The band heard on almost all of Pickett's Fame recordings included keyboardist Spooner Oldham and drummer Roger Hawkins./. Other big hits from this era in Pickett's career included two other covers: Mack Rice's "Mustang Sally", (#6 R&B), and Dyke & the Blazers' "Funky Broadway", (R&B #1, #8 Pop). This included the highest charting version of "Land of 1,000 Dances", which became Pickett's third R&B #1, and his biggest ever pop hit, peaking at #6. Located in a converted tobacco warehouse in nearby Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Pickett recorded some of his biggest hits there. As a result, Wexler took Pickett to Fame Studios, another recording studio with a closer association to Atlantic Records. All but "634-5789" were original compositions Pickett co-wrote with Eddie Floyd and/or Steve Cropper "634-5789" was credited to Cropper and Floyd alone.įor his next sessions, Pickett would not return to Stax the label's owner, Jim Stewart, banned all outside productions in December, 1965. In addition to "In the Midnight Hour," Pickett's 1965 recordings included the singles "Don't Fight It," (#4 R&B, #53 pop) "634-5789 (Soulsville, U.S.A,)" (#1 R&B, #13 pop) and "Ninety-Nine and A Half (Won't Do)" (#13 R&B, #53 pop). Pickett recorded three sessions at Stax in May and October 1965, and was joined by keyboardist Isaac Hayes for the October sessions. Basically, we'd been one-beat-accenters with an afterbeat it was like 'boom dah,' but here this was a thing that went 'um-chaw,' just the reverse as far as the accent goes." Cropper later explained in an interview that Wexler told them that "this was the way the kids were dancing they were putting the accent on two. Wexler said to Cropper and Jackson, "Why don't you pick up on this thing here?" He performed a dance step. & the M.G.'s, did not play on any of the Pickett studio sessions. Jones, who usually played with Dunn, Cropper and Jackson as Booker T. The genesis of "In the Midnight Hour" was a recording session on May 12, 1965, at which Wexler worked out a powerful rhythm track with studio musicians Steve Cropper and Al Jackson of the Stax Records house band, which also included bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn. "In the Midnight Hour" (1965), his best-remembered hit, peaking at #1 R&B, #21 pop (US), and #12 (UK).It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Pickett's breakthrough came at Stax Records' recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee, where he recorded his third Atlantic single, With this team, Pickett recorded "Come Home Baby," a duet with singer Tami Lynn, but this single failed to chart. Looking to boost Pickett's chart chances, Atlantic next paired him with record producer Bert Berns and established songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Pickett's Atlantic career began with a self-produced single, "I'm Gonna Cry". Rise to stardom: In The Midnight Hour (1965) Stayed in the woods, me and my little dog." Pickett eventually left to live with his father in Detroit in 1955. She used to hit me with anything, skillets, stove wood - (one time I ran away and) cried for a week. He was the fourth of 11 children and called his mother "the baddest woman in my book," telling historian Gerri Hirshey: "I get scared of her now. Pickett was born Main Prattville, Alabama and grew up singing in Baptist church choirs.