Soul legend Pickett dies after heart attack
Wilson Pickett, the Alabama-born soul singer who brought a raw groove and growling energy to 1960s rhythm and blues music with hits such as “In the Midnight Hour” and “Mustang Sally,” died Thursday. He was 64.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member died at a hospital near his Reston, Va., home after suffering a heart attack, according to a statement released by his personal manager, Margo Lewis.
Pickett’s career spanned four decades. Before slowing down in 2005, he continued to perform, earning a Grammy nomination for the 1999 album “It’s Harder Now.” The album also received three W.C. Handy Awards, the genre trophy for blues and soul recordings.
Despite his longevity as a recording artist, his career was truly defined by his raspy, forceful delivery on a run of 1960s R&B hits, among them “Land of 1000 Dances,” “Funky Broadway” and the telephonically titled “634-5789.”
The singer was nicknamed “the Wicked Pickett” for his gruff power. No recording captured that intensity more famously than the 1966 hit “Mustang Sally,” released by Atlantic Records. That song and “In the Midnight Hour” were touchstone hits for young 1960s music fans. The songs were revived by the 1991 Alan Parker film “The Commitments” and its hit soundtrack. The film’s plot is about a scruffy collection of young Irish musicians and their ill-fated attempt to meet and perform with their hero, Pickett.
Pickett never actually appears in that film (he did show up in two less-celebrated movies, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” in 1978 and “Blues Brothers 2000”), but he tapped into the film’s spirit and success by performing at Los Angeles and New York premieres of the movie.
Pickett was born March 18, 1941, in Prattville, Ala. His earliest music experience was in Baptist church choirs. His home life, as the youngest of 11 children, was less uplifting.
“The baddest woman in my book … my mother,” the singer told author Gerri Hirshey for the book “Nowhere to Run: The Story of Soul Music.”
“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.”
Eventually, as a teen he went north to live with his father in Detroit. There, during the 1950s, Pickett performed with the gospel harmony group the Violinaires.
In 1959, Pickett became a member of the Falcons, along with future Memphis soul notables Joe Stubbs (brother of Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops), Sir Mack Rice and Eddie Floyd. The Falcons hit “I Found a Love” helped land Pickett a deal with Atlantic Records, where he hooked up with producer Jerry Wexler.
Wexler would be a guiding hand during the 1965 sessions for Stax Records that included the recording of “In the Midnight Hour.” It was a hit – co-written by Pickett – that found Pickett delivering a performance that was polished and raw at the same time. Wexler, whose resume includes famous sessions with Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan and Dusty Springfield, said those Pickett tapings were easily among his most memorable moments.
“There was something about those records and Wilson’s voice – those were some of the funkiest, deepest grooving, in-the-pocket recordings I ever heard,” Wexler said Thursday from his home in Florida.
Pickett is survived by two sons, Lynderrick and Michael, and two daughters, Veda and Saphan. He will be interred with his mother Lena in Louisville, Ky.