Jackie Shane (May 15, 1940 - February 22, 2019) was an American soul and rhythm and blues singer, who was most prominent in the local music scene of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in the 1960s. Considered to be a pioneer transgender performer, she was a contributor to the Toronto Sound.
Shane
grew up in Nashville and cut her teeth as a musician here, playing in
the house bands for Excello Records and North Nashville’s New Era Club. In 1960, Shane moved to Montreal, Quebec, where she was soon the lead vocalist of the popular band Frank Motley and his Motley Crew and relocated to Toronto with them in late 1961.
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, in the fall of 1962; the song became her biggest chart hit,
reaching #2 on Toronto's CHUM Chart in 1962. A cover of a song previously recorded and released by William Bell
earlier that year (in the mid- to late summer of 1962), Shane's version
(which also charted in 1963) 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 played on the word's double meaning, which was not
yet in mainstream usage.
The follow-up single to "Any Other Way" was "In My Tenement" b/w "Comin'
Down." It 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
1962, Shane was performing at Toronto's Saphire Tavern, specializing in
covers of songs by Ray Charles and Bobby Bland. In 1965, she made a
television appearance in Nashville on WLAC-TV's Night Train, performing
Rufus Thomas' "Walking the Dog".
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.
Shane 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 mother, who lived in Los Angeles, before
relocating to Nashville around 1996 after the death of her mother. Shane died in her sleep, at her home in Nashville, in February 2019, her body was discovered on 21 February.
