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
My Ship
Nancy Wilson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The decks are trimmed with gold,
And of jam and spice there's a paradise in the hold.
My ship's aglow with a million pearls
And rubies fill each bin,
The sun sits high in a sapphire sky when my ship comes in.
Till it appears
One fine day one spring,
But the pearls and such
They won't mean much if there's missing just one thing.
I do not care if that day arrives
That dream need never be,
If the ship I sing doesn't also bring
My own true love to me,
If the ship I sing doesn't also bring my own true love to me.
Nancy Wilson's My Ship is a song about hope, love, and the beauty of an imagined world that one hopes to find one day. The opening lines, "My ship has sails that are made of silk, The decks are trimmed with gold, And of jam and spice there's a paradise in the hold", paint a vivid picture of a grand, luxurious ship that is filled with treasures and exotic delights. The singer of the song waits patiently for this ship to arrive and dreams of the day when they can set sail to a paradisiacal land on this grand vessel.
However, as the song progresses, it becomes clear that the true desire of the singer is not just for material wealth and luxury, but for a deep and genuine love. The lines "I can wait the years till it appears, One fine day one spring, But the pearls and such, They won't mean much if there's missing just one thing" suggest that the singer is willing to wait for as long as it takes to find their true love – regardless of the riches that the ship may bring. In fact, the singer implies that all the wealth and treasures that the ship holds will be meaningless if their true love is not on board.
The final lines, "I do not care if that day arrives, That dream need never be, If the ship I sing doesn't also bring, My own true love to me" drive home the true message of the song – that ultimate happiness and fulfillment can only be found in love. The ship may bring all sorts of worldly pleasures, but without a true love to share it with, it will ultimately fall short.
Line by Line Meaning
My ship has sails that are made of silk,
The elegance of my ship is indicated by the sails made of silk.
The decks are trimmed with gold,
The decks of my ship are adorned with beautiful Gold trimmings.
And of jam and spice there's a paradise in the hold.
The hold of my ship is filled with rich and delicious jam and spice.
My ship's aglow with a million pearls
The shining of my ship is enhanced by several exquisite pearls shining bright.
And rubies fill each bin,
Every bin in my ship is filled with an abundance of rubies.
The sun sits high in a sapphire sky when my ship comes in.
My ship is so magnificent that even the sky changes its color to welcome it.
I can wait the years
I have no problem waiting for long periods of time.
Till it appears
Until that one fine day when everything comes together.
One fine day one spring,
This perfect day will arrive eventually, maybe next spring.
But the pearls and such
Even with these treasures,
They won't mean much if there's missing just one thing.
If my true love is not with me, none of these material things will matter.
I do not care if that day arrives
I don't mind if this day never comes,
That dream need never be,
This dream is not the most important thing to me,
If the ship I sing doesn't also bring
If my ship does not bring something else I desire,
My own true love to me,
If my true love is not with me then my dreams will be incomplete.
If the ship I sing doesn't also bring my own true love to me.
My true love is the most important thing to me and my perfect day must include their presence.
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Ira Gershwin, Kurt Weill
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind