Chuck Jackson "i Don't Wanna Cry" Vs. Big Maybelle

[boba]

So I always knew about Chuck Jackson's massive hit "I don't wanna cry" from 1961, which many people covered and which he has writing credits on. 

 

I just found out about Big Maybelle's version on Savoy from 1957. Not only is it the same song, it has the same backing track as Chuck Jackson. It also doesn't have Jackson as a writer:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp-AJ895S8k

 

Big Maybelle's version was reissued on Scepter after Jackson's hit and Jackson is credited as a writer. 

 

What is the deal with this? It's like some sort of R&B time travel conspiracy or something. Or is there a simpler explanation that I'm missing?

[Benji]

I don't know anything about the writing credits. But what I know is that the backing is similar but not the same. Same sheet of music but different recordings. (I know that sounds pretty pedantic)

 

PS: thanks for posting Big Maybelle's version. I didn't know of it before.

Edited May 10, 2014 by Benji

[45cellar]

 

Could it be this one

[Robbk]

Funny, I have most of the Savoys from that period.  But I've never seen nor heard that one before.  I thought that Savoy's 1500 series was later than 1957.  I thought it was 1959.  I never knew that Big Maybelle recorded that before Chuck Jackson.  I'm sure that it WAS recorded before Jackson's 1961 version.  But 1957 sounds much too early for the recording on that record (especially those strings).  "There Goes My Baby" by The Drifters in 1959, was SO very much of a novelty having strings, I just can't believe this was out in 1957.  IF it was, it was too far ahead of it's time.   Which is why it never made the radio in most big city markets (maybe it got airplay in NY Metro area?).  I'd like confirmation on the release date and its charting history (if it exists).

Edited May 10, 2014 by RobbK

[Robbk]

AHA!  I THOUGHT such a recording couldn't possibly have come out in 1957.  So, the photo on the video was matched with a later recording by Big Maybelle of Chuck Jackson's song, which Big Maybelle recorded for Scepter Records, whom she was with during the early '60s!  Yet another extreme coincidence of an artist singing 2 completely different songs sharing the same title.

 

I've been a storywriter for both Dutch and Danish Disney Publications since 1984, and over a long career, it is possible to forget one has used a given title before.  I found, when submitting a story, that I had used the same tittle 27 years before, for a completely different story, with different characters.

 

I doubt that Big Maybelle forgot that she had sung a song for Savoy with the same title only 7 years before.  And, I'm sure that she had wanted to sing Chuck Jackson's song (she did a nice job on it).

Edited May 11, 2014 by RobbK

[Benji]

I don't know anything about the writing credits. But what I know is that the backing is similar but not the same. Same sheet of music but different recordings. (I know that sounds pretty pedantic)

 

PS: thanks for posting Big Maybelle's version. I didn't know of it before.

 

I was wrong. Same backing, just different mix.

[Robbk]

Ha! Ha!  It turns out I had both records all along, but just didn't remember (I hate being old!).  She recorded it in 1964, for Scepter Records.  It's on Scepter 1288:

 

 

And the writers were, indeed, Chuck Jackson and Luther Dixon, as shown on both records.

Edited May 10, 2014 by RobbK

[Algsoul]

just bought the sayvoy one,cool tune

 

lawrence

[boba]

robb, I acknowledged in my original post the scepter recording, saying it was a reissue of the savoy recording. Are you saying that you think that the savoy record pictured is not what's recorded? and either way the savoy record pictured is real, right, so if it's not the same recording she must have done two songs with that name?

[Tlscapital]

The Savoy pictured in your original post should play the bluesy 'I don't want to cry' instead of the Scepter song as the 3rd post with the London UK pressing Youtube clip shows rightfully. Maybe not a scam but just a confusion... or a scam ! It's not the same song even lyric wise. That's why the credits are not matching.

[boba]

Thanks! so it was just a mismatched scan to the video. So chuck jackson did do the song first but big maybelle in '57 did a song with the same title and later redid the chuck jackson song using the chuck jackson backing track.

 

Is this correct?

[Robbk]

Thanks! so it was just a mismatched scan to the video. So chuck jackson did do the song first but big maybelle in '57 did a song with the same title and later redid the chuck jackson song using the chuck jackson backing track.

