Wilson Pickett

Wilson Pickett (born March 18, 1941, in Prattville, Alabama) was an American soul singer who began his career with The Falcons in the early 1960s. He signed as a solo artist with Atlantic Records and recorded "In the Midnight Hour&quo

Wilson Pickett (born March 18, 1941, in Prattville, Alabama) was an American soul singer who began his career with The Falcons in the early 1960s. He signed as a solo artist with Atlantic Records and recorded "In the Midnight Hour" (1965), perhaps his best-remembered hit.

The genesis of "In the Midnight Hour" was a recording session on May 12, 1965 in which producer Jerry Wexler approached studio musicians Steve Cropper and Al Jackson (from Stax house band Booker T. and the M.G.'s) and said, "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." The song that resulted from this encounter established Pickett as a star and also gave Stax Records, for which Pickett recorded, a bona fide hit.