WILSON PICKETT TWO Brand new art post cards, published in the late 1980s. Each is 4.25 x 6 in. “The Wicked Pickett” Wilson "The Wicked" Pickett "In the Midnight Hour" (Photographed c. 1963) Printed by Northern California art publisher, Pomegranate Publications. New, old stock. Out of print. Please ask us about combined shipping discounts. WILSON PICKETT
Of the major '60s
soul stars, Wilson Pickett was one of the roughest and sweatiest,
working up some of the decade's hottest dancefloor grooves on hits like
"In the Midnight Hour," "Land of 1000 Dances,"
"Mustang Sally," and "Funky Broadway." Although he tends to
be held in somewhat lower esteem than more versatile talents like Otis
Redding and Aretha Franklin, he is often a preferred alternative of
fans who like their soul on the rawer side. He also did a good deal to
establish the sound of Southern soul with his early hits, which were often
written and recorded with the cream of the session musicians in Memphis and
Muscle Shoals. Before establishing
himself as a solo artist, Pickett sang with the Falcons, who had
a Top Ten R&B hit in 1962 with "I Found a Love." "If You
Need Me" (covered by the Rolling Stones) and "It's Too
Late" were R&B hits for the singer before he hooked up with Atlantic
Records, who sent him to record at Stax in Memphis in 1965. One early result
was "In the Midnight Hour," whose chugging horn line, loping funky
beats, and impassioned vocals combined into a key transitional performance that
brought R&B into the soul age. It was an R&B chart-topper and a
substantial pop hit (number 21), though its influence was stronger than that
respectable position might indicate: thousands of bands, black and white,
covered "In the Midnight Hour" on-stage and record in the 1960s. Pickett had a
flurry of other galvanizing soul hits over the next few years, including
"634-5789," "Mustang Sally," and "Funky Broadway,"
all of which, like "In the Midnight Hour," were frequently adapted by
other bands as dance-ready numbers. The king of that hill, though, had to be
"Land of 1000 Dances," Pickett's biggest pop hit (number six), a
soul anthem of sorts with its roll call of popular dances, and covered by
almost as many acts as "Midnight Hour" was. Pickett didn't
confine himself to the environs of Stax for long; soon he was also cutting
tracks at Muscle Shoals. He recorded several early songs by Bobby Womack.
He used Duane Allman as a session guitarist on a hit cover
of the Beatles' "Hey Jude." He cut some hits in Philadelphia
with Gamble & Huff productions in the early '70s. He even did a
hit version of the Archies' "Sugar, Sugar." The hits kept
rolling through the early '70s, including "Don't Knock My Love" and
"Get Me Back on Time, Engine Number 9." His last big hit was
"Fire and Water," in 1972. He continued to be active on the tour
circuit; his most essential music, all from the 1960s and early '70s, was
assembled for the superb Rhino double-CD anthology A Man and a
Half. It's Harder Now, his first new material in over a decade,
followed in 1999. Pickett spent the early part of the 2000s performing,
before retiring in late 2004 due to ill health. He died on January 19, 2006,
following a heart attack. Wilson Pickett From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Wilson Pickett (March
18, 1941 – January 19, 2006) was
an American R&B/Soul singer and songwriter. A
major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over
50 songs which made the US R&B charts, and frequently crossed over to the
US 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".[1] The
impact of Pickett's songwriting and recording led to his 1991 induction into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[2] Early life Pickett
was born March 18, 1941 in Prattville, Alabama,[1] and
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.[3] 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.[2] The Falcons were one of the first
vocal groups to bring gospel into a popular context, thus paving the way for
soul music. The Falcons also featured some notable members who went on to
become major solo artists; when Pickett joined the group, Eddie
Floyd and Sir Mack Rice were also members of the group.
