Nancy Wilson was born 84 years old today.
A singer with more than 70 albums, Wilson was a singer of blues, jazz, cabaret and pop. She was known as 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."
When she met Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, he suggested that she should move to New York City from Ohio, believing that the big city would be the venue in which her career could bloom.
In 1959, she relocated to New York with a goal of obtaining Cannonball’s manager, John Levy, as her manager and Capitol Records as her label. Within four weeks of her arrival in New York, she got her first big break. She got a call to fill in for Irene Reid at "The Blue Morocco" club.
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 "Guess Who I Saw Today," "Sometimes I’m Happy" and two other songs to Capitol. Capitol Records signed her in 1960.
Wilson’s debut single, "Guess Who I Saw Today," 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, with the hit R&B song, "Save Your Love for Me."
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. 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 Magazine said of her, "She is, all at once, both cool and sweet, both singer and storyteller."
On December 13, 2018, Wilson died at her home in Pioneertown, California after a long battle with kidney cancer. She was 81 years old.