SACD Wilson Pickett – The Exciting Wilson Pickett

The Exciting Wilson Pickett as a hybrid stereo SACD from the Atlantic 75 Series: Memphis 1965 meets Muscle Shoals 1966, with “In The Midnight Hour”, “634-5789” and “Land Of 1000 Dances”. The twelve tracks play in one sequence – from “Land Of 1000 Dances” to Bobby Womack’s “She’s So Good To Me”.

Two studios, one voice

The Exciting Wilson Pickett brings together two of the defining places of 1960s soul: six recordings come from Stax in Memphis in 1965, six from FAME in Muscle Shoals in 1966. Released in 1966, the album mixes those sessions in an order that ignores the recording dates – and Wilson Pickett holds it all together with his gospel background and a voice you could never mistake for anyone else’s.

“In The Midnight Hour”, “634-5789”, “Ninety-Nine And A Half (Won’t Do)” and “Land Of 1000 Dances” are the landmarks. But hearing them within the album also draws your ear to the songs around them. Singles carried enormous weight in those days – here they become the foundation of an album with its own shape and concentration, tracing Pickett’s path from Memphis to Muscle Shoals.

The musicians behind the voice

Pickett and Steve Cropper wrote “In The Midnight Hour” in Memphis – a story that leads from the Lorraine Motel to the Stax studio. Cropper later recalled Jerry Wexler demonstrating a dance step during the session to get the rhythmic idea across: songwriting, accompaniment and dancing could hardly be closer. Cropper played guitar, Donald “Duck” Dunn bass and Al Jackson Jr. drums – and the pianist on this particular recording was Joe Hall, not, as is often assumed, the complete line-up of Booker T. & the M.G.’s.

Isaac Hayes is documented on piano or keyboards on other Memphis tracks, and horn players including Wayne Jackson, Andrew Love and Floyd Newman link several parts of the programme. At FAME, guitarists Chips Moman and Jimmy Johnson, keyboard player Spooner Oldham and drummer Roger Hawkins joined in, among others. So instead of one backing band for all twelve songs, you hear changing groups around a singer who stays unmistakable throughout.

Songs on the move

“Land Of 1000 Dances” began with Chris Kenner and had already been memorably recorded by Cannibal & the Headhunters before Pickett took it on – a journey from New Orleans songwriting into the wider world of rhythm and blues. Kenner also wrote “Something You Got”; “Barefootin’” comes from Robert Parker and “Mercy, Mercy” from Don Covay’s repertoire. These songs were alive among the performers of the day, and Pickett’s recordings are part of that exchange.

“You’re So Fine” adds a personal link: it had been a hit for the Falcons before Pickett joined the group. Eddie Floyd, another musician associated with the Falcons, co-wrote “634-5789” with Cropper and contributed to “Ninety-Nine And A Half”, and Bobby Womack wrote the closing “She’s So Good To Me”. Follow these names and you discover an album held together by relationships as much as by its lead singer.

The Atlantic 75 hybrid stereo SACD

CAPA 025 SA is a hybrid stereo SACD from the Analogue Productions Atlantic 75 Series. The SACD layer plays on SACD-capable players, the CD layer on any conventional CD player. The disc contains the twelve tracks of the original album – “Land Of 1000 Dances” opens the programme, and “In The Midnight Hour” follows as track 7.

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More from the series: Atlantic 75 Series

Also in another edition: The Exciting Wilson Pickett

Customer question: Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe

Musicians

Participants and documented credit status. Track references correspond to the tracklist.

Several Stax and FAME sessions. Disputed bass and additional horn credits are not listed as confirmed.