Pickett's biggest success with The Falcons came in 1962, when "I Found a
Love," (co-authored by Pickett and featuring his lead vocals), peaked at
#6 on the R&B chart, and at #75 on the Hot 100.[1] Soon after recording "I Found
a Love," 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, but denied it saying "It's over".[5] "First
time I ever cried in my life". Pickett's version of the song was
released on Double L Records, and was a moderate hit, peaking at #30 R&B,
#64 pop. Pickett's first big 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. [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.[1]
Pickett's breakthrough came at Stax
Records' recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee, where he recorded
his third Atlantic single, "In the Midnight Hour" (1965).[6] This
song became Pickett's first big hit, peaking at #1 R&B, #21 pop (US), and
#12 (UK).[1] It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold
disc.[7] 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 theStax 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." 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, Alabama, Pickett recorded some of his biggest hits there. 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.[7] Other big hits from this era in
Pickett's career included two other covers: Mack Rice's "Mustang
Sally", (#6 R&B, #23 Pop), and Dyke & the Blazers' "Funky
Broadway", (R&B #1, #8 Pop).[1] Both tracks were
million sellers.[7] The band heard on almost all of Pickett's
Fame recordings included keyboardist Spooner Oldham and drummer Roger
Hawkins.[8] [Rodger Collins'
"She's Looking Good" and a cover of the traditional blues standard "Stagger
Lee" were also Top 40 Pickett hits recorded at American. Womack was the
guitarist on all these recordings.
Pickett returned to Fame Studios in
late 1968 and early 1969, where he worked with a band that featured guitarist Duane
Allman, Hawkins and Bassist [Jerry Jemmott]. A #16 pop hit cover of The
Beatles' "Hey Jude" came from these Fame sessions, as well as the
minor hits "Mini-Skirt Minnie" and "Hey Joe". Late 1969 found Pickett at Criteria
Studios in Miami. Hit covers of The Supremes' "You Keep Me
Hangin' On" (#16 R&B, #92 Pop) and The Archies' "Sugar
Sugar" (#4 R&B, #25 Pop), as well as the Pickett original "She
Said Yes" (#20 R&B, #68 Pop) came from these sessions. Pickett then teamed up with
established Philadelphia-based hitmakers Gamble and Huff for the
1970 album Wilson Pickett In Philadelphia, which featured his next
two hit singles, "Get Me Back On Time, Engine No.9" and "Don't
Let The Green Grass Fool You", the latter selling one million copies.[7] Following these two big hits,
Pickett returned to Muscle Shoals and the band featuring David Hood, Hawkins
and Tippy Armstrong. This line-up recorded Pickett's fifth and last R&B #1
hit, "Don't Knock My Love, Pt. 1".[1] It was another
Pickett recording that clocked up sales in excess of one million copies.[7] Two
further hits followed in '71: "Call My Name, I'll Be There" (#10
R&B, #52 Pop) and "Fire and Water" (#2 R&B, #24 Pop), a cover
of a song by Free. Pickett recorded several tracks in
1972 for a planned new album on Atlantic, but after the single "Funk
Factory" reached #11 R&B and #58 pop in June 1972, he left Atlantic
for RCA Records. His final Atlantic single, a cover of Randy Newman's
"Mama Told Me Not To Come," was actually culled from Pickett's 1971
album Don't Knock My Love. In 2010, Rhino Handmade released a
comprehensive compilation of these years titled "Funky Midnight Mover –
The Studio Recordings (1962–1978)". The compilation included all
originally issued recordings during Pickett's Atlantic years along with
previously unreleased recordings. This collection was sold online only via
Rhino.com. Pickett continued to record
sporadically with several labels over the following decades, occasionally
making the lower to mid-range of the R&B charts, however he never had
another pop hit after 1974. His last record was issued in 1999, although he
remained fairly active on the touring front until he became ill in 2004.
Pickett appeared in the 1998 film Blues Brothers 2000,
performing "634–5789" along with Eddie Floyd and Jonny
Lang. [. The comeback
also resulted in his being honored as 'Soul/Blues Male Artist of the Year' by
the Blues Foundation in Memphis.[13] It's Harder Now was voted
'Comeback Blues Album of the Year' and 'Soul/Blues Album of the Year.'
In 2003, he co-starred in the D.A.
