Pitchfork

Soul legend Wilson Pickett died of a heart attack in a Virginia hospital today, according to his management company. He was 64 years old. Pickett was among the grittiest, rawest soul singers of the 60s, and during his tenure on Atlantic records from 1965 to 1973, he recorded such landmark stompers as "In the Midnight Hour" and "Land of 1,000 Dances."

Pickett left his hometown of Prattville, Alabama while still in his teens, heading to Detroit and starting his first group, the Violinaires, in the late 50s. He later joined the Falcons, led by fellow soul giant Eddie Floyd, hitting the R&B; Top 10 in 1962 with "I Found a Love," a classic soul burner topped by Pickett's screaming and sweating lead vocal. Three years later, after a few minor solo hits with RCA, Atlantic sent him to Memphis to record with the Stax crew, where the pumping "In the Midnight Hour" established him as a force to reckon with and helped define the gritty Southern soul style.

Over the next few years, he cut side after side of fiery, vital soul, including "Mustang Sally," "Funky Broadway", "I Found a True Love" and the smoking Bobby Womack collaboration "I'm a Midnight Mover," splitting his recording time between Stax and Muscle Shoals. An unlikely pairing with Gamble & Huff for 1970's Wilson Pickett in Philadelphia worked out surprisingly well, and produced the hits "Don't Let the Green Grass Fool You" and "Get Me Back on Time, Engine No. 9," the latter a sweet slice of churning funk with psychedelic overtones. Pickett continued to have hits right into the early 70s, capping his long string of smashes in 1971 with the thrashing funk cut "Don't Knock My Love."

Pickett left Atlantic for RCA shortly afterward, and never again had the same level of success, commercially or artistically. He was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. In 1999, he cut It's Harder Now, a surprisingly strong comeback album that found his paint-scraping falsetto still intact.

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