Wilson Pickett's Greatest Hits

One of all-time soul greats,Willson Pickett was sensational,passionate and explosive human dynamo who had recorded some of the best soul hits of 1960s. His original albums were mixed affairs so that is why CD compilation makes better sense as everything is cherry-picked and follows his best moments without having to go through everything (although there is a pleasure in discovering one's own favorites).Everything is classic here: "In The Midnight Hour","Land of 1000 Dances","Mustang Sally","Funky Broadway",634-5789" - you name it,Pickett did it,really great tiger's roar that shakes the dance floors and works out fine even now,decades after initial release.Some very interesting Pickett takes on other artists hits are also present ("Hey Jude","Sugar Sugar","You Keep Me Hangin' On") where its clear he could sink his teeth in any kind of material and bring soul to it,makes one wonder what could he do if backed by some really great rock band,for example.For some reason Wilson Pickett never achieved same success later - some say its because music changed and his particular gospel-based style went out of fashion,giving way to slick Philadelphia soul and later disco but I am not convinced - he stayed concert attraction long after hits stopped coming so perhaps managers,producers and collaborators (or any outside reasons) pulled all in different directions,however he stayed beloved with certain audience who idolizes him even now.He even appears as fictional character in "The Commitments" movie where everybody trembles because Willson Pickett arrives.Pickett was one of the stars who performed at famous "Soul to Soul" concert in Ghana (1971.) and it is fascinating documentary (recently released on DVD) where Pickett clearly steals the show from everybody else, just watch local audience going wild over him and even jumping on a stage to join delighted singer in dancing.With all these soul classic it is interesting that CD ends (almost like afterthought) with several of Pickett's first rare recordings from previous era when he was still young,up-and-coming singer with clearly audible passion and even a little bit of Little Richard is present in his singing approach. "I Found A Love" is that rare,superb moment when gospel turns into early soul and "It's Too Late" was Pickett's first solo hit,still preceding real soul explosion for several years showing that Pickett was there when it all started.Closing song,"If You Need Me" is of course a soul classic now but bitter victory for Pickett who wrote song himself just to find it recorded by Solomon Burke who shooted to nr.2 with it,on this CD we have original version.Those three early songs at the end are very interesting peeks at Pickett's early recordings and very suggestive for future research about where soul music actually comes from,probably my next purchase.

PICKETT, Wilson. Greatest Hits. 1987; orig. 1965-71. WP, voc, harm; Wayne Jackson, Gene ‘ Bowleg’s Miller, others, tpt; King Curtis, Charlie Chamlers, Andrew Love, James Mitchell, tpt; Floyd Newman, bari sx; Bobby Emmons, Billy Carter, keybds; Joe Hall, Isaac Hayes, Spooner Oldham, Barry Beckett, Bobby Woods, Ugene Dozier, Lenny Pakula, Dave Crawford, p; Steve Cropper, Chips Moman, Jimmy Johnson, Bobby Womack, Reggie Young, Duane Allman, Jim O’Rourke, Eddie Hinton, Roland Chambers, Bobby Eli, Dennis Coffey, Tippy Armstrong, guit; Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn, Tommy Cogbill, Albert Lowe, Jr., Gerry Jemmott, Harold Cowart, Ronnie Baker, David Hood, elec b; Al Jackson, Roger Hawkins, Gene Chrisman, Tubby Ziegler, Earl Young, dr; Cissy Houston, Jackie Verdell, John Utley, backgrd voc; Vince Montana, vib, perc; Eddy Brown, conga; Jack Ashford, perc; The Falcons, voc; occasional strings and horns.With the publication of Tom Fletcher’s In the Midnight Hour: The Life and Soul of Wilson Pickett (Oxford, 2017), this is a good time to look back at Pickett’s work as an r&b and soul performer. Greatest Hits focuses on the Stax Records years, from 1965 to 1967, when Pickett’s best recordings were made. Pickett co-wrote nine of the twenty-four songs, including “In the Midnight Hour” and “Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won’t Do)”, and all of them take advantage of Pickett’s rough-edged voice and charismatic performances. This is good stuff, there’s no doubt about that. But interestingly, though Pickett’s performances are good, indeed great, on the songs I’m most familiar with, I like the performances of other soul artists more. I think the Chambers Brothers’ recording of “In the Midnight Hour” has an edge on Pickett’s, mostly because of tempo –theirs moves more. Likewise, Etta James shines on “Ninety Nine and a Half” and Buddy Guy’s “Mustang Sally” is nonpareil. This is not to knock Pickett. Rather, it shows how rich and varied soul music could be in that golden era of r&b. I particularly admired Pickett’s take on the Beatles “Hey Jude,” which was suggested to him by Duane Allman, who plays on the record, and I love the later cuts on this album, which show Pickett moving toward a more James Brown funkified soul.

Wilson Pickett (March 18, 1941 – January 19, 2006) was an American R&B, soul and rock and roll singer and songwriter.A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, many of which crossed over to the Billboard Hot 100. Among his best-known hits are "In the Midnight Hour" (which he co-wrote), "Land of 1,000 Dances", "Mustang Sally", and "Funky Broadway" which all appear on this CD.I think the version of "Hey Jude" on this CD was his original album version. It starts out and continues for quite some time by following the original Beattles lead. Near the end, he adds the Wilson Pickett screams, prolonging the series of screams a bit too long for me. I've heard another Wilson Pickett version of this song that I thought wandered so far from the original Beatles song that I found it far less enjoyable than this version.The vast majority of these tracks are stereo, but there are eight or nine mono tracks, mostly at the beginning of the album. On all tracks, the audio is extremely good and clean. The songs are mostly soul or Rhythm and blues, but there is also a good collection of rock-n-roll tracks.This album was a great pleasure to listen to. It brought back memories of the late sixties and early seventies. Wilson Pickett was a great performer that every rhythm and clues or soul music fan will greatly enjoy. Highly recommended.

Je ne connaissais pas Wilson PICKETT il y a quelques années. Je me suis intéressé à lui en écoutant, un peu par hasard, "In the midnight hour", son plus grand hit. Après un rapide tour d'horizon des compilations existantes, celle-ci est de loin la plus complète selon moi.L'artiste n'a qu'un seul défaut : ses nombreuses reprises (environ la moitié des titres) ce qui, pour moi, lui coute une 5ème étoile. Mais ce CD contient tellement de bons morceaux, qu'il reste vraiment excellent. La voix chaleureuse de Wilson y est pour beaucoup, mais l'orchestration est peut-être le point que je mettrai le plus en avant.Il y a bien sûr "In the midnight hour", mais aussi des chansons incoutournables comme "Mustang Sally" (dont l'intro me semble avoir été reprise par The Avener et Phoebe KILDEER&...) et "Land of a thousand dances". Puis des morceaux peut-être un peu moins connus mais que je juge excellent tel "Don't let the green grass", "634-5789" et "99 and a half". Il n'y a pas de morceau médiocre.Bref, en dehors de ses nombreuses reprises (mais il faut le reconnaitre, c'était la norme à l'époque), cet artiste doit avoir sa place dans toute CDthèque qui se veut exhaustive.

Alles bestens, super schnell geliefert! Die Ware ist wie beschrieben! Danke und jederzeit wieder. Kann ich nur empfehlen! Zur Musik braucht man nichts zu sagen, ist eine gute Zusammenstellung aller "Klassiker" von Pickett!

Album import de Wilson Pickett, tous les meilleurs titres, le rendu est top

Pour moi-même.

I love every song on this CD. Terrific artist and fantastic entertainment