In the Midnight Hour: The Life & Soul of Wilson Pickett

Wilson Pickett (1941–2006) was a key figure in the creation of soul music in the 1960s. His career spanned many decades and music industry changes with hits including "In the Midnight Hour," "Mustang Sally," "Land of 1000 Dances," and many more. Born in Prattville, AL, to a sharecropper family, he loved hunting but disdained picking cotton. He moved to Detroit as a teen in the mid-1950s. There he went from singing gospel to secular music. All his past, and everything he was came through in his music: his strength, unabashedness, explosiveness, rawness, funk, grit, fierceness, sensuality, and pure soul. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. Fletcher, whose books include biographies of Who drummer Keith Moon and R.E.M., has written and researched this book with love, conveyed within the context of the times and industry. Fletcher uses many interviews, archives, and quotes from fellow authors to give readers a picture of a quick-tempered yet dedicated, committed artist and collaborator, who recorded live as much as possible—in many great studios.