- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- Nancy Wilson is a top-notch jazz vocalist who has also recorded blues, disco, R&B, pop, and soul songs. often crossing over to the R&B and rock charts.
Nancy Wilson – Nancy Naturally (1966): There are a host of Wilsons who have made popular music over the years. The Beach Boys – “America’s band” according to no less than President Ronald Reagan (whose middle name is Wilson, come to think of it) – was founded in 1961 by Brian Wilson, his brothers Dennis Wilson and Carl Wilson, and their cousin Mike Love; Al Jardine is the one original bandmember not in the family. Sisters Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson are the best-known bandmembers in Heart, one of America’s most popular and longest-lived hard rock bands. Mary Wilson is one of the founding members of the Supremes; the saga of the other bandmembers being eclipsed by lead singer Diana Ross is the basis for the main storyline in the Broadway musical Dreamgirls (1981) that later made Jennifer Hudson a star in the film version of Dreamgirls (2006).
Then there are R&B singers Jackie Wilson and Wilson Pickett, country star Gretchen Wilson, comedian and chef Justin Wilson, and others. Another Nancy Wilson is a top-notch jazz vocalist who has also recorded blues, disco, R&B, pop, and soul songs over the years. She got her start in the late 1950’s and has frequently crossed over to the R&B and rock charts. Nancy Wilson’s biggest hit songs are her debut single, a cover of the standard “Guess Who I Saw Today” (1960) and the #11 hit “(You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am” (1964). Remarkably, Nancy Naturally is Nancy Wilson’s 16th studio album during a period of just 6½ years. While best known for her jazz stylings, beginning in early 1964 on her album Today, Tomorrow, Forever, Nancy Wilson regularly recorded other styles of music also that even includes a country song, “I Can’t Stop Loving You”, written by Don Gibson and best known from the #1 hit version of “I Can’t Stop Loving You” by Ray Charles in 1962. Nancy Naturally includes blues songs like “In the Dark”, “Alright, Okay, You Win”, and “You Ain’t Had The Blues”; ballads like “Since I Fell for You”, “Just For A Thrill”, and “Watch What Happens”; pop standards like “Ten Years of Tears”, “I Wish I Didn’t Love You So”, and “Smack Dab In The Middle”; “Willow Weep for Me” (a jazz standard that was a major hit for the British duo Chad and Jeremy the year before); and “My Babe” (the only song written by Willie Dixon to become a #1 R&B hit, in this case for Little Walter; “My Babe” is a rewrite of the gospel classic “This Train”).