Wilson Pickett – In The Midnight Hour

This song has been in my head all week. A great classic soul song and a great song in general. The guitar riff is simple but perfect… it drives the song along with Pickett’s explosive voice. It has to be one of my all-time favorite songs to play on bass or guitar. It’s a sliding riff that stays in a perfect rhythm.

The song was recorded in 1965 at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals. Pickett worked with producer and songwriter Jerry Wexler and Steve Cropper. Cropper came up with the guitar riff while the band worked out the rhythm in the studio. Wexler encouraged the musicians to play slightly behind the beat, which gave the song its loose but powerful feel. That rhythm became one of the signatures of the Muscle Shoals sound.

The backing musicians included members of the studio band that would later be known as the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Their playing is tight, but they left room for the song to breathe. Pickett’s voice sits right in the center, rough and urgent, especially when he shouts the title line. Al Jackson Jr. and Donald “Duck” Dunn from Booker T. & the MG’s played on this track with bandmate Cropper.

In the Midnight Hour” was recorded on May 12, 1965, with all musicians performing at once, in the repurposed movie theater that was the Stax recording studio, with absolutely no overdubs. The song peaked at #21 on the Billboard 100 and #1 on the R&B Chart in 1965.

In 2017, the song was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or artistically significant. It was written by Pickett and Steve Cropper.

In The Midnight Hour

I’m gonna wait ’till the midnight hour
That’s when my love come tumbling down
I’m gonna wait ’till the midnight hour
When there’ no one else around
I’m gonna take you, girl, and hold you
And do all things I told you, in the midnight hour

Yes I am, oh yes I am
One thing I just wanna say, right here

I’m gonna wait till the stars come out
And see that twinkle in your eyes
I’m gonna wait ’till the midnight hour
That’s when my love begins to shine

You’re the only girl I know
Can really love me so, in the midnight hour

Oh yeah, in the midnight hour
Yeah, all right, play it for me one time, now

I’m gonna wait ’till the midnight hour
That’s when my love come tumbling down
I’m gonna wait, way in the midnight hour
That’s when my love begin to shine, just you and I
Oh, baby, just you and I
Nobody around, baby, just you and I
Oh, right, you know what?
I’m gonna hold you in my arms, just you and I
Oh yeah, in the midnight hour
Oh, baby, in the midnight hour

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

39 thoughts on “Wilson Pickett – In The Midnight Hour”

  2. Pingback: Wilson Pickett – In The Midnight Hour – MobsterTiger

  4. Lists of the “best” are always a bit absurd – I had a friend who loved movies and we’d walk out of one and he’d say, “That’s in my Top Ten”. I knew him long enough to know his Top Ten contained way more than ten movies. This song is definitely in my Top Ten. Those first horn chords let you know something special is coming.

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    1. I agree… lists are absurd but it can be fun as a talking point. I could not explain in the post why I like playing it. I mean I could do an hour version on bass and still be smiling. There IS a rythm to that riff while playing it…the riff and rythm built into one. That probably doesn’t make sense to other people…but take my word for it….it’s a joy.

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      1. No, it makes perfect sense. One of the things that I love about this blog is how you explore these pieces and how they come together.

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      3. I remember reading an article a few years back by a local, older White columnist here in Texas – the White is relevant in context of story. Pickett and his band were playing in town, in the very Black neighborhood (I think this was mid-’60s) and he went to take in the show. He saw Pickett sitting, I think having a drink, went up to him, said hi, he was a fan etc and Pickett seemed dismissive and disinterested, until columnist mentioned that song and I think sang the chorus at which time Wilson started getting interested and talking to him; ended up going back to columnist’s house after the show for drinks and to jam!

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  8. Wilson Pickett’s ‘In the Midnight Hour’ turned out to be one of the Grateful Dead’s earliest exploratory songs, propelled by Phil Lesh’s interests in jazz, Jerry Garcia’s expansive guitar work and Pigpen’s inability to adapt with the band, often stretching this out to ten minutes or longer.

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      3. The whole Stax thing grabbed me. I wasnt a horn guy but they changed that. I watched a doc on Stax. So many cool stories. Cropper cant help tearing up talking about Otis. As u now I’m no where near being any kind of musician but when drummers are talked about Jackson’s name comes up. Him and Dunn as a rhythm section get a lot of nods also.

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      4. I made it a mission to pay attention to their rythm section. The MG’s were basically Dunn and Jackson laying down the song with Cropper and Booker T …I would say “coloring” it on top….the word bedrock is Dunn and Jackson.
        Ron and I were talking about Otis the other day. Monterey really broke him through to the rock audiences…it’s no telling what he would have done…but with his catalog…he had already done so much….just totally tragic all the way around.

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      5. ‘Bedrock” Yes. And Booker and Steve coloring it. Perfect. The whole Otis story is a good one (except the end). I guess that’s why Cropper is moved by the memories. The whole story of Redding getting to lay down some vocals after he finished humping the equipment. Classic.
        We got away from Wilson. Stax had a few of these great vocalists.

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      6. Thats something after moving equipment. Back then people paid dues…as crazy as that is on this…like Kris K emptying ash trays in a studio.

        Yea Wilson was…I know you will think…well sure you liked it! BUT when I heard he covered Hey Jude…I didn’t think I would like it…but wow…he made his own version of it with the help of Duane. His vocals…just incredible. He turned it into a soul Stax song.

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      8. Wes Montgomery…I must check some of them out…I found out about Wes from a John Hiatt song…Window On The World….John schooled me on them… “Down on indiana avenue
        Wes and jimmy, man they played the blues, I guess they were only passin’ through”

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