Nancy Wilson's 1968 pop hit, Face It Girl, It's Over, so perfectly encapsulates my early ambivalence to the legendary songstress that to this day, hearing it fills me with a sense of near-melancholic nostalgia. I remember perfectly well when my sister first brought the record home and insisted on playing it over and over. I hated it! I'm ashamed to say it but I also hated Nancy Wilson. But that was then!
Our house was filled with music of all kinds, but the female members of the household insisted on playing anything available by Miss Wilson, especially her definitive 1963 album, Yesterday's Love Songs Today's Blues. And that certainly did not win Wilson any points with a little boy weaned on Stax and Motown - no matter what year it was! Give me Aretha, Gladys or Diana but PLEASE - NOT THAT NANCY WILSON! I resisted her because it felt like I was being FORCED to listen to her.
When I became a teenager, I no longer felt that way. My older friend, Wayne Washington, loved her and I always took my cue from him. He had a massive, decades-old record collection and I listened WILLINGLY! When I brought home my own first Nancy Wilson album, Life Love & Harmony, my mother gave me the side-eye. Just like my father did when I WILLINGLY started listening to and loving Ray Charles!
Nevertheless, the three photos in this post were cropped, marked & taped by the old Baltimore Sun newspaper editing department in order to give Miss Wilson "good face" for their promotional advertisments for Wilson's label, Capital Records. They are not in the best shape but they are now rare images of Wilson that are not often seen. When I think of my early memories of hearing Nancy Wilson sing Face It, Girl ... well, it just made sense to me to display them no matter what condition they're in.
I sorta-kinda met Nancy Wilson as a teenager (and later on as a young adult) and that first time she did seem a bit moody. But I guess I would've been perturbed by some kid knocking on my hotel door in the middle of the day when I was trying to rest up for a concert later that night, too! Some years later, she gave a free concert on the plaza of Cincinnati's Fountain Square and meeting her was as pleasurable as running into a favorite aunt at the mall.
Give me credit! I did get it right! I had to grow up to eventually face the facts that I loved Nancy Wilson and that it wasn't over - it was FOREVER! God keep her & bless her, and may she continue to get all the love and props she so richly deserves!
I HAVE ALWAYS LOVED THAT SONG AND HER LIVE RENDITION FROM 1965...WHAT KIND OF FOOL AM I....UGH...BLISS. NOT TO MENTION HER GORGEOUSNESS.
Posted by: Spellbound By The Fudge | June 28, 2011 at 03:42 PM
This is a FABULOUS post!!! Very sexy and stylish: SO YOU!!!
Posted by: TheRevKev | June 28, 2011 at 09:58 PM
You ought to hear my version of "Guess Who I Saw Today." Love Nancy--she's second only to Barbra!
Posted by: Brandon | August 26, 2011 at 02:30 PM