Recording and Composition
Morrison first recorded "Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)" in early 1972 at the Pacific High and Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco during one of the sessions for Saint Dominic's Preview. The song featured as the opening tune on the album released by Warner Bros. in July 1972.
According to Morrison "Jackie Wilson Said" was "particularly inspired" by a line in Jackie Wilson's song "Reet Petite". Morrison also acknowledged later in his career that his vocals are also influenced by the 1950s soul singer, remarking that Wilson's consecutive hits were an important influence in developing his early vocal style. According to biographer Peter Mills, Morrison's vocal performance, which borrows from early styles of rhythm and blues, pop, jazz and blues, "is prime time Morrison: tight, melodic, fully vocalised from the centre-back of the throat".
The tune is composed in the key of G major, with a chord progression throughout the song of Am-D-Am-D-G. It is written in a swung 4/4 time and has a moderately bright tempo of 156 beats per minute. It also features a walking bassline. The song begins with an a cappella scat over handclaps introduction, followed by the saxophone section in harmony with Morrison's vocal, which builds up until all the members of the band are playing on the track. Biographer John Collis writes that the "scat phrase kicking off the first track, 'Jackie Wilson Said', hotly pursued by a confident big band r'n'b arrangement, promises well." During the chorus, when Morrison sings the song's sub-title "I'm in Heaven", the band stops playing briefly. The vocal is accompanied by tapped out beats by Doug Messenger muting his guitar's strings. Morrison remembered in an interview that the song "came with just voice and guitar first ... I was just singing the sax riff."
Commenting on the joyful spirit of the song, Erik Hage describes "Jackie Wilson Said" as "about elation" and believes "the music inspires in the listener a sense of freewheeling abandonment and joy." Hage compared it to the pop R&B that Morrison "can summon at will" such as the songs, "Domino" and "Wild Night" and went on to write that, "Somehow he is able to congeal the feeling of listening to one's favorite music and/or looking at a loved one's smile into song, and it just may be the most immediate and euphoric recording in his entire catalogue—it inspires a rush of emotion."
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