Charlie Wilson Honors the Four Tops With New Single ‘One I Got’

Charlie Wilson pays tribute to the Four Tops in “One I Got,” a new single the R&B veteran released on Thursday at midnight. 

The track sits easily next to the rest of the Gap Band singer’s recent catalog: It’s beaming, optimistic, and besotted, with plenty of room for forceful, melismatic vocal runs. The hook borrows from “Ain’t No Woman Like the One I Got,” a Top Five single for the Four Tops in 1972 — and the group’s biggest hit after they left Motown. In Wilson’s new video, he shimmies in a teal blazer and buys his partner presents by the trunk-full, including a teddy bear that’s almost as big as he is. 

“All my records mainly have been celebrating women,” the singer says, speaking from his home in Los Angeles, where he’s now back to recording regularly. “I just continue to do that.” 

This has proved incredibly effective in the world of “Adult R&B,” a radio format that champions singers with links to pre-hip-hop soul traditions. Wilson has 11 Number One hits on the Adult R&B chart maintained by Mediabase, a company that tracks radio activity. The latest, “Forever Valentine,” which was co-written with Bruno Mars, the Stereotypes, and D’Mile, reached the summit in May. 

Now that Wilson can return to the studio — following a forced hiatus due to the pandemic — he’s “been writing a lot of songs and stockpiling.” “There’s more work to get from the Stereotypes and those guys, who are coming in with a batch,” Wilson says. “I record every few days. We have a lot of songs right now. I’ll probably end up with two albums.” 

There’s a purpose to this glut. “My plan for many years is to have three to four Number Ones on the same album,” Wilson explains. “I want to record enough records to have enough singles for that. I don’t know if I’ll make it on this one. But I’m sure gonna try.”