Mr Lee Grant - Opportunity (1967)

Walter Jackson - Opportunity (1963)

(Warren Joyner - Robert Harshman [Bobby Hart] - John Marascalco)
 USA
Original version

Single on Columbia by highly regarded but lesser known soul singer (1938-1983).

At Chicago soul label Okeh in the late 60s Walter Jackson was often produced by soul maestro Carl Davis (who talent-spotted him in a Chicago piano bar) as well as by Curtis Mayfield and, later, Ted Cooper.

On Billboard’s R&B charts Jackson had 10 singles in the Top 40 from 1964 to 1977, including Feelings (1976 #9) and It’s An Uphill Climb To The Bottom (1966 #11), but on the pop charts his singles usually stalled in the 80s or 90s, or underbubbled. As Richie Unterberger puts it, Despite the obvious pop crossover potential of Jackson’s recordings, he remained obscure to white listeners.

Walter Jackson was a singer’s singer. If a poll had been conducted among his R&B contemporaries, Jackson would have scored high in the Best Male Vocalist catalog.

Andrew Hamilton at All Music

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The Writers

• The writing credits of John Marascalco (b.1931) include the Little Richard hits Good Golly Miss Molly and Rip It Up (both with Robert ‘Bumps’ Blackwell), and Fats Domino’s hit Be My Guest (with Domino and Tommy Boyce).

Marascalco wrote the Australian hits Don’t You Know (Pretty Baby) (Johnny O’Keefe 1960) and Starlight Starbright (Lonnie Lee 1960). He wrote Booka Hyland’s Sweet Thing (1960) and co-wrote his We’ve Got Something Going (1961).

• Warren Joyner sang tenor or bass in several vocal groups. His association with John Marascalco came from his membership of The Electras when they were produced by Marascalco at Infinity Records 1961-62.

Also in the The Electras was Billy Storm who had been in The Valiants in 1957 when Marascalco produced them on the original version of Good Golly Miss Molly. Storm also recorded Joyner’s first recorded co-composition, The Way To My Heart (1958).

Apart from Opportunity, Joyner is credited with Marascalco on several songs including Just a Friend (Johnnie Tino, 1960), You Lied (The Electras, 1961), Nothing But a Playboy (Lee Diamond, 1962), and Can’t You See It in My Eyes (The Electras, 1964).

• Robert Harshman (b.1939) was better known as Bobby Hart, one half of late-1960s singing and writing duo Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart who had some success with their own records, including I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight (1968, #8 USA) and Alice Long (You’re Still My Favorite Girlfriend) (1968, #27 USA), and they worked on The Monkees’ TV series, notably as the composers of (Theme From) The Monkees and Last Train To Clarksville.

See also Baby Let Your Hair Down (1965), a Bobby Hart record and co-composition covered in Australia by Graham Chapman.

Further reading: 1. Walter Jackson Biography by Richie Unterberger at All Music. 2. Review of Walter Jackson’s Greatest Hits by Andrew Hamilton at All Music. 3. John Marascalco Biography by Joslyn Layne at All Music. 4. John Marascalco by Dik de Heer, archived from Shakin’ Stacks. 5. Boyce & Hart Artist Biography by Richie Unterberger at All Music. 6. Boyce & Hart official website. 7. Boyce & Hart Discography at Wikipedia.