1) Nancy Sue Wilson - … Read Full Bio ↴There is more than one artist with this name:
1) Nancy Sue Wilson - jazz diva best known for her 60s standards recordings.
2) Nancy Lamoureaux Wilson - singer, songwriter, and guitarist, and member of the group Heart.
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1) Nancy Sue Wilson (born February 20, 1937, in Chillicothe, OH, United States – December 13, 2018, in Pioneertown, CA, United States) was a jazz diva famous for recording American standards in the 60s.
She was among contemporary music's most stylish and sultry vocalists; while often crossing over into the pop and R&B markets -- and even hosting her own television variety program -- she remained best known as a jazz performer, renowned for her work alongside figures including Cannonball Adderley and George Shearing. Wilson first attracted notice performing the club circuit in nearby Columbus; she quickly earned a growing reputation among jazz players and fans, and she was recording regularly by the late '50s, eventually signing to Capitol and issuing LPs including 1959's Like in Love and Nancy Wilson with Billy May's Orchestra. Her dates with Shearing, including 1960's The Swingin's Mutual, solidified her standing as a talent on the rise, and her subsequent work with Adderley -- arguably her finest recordings -- further cemented her growing fame and reputation.
In the years to follow, however, Wilson often moved away from jazz, much to the chagrin of purists; she made numerous albums, many of them properly categorized as pop and R&B outings, and toured extensively, appearing with everyone from Nat King Cole and Sarah Vaughan to Ruth Brown and LaVern Baker. She even hosted her own Emmy-winning variety series for NBC, The Nancy Wilson Show, and was a frequent guest performer on other programs; hits of the period included "Tell Me the Truth," "How Glad I Am," "Peace of Mind," and "Now, I'm a Woman." Regardless of how far afield she traveled, Wilson always maintained her connections to the jazz world, and in the 1980s, she returned to the music with a vengeance, working closely with performers including Hank Jones, Art Farmer, Ramsey Lewis, and Benny Golson. By the 1990s, she was a favorite among the "new adult contemporary" market, her style ideally suited to the format's penchant for lush, romantic ballads; she also hosted the Jazz Profiles series on National Public Radio.
In the early 2000s, Wilson recorded two albums with Ramsey Lewis for Narada (2002's Meant to Be and 2003's Simple Pleasures). Her 2004 album R.S.V.P. (Rare Songs, Very Personal) was a blend of straight-ahead jazz and ballads, similar to her next record, 2006's Turned to Blue, which, like R.S.V.P., used a different instrumentalist for each track. In 2005, Capitol released a three-part series to pay tribute to Wilson's contributions to music in the '50s and '60s: Guess Who I Saw Today: Nancy Wilson Sings Songs of Lost Love, Save Your Love for Me: Nancy Wilson Sings the Great Blues Ballads, and The Great American Songbook.
Wilson died from a long-illness on December 13, 2018 at her home in Pioneertown, California at the age of 81.
2) Nancy Lamoureux Wilson (born March 16, 1954, San Francisco, CA, United States), more popularly known as Nancy Wilson, is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter. Along with her older sister Ann Wilson, she is part of the Seattle/Vancouver rock band Heart. She is married to film director and screenwriter Cameron Crowe and has composed and performed music for most of Crowe's movies, including Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous, Vanilla Sky, and Elizabethtown.
While Ann is the lead singer on most of the Heart recordings, Nancy is the lead vocalist on Treat Me Well, These Dreams, Stranded, There's the Girl and Will You Be There (In The Morning), and frequently performs background vocals. She is also the band's rhythm and lead guitarist. In 1999, she released a live solo album, Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop.
Solo albums
1999 - Live At McCabes Guitar Shop
2005 - Elizabethtown
2009 - Baby Guitars
2016 - Undercover Guitar (with Julie Bergman)
2021 - You and Me
Days Of Wine And Roses
Nancy Wilson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Through a meadow land toward a closing door
A door marked "nevermore" that wasn't there before
The lonely night discloses just a passing breeze filled with memories
Of the golden smile that introduced me to
The days of wine and roses and you
Of the golden smile that introduced me to
The days of wine and roses and you-oo-oo
The song “Days Of Wine And Roses” by Nancy Wilson is a melancholic ballad that reminisces about a more youthful and joyful time. “The days of wine and roses” is an idiomatic phrase that is used to describe a time when everything was going great, and the world seemed to be void of any troubles. In the song, this phrase is used to reminisce about a time when the singer was happy and carefree. She talks about how these days of happiness have vanished like a child laughing and running towards a closing door. A door marked “nevermore” that wasn't there before symbolizes that the time has gone forever, and there is no way to relive it.
The singer talks about how she is haunted by these memories of happier times. The lonely night only brings back memories of the past, and she is left with nothing but emptiness. She talks about a “golden smile” that introduced her to the days of wine and roses. This is possibly a reference to a person who she associates with those happy times. The song's lyrics are highly poetic, and the use of metaphors and imagery is evident throughout.
Line by Line Meaning
The days of wine and roses laugh and run away like a child at play
The good times, symbolized by wine and roses, always seem to end too soon and quickly fade away, much like the carefree joy of a playful child.
Through a meadow land toward a closing door
We are on a journey, perhaps a happy one, but we sense that it's drawing to a close and an ending is near.
A door marked 'nevermore' that wasn't there before
As we approach the end of this journey, we see a closed door with the ominous message 'nevermore', suggesting that something we once had access to is now permanently closed off to us.
(The lonely night discloses) just a passing breeze filled with memories
As the night goes on and we are alone with our thoughts, we are visited by fleeting recollections of the pleasant times we've had.
Of the golden smile that introduced me to
One particular memory stands out: the warm smile of someone who brought us into a new experience, perhaps even one that involved the days of wine and roses.
The days of wine and roses and you
Ultimately, what we're reflecting on are those happy moments shared with someone special - memories that become intertwined with the wine and roses themselves, as well as a sense of loss for what will never be quite the same again.
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: HENRY N. MANCINI, JOHNNY MERCER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind