Wilson Pickett's Greatest Hits

Wilson Pickett's Greatest Hits

Wilson Pickett's Greatest Hits is the best one-stop shop for his Atlantic Records hits.

Not only does it provide Pickett's best work, the listener is also given some songs prior to In The Midnight Hour that proves he was destined to be a soul music legend.

I held the double-vinyl copy of WiGH in my hands sometime last year.

The price was very reasonable for some that had no Wilson Pickett music in their collection to speak of or even play.  I otherwise would have bought it but reason stepped in befofe I stepped to the cash register.

My reasoning was that I owned the CD copy of the album as well as practically every album from whch the songs originally appear.

Wilson Pickett Greatest Hits
The WPGH CD that made me the fan that I am only chose to feature 2 songs from Right On. You Keep Me Hangin' On & Sugar Sugar. Ironically or coincidentally,
both songs are covers and the Sugar Sugar still managed to be a top 5 hit even as underwhelming as the track.



Fast forward to summer 2014. I popped in the CD while doing chores in my apartment. THe hits litterally came fast and furious
and one realizes WIlson pickett was one of the soul greats. Before the first quarter of the compilation is done.
I wish I could have been able to see him perform live during his 1960s prime.
The footage available to us makes us know what we missed.

Sean Price

Sean Price was always nice on the mic. 

Monkey Barz was one of the best hip hop albums I had heard in the past decade. Like Madvillany, the production quality was exactly what I needed at a time when I didn’t want to hear much hip hop. 

Onion Headz is my favorite Sean Price song to date.

Sean Price was busy over the last few years with various posse cut appearances and albums released.

I was very happy to have been at the Sean Price show at Cabaret de Mile End in 2010. It was one of the best concerts for that year. I waited for him to spit Onion Headz from Monkey Barz and saw I wasn’t alone. We all acted like apes as he preformed the song.

My good fortune continued when he performed at the Duck Down/Blacksmith CMJ Showcase.

To my surprise, one of my favorite Montreal spots for music had a copy of his Passion of  Price DVD for sale. The DVD gives the chance to hear more Price music anytime. There are exclusive videos, interviews and footage.

R.I.P. Sean Price

Rudy Ray Moore

I believe that had Big Daddy Kane not featured Rudy Ray Moore on a track from Taste of Chocolate, I would have learned of the legendary comedian a lot later in my life or quite possibly never.

On his third classic album, Big Daddy Kane goes toe-to-toe and verse-for-verse with the randy Rudy Ray Moore.  Kane was already among the elite MCs of the day but many of my generation barely knew of Dolemite/Rudy Ray Moore.

Rudy Ray Moore is of course victorious and proved to the younger cats like myself who and why we know of Dolemite.

Many years ago, Rudy Ray Moore appeared in Montreal for a screening of Dolemite.

Me being the blogger that I am, I ventured to see the comedian at the Imperial Theatre. 

I don’t really remember much about the night but these few details.

If I saw Dolemite, I don’t remember much about the film.  I would need to see a scene or two to refresh my memory. 

What I do remember was what happened prior to my departure from the Imperial Theatre.  I think I was half expecting him to perform stand up comedy at some point while he was onstage but that didn’t happen.  I thought he was going to be present for a question and answer period about his movies and comedy.   That didn’t happen either.  Instead, Rudy Ray Moore began to sing-talk sexually laced lyrics that managed to get the crowd to erupt in boos. 

The screening and booing of Rudy Ray Moore occurred dangerously close to the 1am mark.  Anyone who uses public transit to get to and from the suburbs into town understands that time was neither on my side nor Rudy Ray Moore’s.  I would have loved to see and hear how the events manifested but I had to leave to catch a bus.

Part of me would have booed him too had it not been for the respect I had for him being an influential part of the culture I held near and dear.  If it is not known yet, I love very good stand up comedy.  To not get it makes me angry à la Marvin the Martian.

Another part of me was saddened to see the legend get treated that way in my hometown.  He was an old man on stage getting booed.

Quite frankly, maybe it was best I didn’t witness what happened in my absence.  It is already bad enough for me to connect Rudy Ray Moore to the unpleasant booing surrounding me as I left the theatre. 

Patrick Adams

I have recently gotten acquainted with the P&P Records catalog.

A few local crate digger colleagues were on the P&P Records path years ago and informed me of their quest to acquire music from the label. I had my hands full with my own projects and couldn’t undertake searching for what I understood to be expensive records.

