Did you know that Jackie Wilson suffered a heart attack during a live performance that eventually led to his death?
Wilson was performing on Dick Clark’s Good Ol’ Rock & Roll Revue on September 29 in 175 when he suffered a massive heart attack onstage. Unfortunately, patrons of the show and his team assumed that it was part of the act, and nobody came to his aid until his brain had lost a significant amount of oxygen, which caused him to slip into a coma. Wilson briefly regained strength in 1976 before eventually dying from pneumonia on January 21 in 1984 at the age of 49 years.
Shockingly, Wilson collapsed while singing the line “my heart is crying” in the song “Lonely Teardrops”. The unfortunate turn of events is ranked among the greatest tragedies in music history and the legendary singer has since been honored by several artists, including Michael Jackson, who dedicated his Album of the Year win for Thriller at the Grammy Awards to Wilson in 1984.
Watch Wilson perform a medley of “To Be Loved”, “Lonely Teardrops” and “Alone at Last” to get a glimpse of his massive talent: