Jackie Shane

Jackie Shane (born May 15, 1940) is a former American-Canadian soul and rhythm and blues singer, best known for the 1962 single "Any Other Way". A cover of a song previously recorded by William Bell, Shane's version was noted for adding a different spin to the lyric "Tell her that I'm happy/tell her that I'm gay"; while the original lyric intended the word "gay" in its older meaning as a synonym of "happy", Shane — who presented at the time as a gay man who usually performed in drag, and has since come out as transgender — played on the word's double meaning, which was not yet in universal mainstream usage.

Background

Originally from Nashville, Tennessee, she was born on May 15, 1940.

In 1960, Shane moved to Montreal, Quebec, where saxophonist King Herbert Whitaker, invited a young Shane along to watch the popular band, Frank Motley and his Motley Crew at the Esquire Showbar. Shane, who showed up in a bright red dress and her hair done up, sat down near the front. When Motley said, "Get that kid up here and let's see what they can do," pianist Curley Bridges invited her up onstage for the next set, where she performed songs by Ray Charles and Bobby "Blue" Bland. She was soon the band's lead vocalist, and relocated to Toronto with them in late 1961. She sometimes returned to the United States to perform shows in Nashville, Boston and Los Angeles.

A fan mythology linked her to Little Richard, including claims that she had been Richard's backing vocalist before moving to Canada or even that she was Richard's cousin, although no verification of either claim has ever been found and no evidence exists that Shane ever made either claim herself. Music critic Carl Wilson has concluded that, while in reality Shane had deep and identifiable roots in the drag traditions of the Southern US Chitlin' Circuit, the mythology emerged because that scene's traditions were not known to Torontonians in the 1960s, and thus Little Richard was the only antecedent for Shane's style that most of her local fan base could identify.

Recording career

She released her first single, a cover of Barrett Strong's "Money (That's What I Want)", in 1962. "I've Really Got the Blues" was the single's B-side. Shortly thereafter, the same label released an alternate version of the single on which "Money" was relegated to the B-side, while a different recording of "I've Really Got the Blues", with a few revised lyrics and the alternate title "Have You Ever Had the Blues?", became the A-side.

She followed up with "Any Other Way" (b/w "Sticks and Stones") later the same year; the song became her biggest chart hit, reaching #2 on Toronto's CHUM Chart in 1962. The follow-up single "In My Tenement" b/w "Comin' Down" received some airplay in upstate New York, but did not chart elsewhere in the US or Canada, and Shane did not record again for several years.

In Toronto, she primarily performed at The Sapphire Tavern, often with Frank Motley and the Hitchhikers. In 1965, she made a television appearance in Nashville on WLAC-TV's Night Train, performing Rufus Thomas' "Walking the Dog" in full drag.

In 1967, "Any Other Way" was reissued and became a modest hit across Canada, peaking at #68 on the national RPM chart in March. Shane subsequently returned to recording later that year, issuing the single "Stand Up Straight and Tall" b/w "You Are My Sunshine", and the live album Jackie Shane Live. A final single, "Cruel Cruel World" b/w "New Way of Lovin'", was released in 1969.

In addition to her own recordings, Shane also appeared on Motley's album Honkin' at Midnight, performing live versions of some of the singles she had released under her own name.

She faded in prominence after 1970-71, with even her own former bandmates losing touch with her; soon after returning to Los Angeles, she turned down an offer to be a part of George Clinton's band Funkadelic. She began caring for her aunt, whom also lived in Los Angeles, before relocating to Nashville around 1996 after the death of her mother. For a time she was rumoured to have committed suicide or to have been stabbed to death in the 1990s, until saxophonist Steve Kennedy found her living in Nashville in 2005. Shane and Kennedy discussed the possibility of organizing and staging a reunion concert, but this never materialized — the next time Kennedy called the same phone number, it had been reassigned to somebody else who had never heard of Shane.

Post-career attention

CBC Radio's Inside the Music aired a documentary feature, "I Got Mine: The Story of Jackie Shane", in 2010. At the time, nobody involved in the documentary had been able to determine whether Shane was still living; she was subsequently found still alive in Nashville. Some anecdotal claims were subsequently reported that Shane now identified as a transgender woman, although this was never confirmed by a media outlet until 2017.

Footage of Shane in performance also appeared in Bruce McDonald's 2011 documentary television series Yonge Street: Toronto Rock & Roll Stories.

Jackie Shane Live was reissued in 2011 on Vintage Music as Live at the Sapphire Tavern, although the reissue was labelled as being from 1963 (the date of the original live performance) instead of 1967 (the release date of the album). The reissue also included Shane's performances from Honkin' at Midnight as bonus tracks. A compilation album of the studio singles and rarities, Soul Singles Classics, was released the same year.

In 2015, the Polaris Music Prize committee shortlisted Jackie Shane Live as one of the nominees for the 1960s-1970s component of its inaugural Heritage Award to honour classic Canadian albums. It was shortlisted for the prize again in 2016.

A two-disc compilation album, featuring several previously unreleased recordings, is slated for release in 2017. The forthcoming album marks the first time since her final single in 1969 that Shane has been directly involved in the production and release of a reissue of her music.

In 2017, editors John Lorinc, Jane Farrow and Stephanie Chambers published the essay anthology Any Other Way: How Toronto Got Queer, a history of LGBT culture in Toronto; in addition to taking its title from Shane's 1962 single, the book includes an essay devoted specifically to Shane.

In the summer of 2017, the reissue label Numero Group announced that they would be releasing a double-LP/CD compilation of Shane's music, Any Other Way, on October 20, 2017.

Discography

Singles

• "Money (That's What I Want)" b/w "I've Really Got the Blues" (1962)
• "Have You Ever Had the Blues?" b/w "Money (That's What I Want)" (1962)
• "Any Other Way" b/w "Sticks and Stones" (1962)
• "In My Tenement" b/w "Comin' Down" (1963)
• "Slave For You Baby" b/w "Chickadee" (1965)
• "Stand Up Straight and Tall" b/w "You Are My Sunshine" (1967)
• "Cruel Cruel World" b/w "New Way of Lovin'" (1969)

Albums

• Jackie Shane Live (1967)
• Honkin' at Midnight (2000, with Frank Motley and his Motley Crew)
• Live at the Sapphire Tavern (2011, reissue)
• Soul Singles Classics (2011)
• Jackie Shane Live (2015, reissue)

Compilations

• The Original Blues Sound of Charles Brown & Amos Milburn with Jackie Shane-Bob Marshall & The Crystals (Grand Prix/Pickwick, 1965)
• Any Other Way (Numero Group, 2017)