The Exciting Wilson Pickett | |
Type: | studio |
Artist: | Wilson Pickett |
Cover: | TheExcitingWilsonPickett.jpg |
Released: | August 1966 |
Recorded: | May 12, 1965 - May 8, 1966 |
Studio: | Memphis, Tennessee and Muscle Shoals, Alabama |
Genre: | Southern soul[1] |
Length: | 30:54 |
Label: | Atlantic 8129 |
Producer: | Jerry Wexler, Steve Cropper, Jim Stewart, Rick Hall, Tom Dowd |
Prev Title: | In the Midnight Hour |
Prev Year: | 1965 |
Next Title: | The Wicked Pickett |
Next Year: | 1966 |
The Exciting Wilson Pickett, released in 1966, was the third album by R&B and soul singer Wilson Pickett. The album charted at #3 on the U.S. Billboard R&B albums chart and #21 on the popular albums chart, becoming the highest-charting studio album of Pickett's career. The making of the album saw Pickett end his relationship with Stax Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had cut his early singles, and move to Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where he would record for the next two years. According to AllMusic, this album firmly established Picket's "stature as a major '60s soul man". The album launched four major hits for Pickett, but AllMusic emphasizes that the album cuts, "of nearly an equal level", will be of more interest to collectors.
Originally released on the Atlantic label, the album has been re-issued on CD by Rhino, Collectables and Warner Bros. Records. In 2007, a new LP edition was released by the label 4 Men with Beards.
The Exciting Wilson Pickett launched four crossover hit singles. "In the Midnight Hour" reached #1 on the Billboard R&B singles chart and #21 on the pop singles chart. "Land of a Thousand Dances" reached #1 and #6 respectively, his biggest pop hit. "Ninety-nine and a Half (Won't Do)" reached #13 and #53. "634-5789 (Soulsville, U.S.A.)", a song which Pickett had not on first hearing liked, reached #1 and #13.
Pickett later redid the song "Land of a Thousand Dances", originally a hit in 1963 for New Orleans-based composer Chris Kenner, for the soundtrack of The Great Outdoors, a 1988 film starring Dan Aykroyd and John Candy.