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WADE IS WONDERFUL

KEITH M NICHOLSON | KAMLOOPS, BC Canada | 06/07/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"AMAZON SURFING NETTED ME THIS GEM-"AS IF I DIDN'T KNOW" WAS ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVOURITE TUNES AND TO SPOT THIS SONG TOGETHER WITH MOST OF WADE'S HITS WAS A FIND THAT WAS A DELIGHTFUL SURPRIZE.THE CD HAS BEEN PLAYING NON STOP FOR A MONTH-TOTALLY DELIGHTED THAT THIS WONDERFUL ARTIST'S MUSIC WAS ON DISC.HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS CD TO ALL PROSPECTIVE PURCHASERS-SUSPECT ONLY THOSE OVER 50 WOULD BE INTERESTED IN ADAM AS HIS POPULARITY WANED IN THE EARLY 60'S.DO NOT HESITATE TO ACQUIRE THIS WINNER AND ADD TO YOUR MUSIC COLLECTION-YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED."

The Forgotten Man

KEITH M NICHOLSON | 08/05/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Little is known about Adam Wade these days primarily because little has been written about him. We do know he was born on St. Patrick's Day in 1937 in Pittsburgh and that, in addition to some hit songs in 1960/61, he's done a little television acting and is noted as being the first black to host a U.S. prime-time game show, Musical Chairs, which ran on CBS from June to October 1975.



What you might not know is that, before hooking up with the small Coed label in 1959 he worked as a laboratory assistant with the renowned Dr. Jonas Salk, the discoverer of the polio vaccine.



After getting the Coed contract, his first hit was Tell Her For Me which went to # 66 Billboard Hot 199 in February 1960 b/w Don't Cry, My Love, and right away everyone noticed a similarity to Johnny Mathis. This was even more evident in his next minor charter, Ruby, which made it to # 58 in April b/w Too Far, finishing a distant second to the Ray Charles version (# 10 R&B/# 28 Hot 100). In July he then took the old Hank Williams hit, I Can't Help It to # 64 Hot 100 and, still not that well known, had many people who were hearing it for the first time wondering if Johnny Mathis had gone COuntry! Its flipside was I Had The Craziest Dream.



All that changed with his first hit of 1961, Take Good Care Of Her. Backed with the old standard Sleepy Time Gal, it scored on both the R&B (# 20) and Hot 100 (# 7) charts in May (Mel Carter would have a # 78 Hot 100 hit with the A-side in 1966, and in 1974 Elvis Presley would take it to # 74 Hot 100).



A month later he had a double-sided hit with The Writing on The Wall (# 5 on both the Hot 100 and new Adult Contemporary (AC) charts and # 21 R&B) b/w Point Of No Return which made the # 85 Hot 100 position (not the same one as the 1962 Gene McDaniels hit). Then, in September, As If I Didn't Know made it to # 4 AC/# 10 Hot 100 nd # 16 R&B b/w Playin' Around. He then finished off a very successful year with another two-sided hit, Tonight I Won't Be There (# 14 AC and # 61 Hot 100) b/w the old standard Linda (# 94 Hot 100) in October. On all of his hits to this point, except Linda, he was backed by George Paxton & His Orchestra. On that last hit the orchestra belonged to Joe Sherman.



He then hit a three-year dry spell before resurfacing in 1965 on the Epic label with a nice rendition of Crying In The Chapel which reached # 20 AC and # 88 Hot 100 in February 1965 b/w Broken-Hearted Stranger. Teach Wiltshire's orchestra backed both.



That's about when he turned his attention to television which, in 1978, led to a stint in an L.A. all-black production of Guys And Dolls.



The AAD sound quality is excellent, and the only reason I've assigned 3 stars is the skimpy nature of the volume and liner notes (3 brief paragraphs), as well as the omission of Point Of No Return and Crying In The Chapel, both of which will now be in the extremely hard-to-find category as it's very doubtful there will ever be a volume 2, and all of the uncharted flipsides except Sleepy Time Gal."