In the Midnight Hour

In this song, Pickett is waiting till midnight to meet his girl for a romantic rendezvous. It's not clear if he's doing it at that hour to stay undetected, or if it's just more romantic. Either way, his love will come tumbling down.

Pickett had his first success with a song called "I Found a Love," which he wrote and performed with his group The Falcons in 1962. That song reached #75 on the Hot 100, and two years later Atlantic Records signed him to a solo deal. His first single with the label, "Come Home Baby" was recorded in New York with producer Bert Berns, and it went nowhere. For a change of sound and scenery, Atlantic sent him to Memphis to record his next single at Stax Records (which had a distribution deal with Atlantic) using their house band. These sessions produced "In The Midnight Hour," which became Pickett's breakout hit. He went on to become a soul music legend and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.

Pickett wrote this with guitarist Steve Cropper, who wrote and produced many of the soul classics for Stax Records. Cropper played guitar on the Stax session band, Booker T. and The MGs. Cropper recalled to Uncut in 2015: "I say in my shows that playing the guitar is real simple, you just follow the dots - the dots on neck on every guitar are in the same place. That's how I came up with the intro for this. They go, It couldn't be that simple,' then all of them go home and get their guitars out and go, 'Wow, it is!'"