Any Day Now (My Wild Beautiful Bird)

Album: Any Day Now (1962)
Charted: 23
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Songfacts®:

  • Sometimes you can see it coming: Your girl is going to leave you. That's the scenario that plays out in this song, as Chuck Jackson fears for that day, which he thinks is coming soon. When it does, he's not going to handle it well - he can't bring himself to ascribe to that whole "if you love something, set it free" mentality. He'll be holding on for dear life, begging her to stay. It's a soul classic delivered by Jackson with some serious conviction.
  • "Any Day Now" was written by Burt Bacharach but not with his usual writing partner, Hal David. He wrote it with Bob Hilliard, who also wrote "Our Day Will Come" for Ruby & the Romantics and "In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning" by Frank Sinatra. Bacharach cut the backing track a year before presenting it to Jackson.
  • Burt Bacharach (from Record Collector magazine): "I wrote that song with Bob Hilliard, a wonderful lyric writer, not that we wrote that much together but it was in the Brill Building days. I thought it was a pretty good song, a good R&B song. We'd been doing that song in my show with John Pagano, up-tempo, it's pretty funky and it's good."
  • According to a 1990 Los Angeles Reader interview with Jackson, there are no drums on this song - the percussion is supplied by an "insistently tapped ashtray."
  • "Any Day Now" was the biggest hit for Chuck Jackson, who was consistently on the R&B chart from 1961-1965 but had trouble crossing over to a broader audience. He was signed to a small label called Wand, run by one of the few female kingpins in the industry, Florence Greenberg. In 1968, at the urging of his friend Smokey Robinson, he jumped to Motown, which he thought would expand his reach. It didn't. Motown made Marvin Gaye a priority and gave Jackson little attention, so he floundered.
  • Percy Sledge's cover went to #86 in 1969; Ronnie Milsap's went to #14 in 1982.
  • Chuck Jackson, who died in 2023 at 85, claimed he came up with a striking bit of stagecraft for this song. When he was doing a run of shows at The Howard Theatre in Washington, DC, a pigeon flew into the building. Instead of shooing it out, Jackson fed it and trained it to perch on his finger. During a performance of "Any Day Now," he held the bird until he got to the line, "beautiful bird, you will have flown," when he released it, leaving the audience in awe.

Comments: 8

  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn this day in 1962 {June 17th} "Any Day Now" by Chuck Jackson peaked at #2 {for 3 weeks} on Billboard's Hot R&B Sides' chart, the three weeks it was at #2, the #1 record for those three weeks was "I Can't Stop Loving You" by Ray Charles...
    As noted above, "Any Day Now" reached #23 on Billboard's Top 100 chart...
    Between 1961 and 1980 the Winston-Salem, North Carolina native had twenty two records on the Billboard's R&B chart, four made the Top 10 with the above "Any Day Now" being his biggest hit...
    Besides "Any Day Now", his other three Top 10 records were "I Don't Want To Cry" {#5 in 1961},"Beg Me" {#5 in 1964}, and "Something You Got" {#10 in 1965}...
    Three of his twenty two charted records were duets with Maxine Brown...
    As a songwriter, Mr. Jackson composed "Where Do Broken Hearts Go", Whitney Houston recorded the song and on April 17th, 1988 her version peaked at #1 {for 2 weeks} on the Top 100 chart...
    Chuck Jackson will celebrate his 83rd birthday next month on July 22nd, 2020...
    * And from the 'For What It's Worth' department, the remainder of the Hot R&B Sides' Top 10 on June 17th, 1962:
    At #3. "Don't Play That Song" by Ben E. King
    #4. "Playboy" by The Marvelettes
    #5. "Snap Your Fingers" by Joe Henderson
    #6. "The One Who Really Loves You" by Mary Wells
    #7. "I Need Your Loving" by Don Gardner and Dee Dee Ford
    #8. "Soldier Boy" by The Shirelles
    #9. "I Found A Love" by The Falcons
    #10. "It Keeps Right On A-Hurting" by Johnny Tillotson
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn April 6th 1969, Percy Sledge’s covered version of "Any Day Now" entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #92; the following week it was at #88, and for its final two weeks it was at its peak position on the chart, #86...
    It reached #35 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart...
    Between 1966 and 1974 he had fourteen Top 100 records; with one making the Top 10 and that one reached #1, "When A Men Loves a Woman" for two weeks in 1966...
    He just missed having a second Top 10 record when "Take Time to Know Her" reached #11 in 1968...
    Mr. Sledge will celebrate his 74th birthday this coming November 25th {2015}.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn April 22nd 1962, "Any Day Now" by Chuck Jackson entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #84; and on June 17th it peaked at #23 (for 2 weeks) and spent 12 weeks on the Top 100...
    It reached #2 on Billboard's Hot R&B Singles chart...
    Two covered versions have charted on the Top 100; Percy Sledge (#86 in 1969) and Ronnie Milsap (#14 in 1982)...
    Mr. Jackson will celebrate his 77th birthday in exactly three months on July 22nd, 2014.
  • James from Spartanburg, ScOne of my all time favorite songs. It sounds better every time that I hear Chuck Jackson sing it.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyRonnie Milsap's version peaked at #1 on Billboard's Country chart. Elvis Presley's version was the B-side of his #3 hit record, "In The Ghetto"...
  • Markku from Espoo, -Ronie Milsap at YouTube
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3re_xqu4ycQ
  • Markku from Espoo, FinlandThis song was released by Scott Walker 1.1.1973
  • Awfs from Fsda, Mdi have a special unity ith this song. i like birds
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