I was destined to find the triple vinyl collection, Peter Brown And P&P Records Presents The Master Of The Masterpiece - The Very Best Of Mr. Patrick Adams, at the 2011 Puces POP Record Fair. Among them is Black Ivory’s I Keep Asking You Questions, my favorite song by the group to date.


IN THE BUSH by MUSIQUE by Discolarry125

I heard Musique’s In The Bush when it was released but it would take me this long to know Patrick Adams was responsible for it.



As stated many times, CMJ 2011 was rather disappointing except for my time spent shopping and crate digging. In a record store basement, I came across the Kenny Dope vs P&P Records CD along with the Super Rap - Original Rap & Hip Hop From Harlem's P&P Records (2002) compilation and naturally did not leave New York without them.



I was also thrilled to find a DVD which I thought was a documentary about the Patrick Adams/Peter Brown record label. Sadly, it was a homemade video of Peter Brown being interviewed with P&P Records music playing in the background so loudly that it drowned out his voice.

I will have to learn more through my own measures and resources. For now, the triple vinyl package and CDs will be my prime source of education.

Wilson Pickett - Don't Knock My Love

I grew up seeing the DKML 7" single in my house. I used to play it on my Fisher Price record player if a parent asked me to do so. It was
Easily my first exposure to Wilson Pickett until I learned about In The Midnight Hour and delving into the Wilson Pickett CD.
DKML is Wilson Pickett's last album on Atlantic Records and is a very good one even if Gamble & Huff weren't involved like the previous classic album.
I was very surprised to have come across a copy of the DKML album while crate-digging in a now closed Montreal record store.
I bought it immediately upon sight because I had no knowledge of the album, did not come across a copy prior to that moment and was not going
to change never seeing one again.

Wilson Pickett in Philadelphia

If I didn't already have the WP IP CD, I might have made the mistake of for me to have given my vinyl copy of teh album awya.

Tupac Shakur - Me Against the World

Me Against The World is quite possibly the most emotionally charged and moving hip hop album considering the events surrounding its release.

While apartment-sitting for a friend during the summer of 1995, I saw the Me Against The World CD in their collection and decided, against my nature, to give it a listen.  It was the first Tupac album I would ever hear in its entirety.

After the initial listen, I understood why people that talked to me about Tupac spoke the way they did.  I realized my bias towards East Coast hip hop could have denied me the experience of listening to Shakur’s songs.  I had not heard an MC that deeply poetic, prophetic and profound.  No East Coast MC managed to move me and conjure up emotions with his lyrics and delivery like Tupac.

Dear Mama is in my top 5 most moving hip hop songs ever heard recorded.  The rest of the album has other special songs as well.  I remember Old School and Lord Knows causing me to pay closer attention to the lyrics and production as the songs blasted from the stereo speakers.

June 16 marks the anniversary of Tupac Shakur's birth.

Wilson Pickett - Right On

Wilson Pickett's RIght On 1970 album has the distinct honor of being his weakest album with Atlantic Records.
However, me bing the Wilson Pickett fan that I am, I can still manage to extract just enough soul/funk
from it to not remove it from my reocrd collection. I found my copy in New York for about $10. It was the most
I had spent on a Wilson Pickett album at the time and one I never saw before. I only did so becuase it was how rare it
is for me to come across it and because it was in The BIg Apple.

Erma Franklin - Soul Sister

For as many times as I had seen Franklin’s Soul Sister album, I should have bought a copy earlier than I did. 

I had seen the Soul Sister album in stores for so long but didn’t consider it.  I only had eyes and ears for one singing Franklin. I had never heard one song by Erma Franklin so there was no burning desire to acquire her music.

Within the last few years of acquiring a lot of digital files, I managed to discover Erma Franklin’s cover of The Doors’ Light My Fire. It was fantastic and I realized that I should seek some Erma Franklin soul music when possible. 

  

Earlier in September 2012, I was happy to see that one of the DJs I admire, DJ Center, used one of Erma Franklin’s songs in a mix.

It was obvious from the title alone that it was an album that I should own. Aretha Franklin is the Queen of Soul.  Erma Franklin is literally and in more ways than one, the Soul Sister.

