Soul pioneer Wilson Pickett, whose hits included Mustang Sally, In the Midnight Hour and Land of 1,000 Dances, has died of a heart attack at 64.
Raised in Alabama, Pickett arrived in Detroit in his teens and was an R&B star in his mid-twenties. He trained as a singer in Baptist church choirs and a gospel-harmony group before joining a soul group called the Falcons in the late 1950s.
He had a string of solo hits in the 1960s and early 1970s, including Funky Broadway, It’s Too Late and If You Need Me, songs later covered by groups such as the Rolling Stones.
An aggressively rhythmic style earned him the nickname Wicked Pickett.
An official of his management company said Pickett had health problems for a year before his death on Thursday, the Associated Press reported.
Photo: Wilson Pickett
Credit: Cbc.ca
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