Wilson Pickett

Year:
1991
Inducted by:
Bobby Brown
Category:
Performers

Introduction

The Wicked Pickett’s signature scream established him as a soul icon.

Wilson Pickett had swagger. He was soulful and seductive, but Pickett was most famous for his scream, a powerful belt that he inexplicably kept dead on pitch.

Bobby Brown Inducts Wilson Pickett, Ahmet Ertegun Accepts On His Behalf

Bobby Brown Inducts Wilson Pickett, Ahmet Ertegun Accepts On His Behalf at the 1991 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

Bobby Brown Inducts Wilson Pickett, Ahmet Ertegun Accepts On His Behalf

00:01:20
"In the Midnight Hour"

00:04:47
"634-5789"

00:01:47
"Mustang Sally"

00:01:51
"Land of 1,000 Dances"

00:03:32
"Mustang Sally"

00:04:38
"In the Midnight Hour"

00:05:41

Hall of Fame Essay

1991

Leo Sacks

Showering his volcano of a voice over a stripped-down backbeat, Wilson Pickett was the original Midnight Mover, a man-and-a-half to a legion of female admirers, a modern-day Stagger Lee who fought with the Devil and came out on top.

Rough-hewn, sex-driven, he brought passion and pain to every throaty scream. Because there was no in-between for Wilson Pickett, the “Wicked” Pickett, the blood and guts of Southern soul.