September 29, 1975: "Dick Clark's Good Ol' Rock and Roll Revue" is held at the Latin Casino, in the Philadelphia suburb of Cherry Hill, New Jersey. In the middle of the song that launched him to stardom in 1959, "Lonely Teardrops," Jackie Wilson sings the line, "My heart is crying, crying... " and collapses onstage.
Like Elvis Presley and James Brown, both of whom had copied him to an extent, Wilson was known for his onstage histrionics, earning him the nicknames "Mr. Excitement" and "The Guy With a Tear in His Eye." He was also known to take salt tablets before going onstage, because he thought women liked to see men sweating when they sang onstage. All this, and an all-around wild lifestyle, had given him a heart attack.
What's worse, his onstage reputation was such that, at first, nobody realized that this collapse wasn't part of the act. By the time the paramedics got to him, his brain had been deprived of enough oxygen to leave damage. He never recovered, spending the rest of his life in hospitals and nursing homes. One of the greatest R&B singers of all time, Jackie was forcibly retired at age 41, and died at 49, on January 21, 1984.
Later that year, singer Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his father. Gaye had been one of the big stars of Motown Records, founded by Berry Gordy Jr., who got his start writing songs for Jackie Wilson. Another Motown group, The Commodores -- Lionel Richie had gotten his start as their lead singer, but had since gone solo -- recorded "Nightshift," a song that saluted both Gaye and Wilson. It hit Number 3 early in 1985.
It wasn't the 1st song to salute Wilson: In 1972, while he was still alive and performing, Irish singer Van Morrison had a hit song titled "Jackie Wilson Said (I'm In Heaven When You Smile)."
Also on this day, Casey Stengel died of cancer in his adopted hometown of Glendale, California, in the Los Angeles suburbs. "The Ol' Perfesser" was 85. He first wore a major league uniform in 1912, and last did so in 1965. In between, in those 54 seasons, as a player and a manager, he had been a part of 14 Pennant winners and 9 World Championships. He had last appeared in a major league ballpark on June 28, for the Mets' Old-Timers Day.
Jim Murray, the great sports columnist for the Los Angeles Times, wrote, "Well, God is certainly getting an earful tonight."
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September 29, 1975 was a Monday. Baseball's regular season had ended the day before. The NBA, ABA, NHL and WHA seasons would start in the next few weeks. The only score on this day was a game on ABC Monday Night Football: The Denver Broncos beat the Green Bay Packers, 23-13 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.
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