Pennebaker directed documentary Only the Strong Survive, a
selection of both the 2002 Cannes and Sundance Film Festivals. In 2003, Pickett
was also a judge for the second annual Independent Music Awards to
support independent artists' careers.[14] Pickett spent the twilight of his
career playing dozens of concert dates a year until 2004, when he began
suffering from health problems. While in the hospital, he returned to his
spiritual roots and told his sister that he wanted to record a gospel album.[4] However,
he never recovered. [[4] Pickett
spent many years in Louisville when his mother moved there from Alabama. He was
remembered on March 20, 2006, at New York's B.B. King Blues Club with
performances by the Commitments, Ben E King, his long-term backing band
the Midnight Movers, soul singer Bruce "Big Daddy" Wayne, and Southside
Johnny in front of an audience that included members of his family,
including two brothers.
Singles
· It's
Too Late (1963, Double L)
· In
The Midnight Hour (1965, Atlantic)
· The
Exciting Wilson Pickett (1966, Atlantic) US: #21
· The
Best Of Wilson Pickett (1967, Atlantic) US: #35
· The
Wicked Pickett (1967, Atlantic) US: #42
· The
Sound of Wilson Pickett (1967, Atlantic) US: #54
· I'm
In Love (1967, Atlantic) US: #70
· The
Midnight Mover (1968, Atlantic) US: #91
· Hey
Jude (1969, Atlantic) US: #97
· Right
On (1970, Atlantic)
· Wilson
Pickett In Philadelphia (1970, Atlantic) US: #64
· The
Best Of Wilson Pickett, Vol. II (1971, Atlantic) US: #73
· Don't
Knock My Love (1972, Atlantic) US: #132
· Mr.
Magic Man (1973, RCA) US: #187
· Wilson
Pickett's Greatest Hits (1973) US: #178
· Miz
Lena's Boy (1973, RCA) US: #212
· Pickett
In The Pocket (1974, RCA)
· Live
In Japan (1974, RCA)
· Join
Me And Let's Be Free (1975, RCA)
· Chocolate
Mountain (1976, Wicked)
· Funky
Situation (1978, Big Tree)
· I
Want You (1979, EMI) US: #205
· Right
Track (1981, EMI)
· American
Soul Man (1987, Motown)
· A
Man And A Half: The Best Of Wilson Pickett (1992, Rhino/Atlantic)
· It's
Harder Now (1999, Bullseye Blues)
· Live
And Burnin' – Stockholm '69 (2009, Soulsville)
· Live
In Germany 1968 (2009, Crypt Records 2009)
· Funky
Midnight Mover: The Atlantic Studio Recordings (1962–1978) (2010,
Rhino)[1]
Bibliography
§ Ross, Andrew
and Rose, Tricia (Ed.). (1994). Microphone fiends: Youth music and
youth culture. Routledge: New York. ISBN 0-415-90908-2
§ Hirshey,
Gerri. Nowhere to Run: The Story of Soul Music. Da Capo Press;
Reprint edition (September 1, 1994) ISBN 0-306-80581-2
§ Hirshey,
Gerri (February 9, 2006). Wilson Pickett, 1941–2006. Rolling Stone #933.
§ Sacks, Leo.
Liner notes to "A Man And A Half: The Best of Wilson Pickett" (1992,
Rhino).
§ Guralnick, Peter (1999). Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and
Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom. Back Bay Books. ISBN 978-0-316-33273-6. OCLC 41950519.
[
· Unterberger, Richie. Wilson Picket 1999 induction profile via
Alabama Music Hall of Fame
· Wilson
Pickett via classicbands.com
· Escott,
Colin. The Wicked Wilson Pickett.
· Boone,
Mike. In The Midnight Hour. via soul-patrol.com
· Associated
Press (19 January 2006). Soul Singer Wilson Pickett Dies at 64
· Muskal,
Michael (19 January 2006). Soul Pioneer Wilson Pickett Dies at 64. Los
Angeles Times
· Epstein,
Dan (19 January 2006). Soul Legend Wilson Pickett Dies. Rolling
Stone
· Leeds,
Jeff (19 January 2006). Wilson Pickett, 64, Soul Singer of Great Passion,
Dies. New York Times
· Jansen,
Lex (19 January 2006). Wilson Pickett at the Heart of Rock and Soul
· Article
About Wilson Pickett – by Dr. Frank Hoffmann
· Wilson
Pickett at Rolling Stone
· Wilson Pickett article, Encyclopedia of AlabamaFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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