Jackie Ross

A gifted singer whose rich and powerful voice evoked the classic Motown stylings of Diana Ross and Mary Wells, Chicago soul diva Jackie Ross entered the world in St. Louis, Missouri, on January 30, 1946. Born to a pair of preaching parents, she first stepped before an audience on their gospel radio broadcast at the age of three. After her father died in 1954, the family settled in the Windy City, where Sam Cooke—a longtime acquaintance of her mother—brought her to his SAR label and oversaw the release of her first single, “Hard Times,” in 1962. A period performing with Syl Johnson’s ensemble preceded her move to Chess Records, whose imprint she joined that same year with the single “Selfish One.” The record climbed just short of the Billboard pop Top Ten, prompting the quick follow-up “I’ve Got the Skill” and the album Full Bloom. In 1965 she delivered the outstanding “Take Me for a Little While,” a track New York singer Evie Sands had already cut for Blue Cat; although Sands’ version appeared first, Chess’s promotional resources gave Ross’s rendition greater commercial traction. Frustrated by the circumstances and by the scant royalties earned from “Selfish One,” she departed Chess and arrived at Brunswick in 1967. Two years later she joined Jerry Butler’s Fountain Productions, yet she never regained her prior level of chart success. In 1981 she collaborated with Little Milton on the album In Perspective. By that point several of her 1960s recordings had found new audiences among Northern Soul DJs and collectors in the UK, leading her to record a fresh take of “Selfish One” under the supervision of former Wigan Casino disc jockey Ian Levine. The project triggered further UK reissues of her catalog, though her domestic profile stayed unchanged and she resumed performing gospel music in Chicago churches. In 2017 the archival imprint Black Tulip issued the retrospective collection Selfish One.