BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY
Wilson Pickett March 18, 1941 – January 19, 2006 was an American R&B, soul and rock and roll singer and songwriter.
A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which hit 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". The impact of Pickett's songwriting and recording led to his 1991 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Early life
Pickett was born March 18, 1941 in Prattville, Alabama, and sang 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.
Early musical career (1955–1964)
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 referred to as "the architect of rock and roll.[4]
In 1955, Pickett joined gospel music group 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 popular gospel-harmony group, Pickett, lured by the success of gospel singers who moved to the lucrative secular music market, joined the Falcons in 1959.
By 1959, Pickett recorded the song "Let Me Be Your Boy" with Florence Ballard and The Primettes as the background. The song is the B-Side from his single from 1963 "My Heart Belongs To You".
The Falcons were an early vocal group bringing gospel into a popular context, thus paving the way for soul music. The Falcons featured notable members who became major solo artists; when Pickett joined the group, Eddie Floyd and Sir Mack Rice were 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 for the Falcons (Pickett would later re-record it, and have a hit with the song), "I Found A Love" paved the way for Pickett to go solo.
Soon after recording "I Found a Love", Pickett cut his first solo recordings, including "I'm Gonna Cry", in collaboration with Don Covay. 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 gave it to the label's recording artist,Solomon Burke. Burke's recording of "If You Need Me" was one of his biggest hits (#2 R&B, #37 Pop) and is considered a soul standard, but Pickett was crushed when he discovered that Atlantic had given away his song. However, when Pickett—with a demo tape under his arm—returned to Wexler's studio, Wexler asked whether he was angry about this loss, but denied it saying "It's over". "First time I ever cried in my life". Pickett's version was released on Double L Records, and was a moderate hit, peaking at #30 R&B, #64 pop.
Pickett's 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 peaked at number 7 on the R&B chart (number 49 Pop). This record's success convinced Wexler and Atlantic to buy Pickett's recording contract from Double L Records in 1964.
Rise to stardom: In the Midnight Hour (1965)
Pickett's Atlantic career began with the self-produced single, "I'm Gonna Cry". Looking to boost Pickett's chart chances, Atlantic 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' studio in Memphis, Tennessee, where he recorded his third Atlantic single, "In the Midnight Hour" (1965).[6] This song was Pickett's first big hit, peaking at number 1 R&B, number 21 pop (US), and number 12 (UK).[1] It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.
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, including 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 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 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 was a thing that went 'um-chaw,' just the reverse as far as the accent goes."
Stax/Fame years (1965–67)
Pickett recorded three sessions at Stax in May and October 1965, and 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 outside productions in December 1965. Wexler took Pickett to Fame Studios, a 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. This included the highest charting version of "Land of 1,000 Dances", which was Pickett's third R&B #1, and his biggest pop hit, peaking at #6. it was a million selling disc.
Other big hits from this era in Pickett's career included two 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 most of Pickett's Fame recordings included keyboardist Spooner Oldham and drummer Roger Hawkins.[8]
Later Atlantic years (1967–1972)[edit]
Near the end of 1967, Pickett began recording at American Studios in Memphis with producers Tom Dowd and Tommy Cogbill, and began recording 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 Womack penned hits for Pickett in 1967 and 1968. Pickett recorded works by other songwriters in this era; Rodger Collins' "She's Looking Good" and a cover of the traditional blues standard "Stagger Lee" were Top 40 Pickett hits recorded at American. Womack was the guitarist on all 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 out of the 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), and 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, "Engine No.9" and "Don't Let The Green Grass Fool You", the latter selling one million copies. Following these two 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". It was another Pickett recording that clocked up sales in excess of a million copies. 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 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 sold online only via Rhino.com.
Post-Atlantic recording career
Pickett continued to record with success on the R&B charts for RCA in 1973 and 1974, scoring four top 30 R&B hits with "Mr. Magic Man", "Take a Closer Look at the Woman You're With", "International Playboy" (a re-recording of a song he had previously recorded for Atlantic), and "Soft Soul Boogie Woogie". However, he was not crossing over to the pop charts with regularity, as none of these songs reached higher than #90 on the Hot 100. In 1975, with Pickett's once-prominent chart career on the wane, RCA dropped Pickett from the label.
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 a pop hit after 1974. His last record was issued in 1999, although he remained fairly active on the touring front until he fell ill in 2004. Pickett appeared in the 1998 film Blues Brothers 2000, performing "634–5789" along with Eddie Floyd and Jonny Lang. He was previously mentioned in the original Blues Brothers.
Personal life and honors
Outside of music, Pickett's personal life was troubled. Even in his 1960's heyday, Pickett was 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 when 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 pleaded guilty to drunken driving charges and received a reduced sentence of one year in jail and five years probation. Pickett had been previously convicted of various drug offenses.
Throughout the 1990's, despite his personal troubles, Pickett was continually honored for his contributions to music. In addition to being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, his music was prominently featured in the film The Commitments, with Pickett as an off-screen character. In 1993, he was honored with a Pioneer Award by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.
Pickett was a popular composer writing songs that were recorded by many artists including Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, the Grateful Dead, Booker T. & the MGs,Genesis, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Hootie & the Blowfish, Echo & the Bunny men, Roxy Music, Bruce Springsteen, Los Lobos, The Jam and Ani DiFranco, among others.
Several years after his release from jail, Pickett returned to the studio and received a Grammy Award nomination for the 1999 album It's Harder Now. The comeback resulted in his being honored as 'Soul/Blues Male Artist of the Year' by the Blues Foundation in Memphis. 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. Penne baker directed documentary Only the Strong Survive, a selection of both the 2002 Cannes and Sun dance Film Festivals. In 2003, Pickett was a judge for the second annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.
Pickett spent the twilight of his career playing dozens of concert dates every 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. However, he never recovered.
He had six children.
Death
Pickett died from a heart attack on January 19, 2006 in Reston, Virginia. He was 64. He was laid to rest in a mausoleum in Louisville, Kentucky at Evergreen Cemetery on Preston Highway. Pickett spent many years in Louisville when his mother moved there from Alabama. The eulogy was delivered by Pastor Steve Owens of Decatur, Georgia. Little Richard, a long-time friend of Pickett's, spoke about him and preached a message at the funeral. 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 South side Johnny in front of an audience that included members of his family, including two brothers.
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