Wilson Pickett - I'm In Love

IIL has the distinct honor of being the only album of Wilson Pickett's Atlantic Records discography that I don't own either in vinyl or CD form at this time.
I at least heard the album. the songs, title track.
From what I've learned, Bobby Womack's career was in jeopardy because he married Sam Cooke's widow.
It caused such an uproar that Womack had his songs sung by Wilson Pickett who was riding high with a string of hit singles at the time.
Bobby Womack’s songs appear on earlier Wilson Pickett albums but especially I`m IN Love and The Midnight Mover feature the most Womack compoisitnoins.
Unlike the few prior albums on Atlantic Records, Wilson Pickett did not have a 1 hit single with the IIL or TMM albums.
It appears that Pickett was guilty by association with Womack. There are top 10 charters on IIL

Common

When I was compiling my top 10 rappers list of the last decade or so, I managed to forget Common's name.

As much as I've been disinterested in hip hop for about 20 years, Common is still one of the few I respect to this day.

As a matter of fact, the Resurrection reissue got me open when I saw it in a Montreal record store. I already have the CD but to have the album in vinyl form is enough to resurrect my interest in him and his music.

I would learn much later that Common released a new album called Nobody Smiling. I don`t visit the websites enough that would inform me of hip hop album release dates to have known about that news.

I got to a point where I wished I was listening to Resurrection while listening to that 2014 album.
I started listening to it and stopped after 2-3 songs. I listened to it from beginning to end later on. 

Common's still very lyrical but the album is practically pointless. It made me realize that the classic they wanted him to make with Be very well could have been released under the name Resurrection. I don't care if I never hear that 2014 album again. After listening to that album of his, I was more than ready to get that Resurrection reissue.

I'll give you that about the album being refreshing in this climate of hip hop. Maybe I wanted, expected, hoped or NEEDED more from him especially after learning he was releasing a new album here. I'll tell you this. If asked for Common's best work, this new one doesn't make the cut and neither does any album he made after Be except for Finding Forever. I'm a little disappinted to be disregarding Common albums since he's still recording them.

LOL How dare I? I'm not the one recording albums be they weak or strong. You know damn well Meth hasn't released a slamming album in...drum roll please....20 years.

You kinda proved my point or at least expressed my sentiments. Meth has released nearly 6 albums but you, myself and most people that really know their stuff only care about Tical. Common's been recording since 1992 and the last 2-3 albums have been a waste of time. He's experimented, come back and managed to drop a few classics in the process. It took this new album for me to realize Resurrection is a better album than I thought and one that I feel I need to Be hearing more of now.

It's almost sad for me to come to the conclusion that Common is one of my favorite MCs and I'm at a stage of my life, and his career, when I can say I may have heard all the Common I may have needed to hear.

I think the purpose of this album was for him to cement his place as Chi Town's premier MC considering he's been in the game for over 20 years and still recording albums today. If No ID did all the production I was left disappointed for more than half the album. We DID hear No ID better.....on Resurrection.....

I agree with you Alain. There aren't many golden era hip hop artists relevant today. Jay-Z let me down with that Magna Carta last year. Common dropped a weak one this year.....

I agree with what Brian just said about the Common album. My opinion or comments come from a consumer standpoint. As I stated before, my disappointment in the new Common makes me justify spending double for the Resurrection vinyl reissue than I would for the new album. Just for fun, put aside the fact I'm now willing to pay more for the same MC's 1994 album than his 2014 one.

Erma Franklin

It took a while but I finally did hear an Erma Franklin song many years ago. One night when I was visiting CKUT’s WeFunk, Professor Groove played a song from one of her 7”. The song was good but what was most remarkable about the 7” was that the flip side was damaged. The song played was from the only surviving side. My mind wondered what the other side must have sounded like. 

I was hunting for female funk and soul or other genres groovy enough for my Suite Delight radio show.  I browsed the Aretha Franklin section of a Plateau record store and realized that I wouldn’t be able to play Aretha as much as I would want.  

That was when I had my revelation that Aretha’s sisters would be great additions to my former radio show playlists.  

Any sibling of Aretha Franklin could and should be able to sing, even if they are not as renowned.  

The Sound of Wilson Pickett

Aside from being one of Wilson Pickett's best 1960s albums on Atlantic Records, The Sound Of Wilson Pickett has one of his best album covers. 

One should not be too surprised to see this blogger/DJ with that album cover on a t-shirt at some point in the future.

The hit Funky Broadway can be found on this album. 

Soul Dance Number 3 can be found on the album as well and is questionably left off of the Wilson Pickett Greatest Hits compilation as it charted as high as #6 on the 1967 charts.