WILSON PICKETTGiven the howling, wide-eyed delivery of soul singer Wilson Pickett, who died on 19 January, 2006, it is perhaps no surprise that his first hit came on a label called Lupine Records.Like an enraptured congregation, the audience happily gave themselves over to Pickett the preacher man during his legendary live shows, in which he mixed soul solemnity with funk frenzy.Wilson Pickett was born on 18 March, 1941, in Prattville, Alabama, where he lived out a turbulent childhood with his mother, grandfather and 10 brothers and sisters.He migrated north to Detroit, where he sang in a gospel choir, before “going secular” and becoming a singer in The Falcons, for whom he wrote the 1962 hit, I Found a Love.Prompted to go solo by songwriting success, Mr Pickett signed to Atlantic in 1964, crooning his way to a first-release flop, before another producer recognised that he would be better off singing in the more potent southern-style soul of Otis Redding.In July 1965, at Stax records in Memphis, he hooked up with Booker T’s MGs, with whom he had his most recognisable, if not his highest charting hit, “In the Midnight Hour”.A dozen others followed, including in 1966, 634-5789 (Soulsville USA), Mustang Sally and, his biggest seller, Land Of 1000 Dances, and the late 60s constituted a rich period for him, recording and among the vanguard of a soul and funk movement that paced Detroit’s Tamla Motown hit for hit.After a successful segue into funk and cover versions of mainstream hits such as Hey Jude and Hey Joe at the end of the 60s, Mr Pickett left Atlantic and experimented with numerous recording styles, scoring two million-sellers in the process.However, in the 80s, he barely registered as an artist or performer, and only in the early 90s was his legacy reassessed, prompted in no small measure by the film, “The Commitments”, which paid homage to his biggest hits, and Mr Pickett earned an induction into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.His early 90s returnwas short-lived,but hesensationally wrestledback the initiative with a Grammy-nominated album of new material, “It’s Harder Now”, in 1999.He kick-started his live career once more, performing dozens of shows every year until ill health forced him off the road in 2005.His nickname “Wicked Pickett” was used to describe both his ferocious quasi-religious performances, reminiscent of the preachers he had witnessed in the gospel churches of Alabama, and his notorious offstage behaviour.Despite the longevity of his hits, Mr Pickett never quite achieved the same success or received the same public affection as his soul-funk peers, Ray Charles, Otis Redding or James Brown.But soul diva Aretha Franklin was in no doubt about his talent, paying tribute to him on his death as “one of the greatest soul singers of all time”.
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