz Profiles'', from 1996 to 2005. This series profiled the legends and legacy of jazz through music, interviews and commentary. Wilson and the program were the recipients of the George Foster Peabody Award in 2001. Wilson's second and third album with MCG Jazz, ''

R.S.V.P. (Rare Songs, Very Personal) ''R.S.V.P. (Rare Songs, Very Personal)'' is a 2004 album by Nancy Wilson, featuring Wilson in duet with George Shearing, Toots Thielemans, Phil Woods, and Gary Burton. At the 47th Grammy Awards, Wilson won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal A ...

'' (2005), and '' Turned to Blue'' (2007), both won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album. On September 10, 2011, she performed on a public stage for the last time at

Ohio University Ohio University is a public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confederation and subse ...

in Athens, Ohio. According to Wilson, "I'm not going to be doing it anymore, and what better place to end it than where I started – in Ohio."

Awards

In 1964, Wilson won her first

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 ...

for the best

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

recording for the album ''How Glad I Am''. She was featured as a "grand diva" of jazz in a 1992 edition of '' Essence''. In the same year, she also received the Whitney Young Jr. Award from the Urban League. In 1998, she was a recipient of the ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...

'' Reader Poll Award for best jazz vocalist. In 1986, she was dubbed the Global Entertainer of the Year by the World Conference of Mayors. She received an award from the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in 1993; the NAACP Image Award – Hall of Fame Award in 1998, and was inducted into the

Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame The Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame is part of a US-based non-profit organization (The Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame Foundation) that began operations in 1978 and continues to the present (2022) in San Diego County, California. David Larkin is cur ...

in 1999. She received the Trumpet Award for Outstanding Achievement in 1994. Wilson received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1990, at 6541 Hollywood Blvd. She received honorary degrees from Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA and Central State University in

Wilberforce, Ohio Wilberforce is a census-designated place (CDP) in Greene County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,271 at the 2010 census, up from 1,579 at the 2000 census. History After Wilberforce College was established in 1856, the community was ...

. She is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Wilson has a street named after her in her hometown of Chillicothe, Ohio. She co-founded the Nancy Wilson Foundation, which exposes inner-city children to the country. Wilson was the recipient of the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

(NEA), NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships award in 2004, the highest honors that the United States government bestows upon jazz musicians. In 2005 she received the NAACP Image Awards for Best Recording Jazz Artist. She received the 2005

UNCF UNCF, the United Negro College Fund, also known as the United Fund, is an American philanthropic organization that funds scholarships for black students and general scholarship funds for 37 private historically black colleges and universities ...

Trumpet Award celebrating African-American achievement, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the NAACP in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, and

Oprah Winfrey Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', b ...

's Legends Award. In September 2005, Wilson was inducted into the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site. Wilson was a major figure in

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

. Wilson noted that the ceremony gave her "one of the best ceremonies that I've ever had in my life."THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. "11 'courageous souls' join rights walk of fame." ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)'', August 28, 2005: A4. ''NewsBank''. Times.com, August 20, 2006: "It's been a long career for the polished Wilson, whose first albums appeared in the 1960s, and she faces that truth head-on in such numbers as 'These Golden Years' and 'I Don't Remember Ever Growing Up'. Shorter breathed these days, she can still summon a warm, rich sound and vividly tell a song's story. With a big band behind her in ' Taking a Chance on Love', she also shows there's plenty of fire in her autumnal mood". At the

Hollywood Bowl The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in America by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018. The Hollywood Bowl is known for its distin ...

, August 29, 2007, Wilson celebrated her 70th birthday with an all-star event hosted by Arsenio Hall. Ramsey Lewis and his trio performed " To Know Her Is To Love Her".

Life and death

Wilson married her first husband, drummer

Kenny Dennis Kenny Dennis (born May 27, 1930) is a Philadelphia-born American jazz drummer. He has played on albums for Nancy Wilson, Sonny Stitt, Sonny Rollins, Johnny Griffin, Oscar Brown Jr., Charles Mingus, Billy Taylor, and Mal Waldron. Biography ...

