Freddie Jackson

Freddie Jackson was born in October of 1956 in Harlem, New York. As Jackson grew up, he sang as a gospel singer at White Rock Baptist Church. At the church, he met Paul Laurence who would become his record producer.

Freddie Jackson then joined Laurence's group LJE and toured New York's night clubs. In the early 1980s, Jackson had a brief stint on the West Coast where he was in the R&B band "Mystic Merlin" but he eventually returned to New York to work with Laurence again.

In 1985, Freddie Jackson got his own solo career started when he landed a contract with Capitol Records. During the same year, Jackson released his debut album, Rock Me Tonight. The album featured two #1 hit singles on the R&B charts with both "You Are My Lady" and "Rock Me Tonight" reaching the #1 spot. They both did well on the Hot 100 as well, reaching #12 and #18 respectively. With such success, the album quickly went platinum, and featured two more successful singles, "Love Is Just A Touch Away" which reached #9 on the R&B charts and "He'll Never Love You" which reached #8 on the R&B charts.

While Rock Me Tonight was still enjoying great success, Freddie Jackson released Just Like The First Time in 1986. The album repeated the first's success and went platinum. The album had three #1 hits on the R&B charts, with "Tasty Love," "Jam Tonight," and "Have You Ever Loved Somebody" reaching the coveted position. The album's other single, "I Don't Want To Lose Your Love" reached #2 on the R&B charts.

Despite containing more hits, Freddie Jackson's third album, Don't Let Love Slip Away was his first album to only go gold. The album had two more R&B chart toppers with "Nice N Slow" and "Hey Lover" both taking the position. However, the album's later singles "You And I Got A Thang" and "Crazy (For Me)" failed to attain similar success and reached #5 and #17 on the R&B charts.

With Freddie Jackson's third and fourth album (Do Me Again in 1990), Jackson's success in the R&B industry seemed consistent, but he seemed to have lost his success on the Hot 100. Do Me Again showed this in that it had the singles "Do Me Again" and "Love Me Down" both reach #1 on the R&B charts, yet they didn't even crack the Hot 100. The album's other single, "Main Course" topped out at #2 on the charts. Even though Jackson had lost his success on the pop charts, his album was still able to go gold.

In his last record at Capitol Records, Jackson put out Time for Love in 1992. The album featured Jackson's last Top 20 hit on the R&B charts, with "I Could Use A Little Love."

After his departure from Capitol, Freddie Jackson released several albums across several labels, but never achieved success to the level of his earlier release. Many singles charted on the R&B charts but never broke into the Top 20.

In 1994, Freddie Jackson released Here It Is on MCA. In 1995, he put out Private Party on Street Life. After a long pause, 1999 saw the release of Life After 30 on Orpheus and 2004 featured It's Your Move on Empire Musicwerks. Continuing on, Personal Reflections was released on Artemis in 2005 and Transitions was released on Orpheus in 2006.