Freddie Jackson

Biography

Born Frederick Anthony Jackson on October 2, 1956, in Harlem, New York City, he grew up singing gospel at the White Rock Baptist Church of Harlem. There he met Paul Laurence, who would later become his record producer and songwriting partner. After school, Jackson joined Laurence's group LJE (Laurence Jones Ensemble) and played the New York nightclub scene. In the late 1970s, he moved to the West Coast to sing lead with the California funk band Mystic Merlin, releasing three studio albums with them from 1980 to 1982.

He soon returned to New York to work with Laurence at Hush Productions. Jackson sang on demo recordings of Laurence's compositions and became a backing singer for Melba Moore after she saw his nightclub act in 1981. In 1984, he landed a recording contract with Capitol Records and released his debut album, Rock Me Tonight, in 1985. The Laurence-penned title track spent six weeks at number one on the R&B chart, and "You Are My Lady" gave him a second straight R&B chart-topper while peaking at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The album topped the R&B album chart and went platinum. His follow-up, Just Like the First Time (1986), also sold platinum, with singles "Tasty Love," "Have You Ever Loved Somebody," and "Jam Tonight" all hitting number one on the R&B chart. The 1988 album Don't Let Love Slip Away produced two more R&B chart-toppers: "Hey Lover" and "Nice 'N' Slow." The 1990 album Do Me Again yielded number-one R&B singles with its title track and "Love Me Down."

Jackson appeared as a lounge singer on a 1989 episode of The Golden Girls and sang the duet "Love Survives" with Irene Cara for the film All Dogs Go to Heaven.

Did You Know?

• Jackson appeared as a lounge singer on a 1989 episode of The Golden Girls, singing "It's a Small World" to Sophia.
• A fiction piece in the November 25, 2019, issue of The New Yorker, by John Edgar Wideman, titled "Arizona," is written as a letter to Jackson.