“In the Midnight Hour” (1965) – Wilson Pickett * Written by Steve Cropper and Wilson Pickett * 45: “In the Midnight Hour” / “I’m Not Tired” * LP: In the Midnight Hour * Label: Atlantic
As a song, “In the Midnight Hour” is an irresistibly coverable soul primer. As a recording, Wilson Pickett’s original version is untouchable. The stories told about it involve uncredited producer Jerry Wexler demonstrating dance steps to insure that Al Jackson (drums), Steve Cropper (guitar), and Donald “Duck” Dunn (bass) would punch the backbeat hard on the 2 and 4. They also tell of Cropper and Pickett composing it in the Lorraine Motel (later the assassination site of Martin Luther King, Jr.), and of Cropper claiming to have secularized an early Pickett gospel recording that had also included the words “in the midnight hour.” (He was likely remembering Pickett’s already secular “I Found a Love” with the Falcons.) The record’s ultimate power, though, is Pickett’s vocal, which sounds like a man manipulating hurricane winds.