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 | By David Nathan, (c) 2000, Soul Music.comShe is a pre-eminent song stylist, one of the real living legends in contemporary music and while Nancy Wilson doesn’t always get the name check she should when folks talk about the ultimate divas, ‘Fancy Miss Nancy’ (as she was nicknamed many years ago) can boast an amazing catalog of music that extends back 41 years. Alas, nowhere near the bulk of her work recorded during a twenty-year period with Capitol Records is available on CD and although there have been compilations here and there, until now there hasn’t been a comprehensive retrospective of her charted hits and the more soulful side of her work. When Tom Cartwright at The Right Stuff label asked me about putting together a 2-CD set (which had its genesis in a package I started working on at least seven years ago), I knew this would be the opportunity to give Nancy Wilson’s devoted admirers a chance to hear some material that had never been reissued. To this end, I included a ‘live’ version of her chestnut "Guess Who I Saw Today" complete with a spoken intro, a song that is included in every Nancy Wilson performance; "The Greatest Performance Of My Life," another staple in her repertoire for many years; a personal favorite, the Van McCoy-penned "Where Does That Leave Me"; and several tracks from late ‘60s and ‘70s albums that are just too good to be missed, including "Now I’m A Woman," "Joe," "I’ll Get Along Somehow" and "Streetrunner." In a brief phone interview, Nancy seemed happy about the selections included on the anthology: "There are quite a few songs on this CD that I can now include in a medley we can do," she considers as we go over the track listing together. She muses on some of the tunes: "Well, "Now I’m A Woman" and "Joe" come from sessions I did with Gamble & Huff and Thom Bell. I remember they had some great string arrangements but when we first started, there were no rhythm charts! But the material was great. I think I was the first person to do "Don’t Misunderstand" which was written by (the original film director of the movie "Shaft") Gordon Parks…" I remind Nancy that The Crusaders provided the rhythm tracks for the song which was on a 1973 album entitled "I Know I Love Him.’ She recalls that her first major pop hit, "How Glad I Am" was "a song I had to push hard for. Nobody else thought it would be a hit but I expected it would." A 1968 chart single, "Face It Girl, It’s Over" was not, Nancy notes, "personal. I recorded it a year-and-a-half before a divorce and people assumed it was about what I was dealing with." A much-loved cut "I’ll Get Along Somehow," (complete with a wonderful spoken word interlude, popular -according to music historian and recording artist in his own right Billy Vera – in black clubs in the early ‘70s where it could be found on many a jukebox - was recorded years before Nancy cut it in 1971 by singer Larry Darnell and she says, "That spoken part was actually written down! I didn’t make it up… It was a song I sang as a kid and it’s always been in the back of my mind to bring it back into my show…" Nancy says she has good thoughts about the albums she recorded with the late Gene Page, mostly notable "All In Love Is Fair" and "Come Get To This" ("I always loved that song!"), and with Gene McDaniels. The title track for her 1976 set "This Mother’s Daughter" was "written for me. In fact, the song was an inspiration for a book that was recently published that I just received." Finally, the ‘Lady With A Song’ mentions "Guess Who I Saw Today," which was recorded by the late Carmen McRae before Nancy put her vocal stamp on it in 1961. The song, about a woman who discovers her husband’s infidelity quite by accident while out shopping one day, "is still in my live repertoire is because it isn’t dated. People can relate to the lyrics any time. I’ve never left it out of my show intentionally although one time, I did forget to sing it and I never did that again!" Currently, Nancy’s recording career is in flux although she is committed to doing her first Christmas album this year. With the prospect of being a grandmother when her two daughters give birth in the fall, Nancy says she is cutting back her work load. "Look, I’m 64!" she laughs, "and I have other things I want to do in my life besides recording and performing…like being a grandma!" While we may have to wait awhile for a new Nancy Wilson album, the anthology is a welcome reminder of the depth, talent and artistry of a remarkable woman who can cover all musical bases from R&B to jazz, pop and standards |
Nancy Wilson 2000 Interview | |