Walter Jackson (March 19, 1938 – June 20, 1983) – My Ship Is Comin' In (1967)
A beautiful, hopeful love song written by Joseph Brooks, produced by Ted Cooper and released on Okeh Records.
Walter Jackson was a singer with a powerful voice who had several R&B hits in the sixties but who may be best remembered for his cover of “Feelings” in 1976.
Born in Florida and raised in Detroit, he contracted polio in childhood and used crutches throughout his life. He sang in Detroit nightclubs and failed a Motown audition before being discovered by producer and A&R rep Carl Davis, who convinced him to relocate to Chicago and sign with Columbia Records.
Jackson had a string of modest R&B hits on the label’s Okeh subsidiary, run by Davis, starting with the superb “It's All Over” (1964) which was written by Curtis Mayfield, produced by Mayfield and Davis, and peaked at #67 on the pop charts.
The next year, they produced another single for him. “His big record when I was a kid here in D.C. was “Welcome Home” on WOL-AM,” said radio veteran David Dickerson. “Later, Melvin Lindsay made it a Quiet Storm staple on WHUR.” The song hit #15 R&B and #95 pop in 1965.
One of his biggest hits came in 1976, after Davis brought him to his new Chi Sound label and he covered “Feelings” by Morris Albert. The song had been a top-ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100 the year before. Jackson’s heartfelt version reached #9 on the R&B charts, his highest-ever charting R&B record.
In 1967, Jackson recorded one of his greatest songs, a record that never charted. The beautiful, hopeful love song “My Ship Is Comin’ In” was released as a single that year b/w “A Cold, Cold Winter,” written by Clint Ballard Jr.
It was written by Joseph Brooks, who later wrote Debby Boone’s “You Light Up My Life.” Ted Cooper, a Columbia staff producer who began working with Jackson after Davis left the company, produced the single for Okeh.
#soul #WalterJackson