Wilson Pickett – 100 Greatest Songs of the 60’s #51 – In The Midnight Hour

Released: 1965

Whoever first coined the phrase “They could start an argument in an empty room” probably wasn’t talking about Wilson Pickett specifically, but the cap certainly fit. Such was his foul temper that Stax co-owner Jerry Wexler allegedly nicknamed him ‘The Wicked Pickett’, and writing in 2006 Andy Gill recalled the time when Pickett took such offense to a comment made by Percy Sledge that the two almost ended up in a fist fight.

Without attempting to take the job of child psychiatrists everywhere, maybe the intransigence was due in part to his upbringing as one of eleven children in Prattville, Alabama. Pickett sang in church gospels and having been banished to Detroit to live with his father, crossed over into secular pop with The Falcons before going solo. It was until 1965 however that his raw, emotion-drenched vocals found the catalyst they needed.

In The Midnight Hour coalesced around an idea had by The MG‘s guitarist Steve Cropper, who took a fragment of Pickett’s outro phrasing and turned it into a hook. Next came Wexler, who insisted that the song’s rhythm should line up with a new dance craze called The Jerk, even demonstrating it in the studio. Happy with the advice or not, the finished article changed the direction of the singer’s career forever. At least there was no arguing about that.