By Special Request/Jackie Wilson at the Copa

2 LPs on 1 CD: BY SPECIAL REQUEST (1961)/AT THE COPA (1962).
Includes original release liner notes by Ed Sullivan & new liner notes by Alan Robinson.
To quote Alan Robinson's liner notes, these two albums, from 1961 and 1962 respectively, are curios from the frequently curious Jackie Wilson catalogue. Both of them, the first a studio album, the second a live set (the only such effort released during Wilson's lifetime), are less showcases for his talent than a textbook of pre-Beatles show biz practice. In other words, on both albums Wilson presents himself as a sort of all around entertainer a la Sammy Davis Jr., rather than the R&B and soul giant he's best remembered as.
On AT THE COPA, he's backed by a big TV style band and chorus on standards ("Tonight," from WEST SIDE STORY, "Body and Soul," and Cole Porter's "Love For Sale") and his own more characteristic hits ("Lonely Teardrops," and "That's Why (I Love You So)"). He also engages in some cornball and obviously scripted between song patter, again typical of the period. On BY SPECIAL REQUEST, the arrangements are supper club as well, with no R&B songs whatsoever. That being said, Wilson's renditions of quasi-operatic fare like "Indian Love Call" and "Cry" are undeniably spectacular.