Something immediately clicked between Wilson Pickett and Steve Cropper. In fact, they created history on their very first night together as previously unknown writing partners.
Three hit songs would emerge, in one of the most impressive moments from the late-1960s partnership between Atlantic and Stax Records. They became a cornerstone in Wilson Pickett’s career — and, in at least one case, one of the most covered tracks in the history of pop music.
It started with a brief introduction.
Atlantic head “Jerry Wexler brought Wilson to Memphis, Tennessee, and we picked them up at the airport,” Cropper said recently. “He and Jim Stewart, the president of the [Stax Records] company, dropped us off at the Holiday Inn. He said, ‘Jim and I, we’re going talk business and go to dinner, so you guys start writing.’ So, they did — and they were gone for a couple of hours.”
From that scant amount of time together, these two musical geniuses produced “Don’t Fight It” (A No. 4 R&B hit in 1965), the timeless “In the Midnight Hour” — which topped the R&B charts and rose to No. 12 in the UK that same year — and its b-side, “I’m Not Tired.”
“They came back, and there was a knock on the door,” Cropper adds. “He says, ‘Have you guys been writing?’ We said, ‘Yeah, we’ve been writing.’ ‘Did you get anything?’ We played him a couple of songs, and they went, ‘Wow!’ [Laughs.] They said, ‘Why don’t you guys just keep on writing?'”
The songs were cut just as quickly. Wilson Pickett and Steve Cropper entered the studios on the very next day, and recorded all three songs.
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