100 Records That Shook The World, #64

In The Midnight Hour

Wilson Pickett

The Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee is famous for two reasons: it was here in 1968 that a certain Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered by gunman James Earl Ray, and it was here in 1965 that Wilson Pickett, a soul singer from Prattville, Alabama, and Steve Cropper, guitarist for the legendary Stax house band Booker T. & The M.G.'s, composed what would become a legendary song, In The Midnight Hour. 

The song has become a 1960s soul standard, and placed at #134 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All-Time, Wilson Pickett's first of two entries on the list (the other being "Mustang Sally" at #434). It is also one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll, Pickett's only such entry. The song is currently ranked as the 89th greatest song of all time, as well as the seventh best song of 1965, by Acclaimed Music.

Enjoy.

By the way, Eddie Murphy... next movie you do should be a Wilson Pickett biopic.