Adam Wade

A naturally gifted vocalist who also acted and played drums, Adam Wade drew inspiration from Jesse Belvin, the slightly earlier Johnny Mathis, and Nat King Cole. Raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he spent a short time as a laboratory assistant to Dr. Jonas Salk, the scientist who developed the polio vaccine. Relocating to New York in 1960 brought immediate opportunities; within half a year he had signed with CoEd Records and performed at the Copacabana. Modest chart entries arrived that same year with “Ruby” and “I Can’t Help It,” followed in 1961 by three Top Ten hits—“Take Good Care of Her,” “The Writing on the Wall,” and “As if I Didn’t Know”—alongside a pair of albums. After those releases Wade departed CoEd to fill Johnny Mathis’s slot at Epic, a change that stalled his recording momentum; his lone Epic chart entry, “Crying in the Chapel,” peaked at number 88, and later singles made little impression. By 1969 he had shifted focus to acting. Voice-over work included the characters Sweet Lou Dunbar and Gismo Man on The Harlem Globetrotters Show, while screen roles encompassed Wanderlove (1970), Shaft (1971), Benjy in Comeback Charleston Blues (1972), Hustler in Gordon’s War (1973), and Crazy Joe in both Phantom of the Paradise and Claudine (1974). In 1976 Wade became the first African-American host of a national television talk show, Musical Chairs. He briefly revived his music career on Kirshner Records in 1978 with a funk-oriented approach, releasing tracks such as “Alexander’s Soul Time Band.” That year he also spent six months in an all-Black Las Vegas production of Guys and Dolls. Additional acting came in 1982 with the role of Roscoe in Kiss Me Goodbye; afterward he maintained a low profile. Several years following his Parkinson’s diagnosis, Adam Wade passed away at age 87 in Montclair, New Jersey.