Freddie Jackson, Voice of Eighties Soul Romance, Dies at 70

Freddie Jackson, the American soul singer whose smooth romantic tenor shaped a strand of mid-1980s R&B, died on Monday. He had turned 70 the previous week. No cause of death has been given.

Jackson reached a solo career by way of other people’s records. He sang backing vocals for Melba Moore in the early 1980s and appeared on Full Moon, the 1982 album by Mystic Merlin. He signed to Capitol in 1984, and his first four albums for the label each went to the top of Billboard’s R&B chart.

His signature songs, Rock Me Tonight (For Old Time’s Sake) and You Are The Lady, sit at the centre of the soft-focus, adult ballad style that peaked in that decade. He was never as ubiquitous as Luther Vandross or Alexander O’Neal, but his standing among soul listeners was high, and durable enough that Outkast name-checked him on 2001’s So Fresh, So Clean.

He knew what he was doing. In 1989 he told The Times his music was for “people who like to hold hands in concert,” and argued that with racial tension and hate in the air, songs about love made more sense than ever. Melba Moore, with whom he recorded A Little Bit More, said her heart was broken over the loss of “a great singer and even a greater friend.”