 

Is this correct?

Yes, using SOME of the Chuck Jackson backing track.  It is a different mix.

[Guest]

Great song by Chuck Jackson and Big Maybelle. 

 

I like the version that fits into the Northern Soul playlist, by Pearlean Grey on Green Sea!

[boba]

Yes, using SOME of the Chuck Jackson backing track.  It is a different mix.

 

Compare yourself. If there is any difference in the mix of the backing track it's negligible and either way doesn't constitute "some".

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp-AJ895S8k

[Robbk]

You're right, Bob.  The background tracks are identical.  The difference is only the girl group backing Big Maybelle.

[Steve G]

Just seen this OMG! How the internet confuses people.

 

Chuck Jackson's was the original of this song…..100%. Written with Luther Dixon and the story that goes with it and how it was written, is in various of Jackson's interviews…..

[boba]

Just seen this OMG! How the internet confuses people.

 

Chuck Jackson's was the original of this song…..100%. Written with Luther Dixon and the story that goes with it and how it was written, is in various of Jackson's interviews…..

 

thanks. i was just trying to solve the confusion about one of the many pieces of bad information (the bad pairing of image and clip) on the internet.

[John Moffatt]

Hi all, confusion - I've just purchased a demo of this by Big Maybelle (Savoy 1512), and it's a different recording altogether. It is much slower, and although the words seem right, you'd never know it was the same as Chuck or the song posted earlier in this piece. Anyone know the story?

Cheers

John

I've just found this on a London release, but this is the song, still on Savoy 45-1512.

 

Edited May 14, 2014 by John Moffatt

[Steve G]

Repeat posting:

 

Chuck Jackson's was the original of this song…..100%. Written with Luther Dixon and the story that goes with it and how it was written, is in various of Jackson's interviews…..

[mid tempo]

Good version by spyder turner on his

Stand by me lp on mgm..

Gaz.

[Liamgp]

Funny, I have most of the Savoys from that period.  But I've never seen nor heard that one before.  I thought that Savoy's 1500 series was later than 1957.  I thought it was 1959.  I never knew that Big Maybelle recorded that before Chuck Jackson.  I'm sure that it WAS recorded before Jackson's 1961 version.  But 1957 sounds much too early for the recording on that record (especially those strings).  "There Goes My Baby" by The Drifters in 1959, was SO very much of a novelty having strings, I just can't believe this was out in 1957.  IF it was, it was too far ahead of it's time.   Which is why it never made the radio in most big city markets (maybe it got airplay in NY Metro area?).  I'd like confirmation on the release date and its charting history (if it exists).

 

I note that the string arrangement on both Chuck Jackson and Big Maybelle's versions was by Carol(e) King. Here she is talking about her work on another tune:

 

"A lot of people think I wrote the lyrics for “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” because they express so eloquently the emotions of a teenage girl worried that her boyfriend won’t love her anymore once she gives him her most precious one-time-only prize. Those lyrics were written by Gerry. My contribution to “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” included writing the melody, playing piano in the studio, and arranging the string parts. I had never before composed a string arrangement.

 

With “There Goes My Baby” as our model, I incorporated Gerry’s ideas and my melodic lines into an arrangement meant to complement the voices of the Shirelles. I tried to make my charts look as professional as the ones I’d seen on the music stands at Don Costa’s sessions by hand-copying the part for each instrument separately on music-staff paper with a steel ruler and India ink. I wish I’d known that an arranger had only to scratch out a score in pencil and a team of copyists would work overnight to make the charts look the way they did on the music stands. After many hours handwriting more than fifteen charts, I was bleary-eyed. I looked at the clock. It was 4:45 a.m.

 

The alarm rang entirely too soon. I dragged myself out of bed, brought my daughter to my grandmother’s, then took the BMT up to Scepter Records, the Shirelles’ label. Recording the rhythm track took less than an hour. Then the string players arrived. The first time I heard the cellos play the rhythmic figure at the beginning of “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” I was euphoric. Some composers literally hear the sounds in their head as they write; I had to wait until a session to hear what I wrote. As the musicians began to play the parts I had written for “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” I became giddy with excitement.

 

I was 18."