The “Golden Hits Of The 60s” 

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DEON  JACKSON

“LOVE MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND”

(DEON JACKSON)

Carla 2526

No. 1    March 12, 1966

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“I would cringe  every time” the song came on the radio,” Deon  Jackson  told Goldmine writer Bill Dahl.

“I’d think’  ‘God’ I don’t like that.’   And I wrote it, too.    I just don’t like that song.”   The distasteful song?

Dean’s big musical moment, “Love Makes The World Go Around.”

 

Deon Jackson was born on January 26,1946, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.    As a child, he studied clarinet and

drums, and while a high school student, he formed a vocal group.   The Five Crystals tried out for a spot

with Tamla Records and Maximillian, the keyboardist for Del Shannon’s  “Runaway” classic.  Nothing

clicked until 1962, when producer and publisher Ollie Mclaughlin–the man responsible for producing the

initial hits for Barbara Lewis, Del Shannon and soon THE CAPITOLS–caught Jackson and group singing

their hearts out at school concert.

 

“When we first meet Ollie we didn’t know about his standing in the music  business,” said Jackson in

an exclusive interview.    “We just knew him as this disk jockey with the ‘Scoop Scobby Dooby Show.’   He

came out to a lot of our rehearsals…  he didn’t live to far from us.   He was just going after this Detroit

group–the Capitols–when he picked me to work with.   I wished that we coulda stayed together, but Ollie

could see; that while I was the youngest I was the one most serious about music.   The others didn’t always

show up and they weren’t contributing.   I was the only one writing.”

 

Ollie became Deon’s manager, and in  the mid-’60s he recorded two singles on Jackson that were issued on

Atlantic Records–both bombed.   Jackson, meanwhile, had dashed off that hated number and, unhappy

with the results, had tossed it aside.    “I wrote that song when the United States was in a riot,” said

McLaughlin, “from Detroit to Florida, California to New York City.   It was a result of the Civil Rights

movement.   It happened one Saturday morning; a very sun shiny morning.   My sister was singing in the

kitchen and I thought, ‘Jesus, all this stuff going on around me; ah, the world needs more love.  Although

all this crap was happening around me, our dear God can make a beautiful day anyway.’   Three or four

minutes and the song was done.”

 

Eventually, Deon did record a demo of “Love Makes The World Go Round” and sent it off to his manager.

The song that would bring Jackson his mighty minute on the charts was recorded with buddy Edwin Starr

present and with Thelma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent–the female portion of  Dawn–providing vocal

accompaniment.   The demo sat around for another year until Ollie released it.   Once available to the

public, “Love Makes The World Go   Round” sold like no one would have believed.

 

“All of a sudden, I get this call from Ollie,” said Deon.    “He was great at picking hits.   He had the gift.   I

had forgotten all about the song.   Ollie said, ‘You realize you’ve got a hit record. ‘   I didn’t know what he

was talking about.   He mention the song and I just sat back, shocked.   I couldn’t believe it.

 

“Hey, maybe I didn’t like it–I mean it bugged me–because wrote it so fast and put it aside so fast and then

it sat around for a year before it was released.    I guess I figured it shouldn’t be worth anything–it was to

easy,” said Jackson.

 

While “Love Takes A Long Time Growing” (#77, 1966) and “Ooh Baby” (#65,1967) were respectable follow-

up efforts, everything else Jackson released for the remainder of the decade sank unceremoniously from

view.

His proudest moment happened in 1969.   “I was invited to the Command Performance before the King of

Portugal; the ‘Ball of the Century.’    It was an all-celebrity deal.    This King had spent some three or four

million dollars getting the cast–Frank Sinatra, the Supremes, King Curtis, THE SWEET INSPIRATIONS,

Ike & Tina Turner…and I was invited there, too, by his son.   It was something any entertainer would want

to be a part of.”

 

Shortly thereafter, Dean turned away from the record biz , and for much of the early ’70s tickled the

keyboards in New York City night spots like Nathan’s and Matt Snell’s.   Thereafter, Deon moved his base

of operations to Chicago, where for the past 20+ years he has touched the ivories to Nat “King” Cole,

Johnny Mathis, and Frank Sinatra tunes.     People in the know still ask Jackson to play “Love.”   “It kinda

gets to me to do it,” Jackson told Dahl.   “But I do it.”

 

Asked what happened to what surely seemed to be the beginning of something big, Deon replied, “I feel like

I’m back in Ann Arbor.    Running into friends on the street, they’d inevitably ask, ‘What happened? ‘    As

Ollie’s organization got bigger and he had more hits, I think, he was trusting those around him more than

his intuition.    Soon, he was turning down the stuff that I was writing for things by writers that had been

around longer than I.    He just wouldn’t listen to my things after ‘Love Makes The World Go Round’…and I

wrote that.”

 

With the back log on self-penned tunes just setting around on Deon’s dresser way too long, Jackson got the

itch and with his new group Sunlight returned to the studios in the early ’90s.   Nothing has surfaced yet.

“The record companies are looking for a sure thing,” saidJackson.    “Now, what does a sure thing look

like, sound like?    I don’t know.   They tell me if after five seconds they see dollar signs, its a hit.    I’m

finding it hard to get listened to.    I’m not gonna stop, though.”