, in 1960. They had a son Kenneth ("Kacy") Dennis Jr., but by 1970 they divorced. On May 22, 1973, Wilson married a Presbyterian minister, Reverend Wiley Burton, within a month of meeting. She gave birth to Samantha Burton in 1975, and the couple adopted Sheryl Burton in 1976. As a result of her marriage, she abstained from performing in various venues, such as supper clubs. For the following two decades, she successfully juggled her personal life and her career. In November 1998, both of her parents died; she called this year the most difficult of her life. In August 2006, Wilson was hospitalized with anemia and potassium deficiency, and was on I.V. sustenance while undergoing a complete battery of tests. She was unable to attend the UNCF Evening of Stars Tribute to

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in '' Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". Wit ...

and had to cancel the engagement. All of her other engagements were on hold pending doctors' reports. In March 2008, she was hospitalized for lung complications, recovered, and reported to be doing well. In the same year, her husband, Wiley Burton, died after suffering from renal cancer. On December 13, 2018, Wilson died of a long illness at her home in Pioneertown, California. She was 81 years old.

Grammy history

*Career Wins: 3 *Career Nominations: 7 (Note: In a 2007 interview, Wilson stated that she had been nominated more than 20 times. However, the Grammy Awards web site lists her with seven nominations.)

Discography

* '' Like in Love'' (1959) * '' Something Wonderful'' (1960) * ''

The Swingin's Mutual! ''The Swingin's Mutual!'' is an album by the George Shearing quintet, accompanied on the original 1961 release on six songs by the vocalist Nancy Wilson. Reception The initial ''Billboard'' review from March 13, 1961 commented of Wilson's sing ...

'' (with George Shearing) (1961) * '' Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley'' (1962) * '' Broadway – My Way'' (1963) * '' Hollywood – My Way'' (1963) * '' Yesterday's Love Songs/Today's Blues'' (1964) * '' Today, Tomorrow, Forever'' (1964) * ''

The Nancy Wilson Show! ''The Nancy Wilson Show!'' is a 1965 live album by Nancy Wilson, recorded at the Coconut Grove nightclub in Los Angeles. Track listing # "Fireworks" (Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Jule Styne) – 2:29 # " Don't Take Your Love from Me" (H ...

'' (1965) * '' Tender Loving Care'' (1966) * '' Lush Life'' (1967) * ''

Welcome to My Love ''Welcome to My Love'' is a 1968 studio album by Nancy Wilson, arranged and conducted by Oliver Nelson. Stephen Cook at AllMusic says the album "offers a consistent selection of high-quality standards and strong contemporary material impressi ...

'' (1967) * '' Just For Now'' (1967) * '' Hurt So Bad'' (1969) * '' But Beautiful'' (1971) * '' I’ve Never Been to Me'' (1977) * '' Life, Love and Harmony'' (1979) * '' A Lady with a Song'' (1989) * ''

With My Lover Beside Me ''With My Lover Beside Me'' is a studio album by American jazz singer Nancy Wilson released in 1991 by Columbia Records. The music for the songs were composed by Barry Manilow and the lyrics were written by Johnny Mercer. The album reached No. 4 ...

'' (1991) * '' Love, Nancy'' (1994) * '' If I Had My Way'' (1997) * '' A Nancy Wilson Christmas'' (2001) * ''

'' (2004) * '' Turned to Blue'' (2006)

Filmography

Film

Television

DVD concert films

* ''Nancy Wilson at Carnegie Hall'' (2001) * ''Great Women Singers of the 20th Century – Nancy Wilson'' (2005) 5. Ed Sullivan Show appearance

References

External links

* * ''Billboard'' Chart History for Nancy Wilson*
NEA Jazz Masters: Nancy Wilson – Biography and Interview

Nancy Wilson
at Find a Grave {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Nancy 1937 births 2018 deaths 20th-century African-American women singers American women jazz singers American jazz singers Grammy Award winners African-American actresses African-American jazz musicians American film actresses American television actresses American rhythm and blues singers Torch singers Traditional pop music singers Delta Sigma Theta members American Presbyterians People from Chillicothe, Ohio People from South Los Angeles Actresses from Ohio Singers from Ohio Singers from Los Angeles Jazz musicians from California 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses 20th-century American singers 21st-century American singers 20th-century American women singers 21st-century American women singers Ballad musicians Capitol Records artists Columbia Records artists Jazz musicians from Ohio Musicians from Columbus, Ohio The Jazztet members 21st-century African-American women singers Burials at Forest Lawn Cemetery (Cathedral City)