Wilson Pickett
 Wilson
Pickett was born in the small town of Prattville, Alabama, where
he lived with his mother, grandfather, and ten brothers and
sisters.
Home life was turbulent. His mother would hit him with anything
she could find, and his grandfather beat him when he was caught
with a copy of Louis Jordan's 1947 R&B hit Ain't Nobody
Here But Us Chickens.
In his teens Pickett became part of the rural black migration
northwards and joined his father in Detroit in the early
1950s.
There he sang gospel music with The Violinaires, modelling his
singing on the abandoned vocal style of the Reverend Julius
Cheeks, leader of one of the era's most prestigious black
religious groups, the Sensational Nightingales.
Pickett was lured into the secular music business and became
lead vocalist with The Falcons (a group which also included
another future soul star, Eddie Floyd, and Joe Stubbs - brother of
The Four Tops' Levi Stubbs). The band often performed with The
Primettes, a female group who would later become The Supremes.
After writing and singing on the million-seller I Found A
Love with The Falcons, Pickett went solo, and his first record
- If You Need Me - became an R&B hit.
After signing to Atlantic in 1964 Pickett recorded a series of
soul classics including In The Midnight Hour and Ninety
Nine And A Half Won't Do (both co-written by Pickett and Steve
Cropper from Booker T & The MG's), 634-5789, Mustang
Sally, Funky Broadway, Land Of A Thousand Dances
and Soul Dance Number Three.
Pickett had one of the most powerful sets of vocal chords in
the business, and while slow numbers often highlighted his
inability to deal with any emotion outside the crudely assertive
or straightforwardly raving, on harder, up-tempo numbers his
raucous and tortured delivery was virtually unchallenged.
After recording the 1970 US hit Don't Let The Green Grass
Fool You he left Atlantic to sign with RCA where he developed
a more restrained sound than on his classic Atlantic singles. As
the seventies continued, the advent of Disco put Pickett's
soul-based musical style out of step with the current trends in
R&B, and in pop music in general. In 1975, with Pickett's
career on the wane, RCA dropped him from the label.
Formal recognition came with Pickett's induction into the Rock
& Roll Hall Of Fame in 1991. The same year saw the release of
Alan Parker's movie of Roddy Doyle's novel The Commitments,
a homage to 60s soul in general, and Pickett's place within it.
Meanwhile, his personal life was beginning to disintegrate.
 In the early 1990s he was involved in a series of drink or
drug-related incidents.
These included shouting death threats
while driving across the mayor's front lawn in Englewood Cliffs,
New Jersey, and culminated in a 12-month jail sentence for drunken
driving in 1993.
By 1999 Pickett had moved to Ashburn, Virginia, and made a
triumphant return to the music scene with his highly acclaimed
album It's Harder Now.
He spent the twilight of his career
playing dozens of concert dates a year up until 2004 when he began
suffering from health problems.
He died of a heart attack on January 19, 2006 in hospital near
his home and was buried next to his mother in Louisville,
Kentucky. He was survived by his fiancée, Gail Webb, two sons and
two daughters. Little Richard, gave the eulogy and preached
briefly at the funeral .
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