Wilson Pickett was born 82 years ago today.
A R&B, soul and rock and roll singer and songwriter, Pickett was a major figure in the development of American soul music. He recorded more than 50 songs, which made the U.S. R&B charts and frequently crossed over to the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
Among his best known hits are "In the Midnight Hour" (which he co-wrote), "Land of 1,000 Dances," "Mustang Sally" and "Funky Broadway."
Born in Prattville, Alabama, Pickett grew up singing in Baptist church choirs. He was the fourth of 11 children and called his mother "the baddest woman in my book," telling historian Gerri Hirshey: "I get scared of her now. She used to hit me with anything, skillets, stove wood — (one time I ran away and) cried for a week. Stayed in the woods, me and my little dog."
Pickett eventually left to live with his father in Detroit in 1955. Pickett's forceful, passionate style of singing was developed in the church and on the streets of Detroit, under the influence of recording stars such as Little Richard, whom he later referred to as "the architect of rock and roll.”
In 1955, Pickett became part of a gospel music group called the Violinaires. The group accompanied The Soul Stirrers, The Swan Silvertones and The Davis Sisters on church tours across the country.
After singing for four years in the locally popular gospel-harmony group, Pickett, lured by the success of other gospel singers of the day, who left gospel music in the late 1950s for the more lucrative secular music market, joined the Falcons in 1959.
The Falcons were one of the first vocal groups to bring gospel into a popular context, thus paving the way for soul music. The group also featured some notable members who went on to become major solo artists. When Pickett joined the Falcons, Eddie Floyd and Sir Mack Rice were also members of the group.
Pickett's biggest success with The Falcons was "I Found a Love," co-authored by Pickett and featuring his lead vocals. A minor hit at the time for the Falcons (Pickett would later re-record it, and have a much bigger solo hit with the song) was "I Found A Love." It paved the way for Pickett to go solo.
Soon after recording the song, Pickett cut his first solo recordings, including "I'm Gonna Cry," his first collaboration with Don Covay. Around this time, Pickett also recorded a demo for a song he co-wrote, called "If You Need Me."
A slow-burning soul ballad featuring a spoken sermon, Pickett sent the demo to Jerry Wexler, a producer at Atlantic Records.
Wexler heard the demo and gave it to one of the label's own recording artists, Solomon Burke. Burke's recording of "If You Need Me" became one of his biggest hits (#2 R&B, #37 Pop) and is now considered a soul standard, but Pickett was crushed when he discovered that Atlantic had given away his song.
However, when Pickett — holding a demo tape under his arm — returned to Wexler's personal studio, Wexler asked him whether he was angry about this loss. Pickett said, “It’s over.”
Pickett's version of the song was released on Double L Records, and was a moderate hit, peaking at #30 R&B, #64 pop. His first significant success as a solo artist came with "It's Too Late," an original composition (not to be confused with the Chuck Willis standard of the same name).
Entering the charts on July 27, 1963, it eventually peaked at #7 on the R&B chart (#49 Pop). This record's success convinced Wexler and Atlantic to buy Pickett's recording contract from Double L Records in 1964. Pickett's Atlantic career began with a self-produced single, "I'm Gonna Cry."
Looking to boost Pickett's chart chances, Atlantic next paired him with record producer Bert Berns and established songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. With this team, Pickett recorded "Come Home Baby," a duet with singer Tami Lynn, but this single failed to chart.
Pickett's breakthrough came at Stax Records' recording studio in Memphis, where he recorded his third Atlantic single, "In the Midnight Hour" (1965). This song became Pickett's first big hit, peaking at #1 R&B, #21 pop (U.S.) and #12 (UK). It sold over a million copies.
The genesis of "In the Midnight Hour" was a recording session on May 12, 1965, at which Wexler worked out a powerful rhythm track with studio musicians Steve Cropper and Al Jackson of the Stax Records house band, which also included bassist, Donald "Duck" Dunn.
Stax keyboard player, Booker T. Jones, who usually played with Dunn, Cropper and Jackson as Booker T. & the M.G.'s, did not play on any of the Pickett studio sessions. Wexler said to Cropper and Jackson, "Why don't you pick up on this thing here?" He performed a dance step.
Cropper later explained in an interview that Wexler told them that "this was the way the kids were dancing; they were putting the accent on two. Basically, we'd been one-beat-accenters with an afterbeat; it was like 'boom dah,' but here this was a thing that went 'um-chaw,' just the reverse as far as the accent goes."
Pickett recorded three sessions at Stax in May and October, 1965, and was joined by keyboardist, Isaac Hayes, for the October sessions. In addition to "In the Midnight Hour," Pickett's 1965 recordings included the singles "Don't Fight It," (#4 R&B, #53 pop) "634-5789 (Soulsville, U.S.A,)" (#1 R&B, #13 pop) and "Ninety-Nine and A Half (Won't Do)" (#13 R&B, #53 pop).
All but "634-5789" were original compositions Pickett co-wrote with Eddie Floyd and/or Steve Cropper. "634-5789" was credited to Cropper and Floyd alone.
For his next sessions, Pickett would not return to Stax. The label's owner, Jim Stewart, banned all outside productions in December, 1965. As a result, Wexler took Pickett to Fame Studios, another recording studio with a closer association to Atlantic Records.
Located in a converted tobacco warehouse in nearby Muscle Shoals, Pickett recorded some of his biggest hits. This included the highest charting version of "Land of 1,000 Dances," which became Pickett's third R&B #1, and his biggest ever pop hit, peaking at #6. It was another million selling disc.
Toward the end of 1967, Pickett began recording at American Studios in Memphis with producers Tom Dowd and Tommy Cogbill, and also began recording numerous songs by Bobby Womack.
The songs "I'm In Love," "Jealous Love," "I've Come A Long Way," "I'm A Midnight Mover" (a Pickett/Womack co-write) and "I Found A True Love" were all Womack-penned hits for Pickett in 1967 and 1968.
Outside of music, Pickett's personal life was troubled. Even in his 1960s heyday, Pickett's friends found him to be temperamental and preoccupied with guns. Don Covay described him as "young and wild." Then in 1987, as his recording career was drying up, Pickett was given two years' probation and fined $1,000 for carrying a loaded shotgun in his car.
In 1991, he was arrested for allegedly yelling death threats while driving a car over the front lawn of Donald Aronson, the Mayor of Englewood, New Jersey. The following year, he was charged with assaulting his girlfriend.
In 1993, Pickett was involved in an accident where he struck an 86-year-old pedestrian, Pepe Ruiz, with his car in Englewood. Ruiz, who helped organize the New York animation union, died later that year. Pickett pled guilty to drunken driving charges and received a reduced sentence of one year in jail and five years probation.
In 2003, Pickett co-starred in the D.A. Pennebaker-directed documentary, Only the Strong Survive, a selection of both the 2002 Cannes and Sundance Film Festivals.
Pickett spent the twilight of his career playing dozens of concert dates a year until 2004, when he began suffering from health problems.
Pickett died from a heart attack on January 19, 2006 in Reston, Virginia. He was 64.
Here, Pickett performs his signature hit, “In the Midnight Hour”
Wilson Pickett and James Brown perform “Cold Sweat” and “Midnight Hour”