Wilson Pickett - Greatest Hits - Music & Performance - CD

Wilson Pickett was one of the most consistently strong performers of the great soul era of the 1960's, but like most R&B artists of the period he was strongest in his singles, not his albums, and while he cut some fine long-players in his day, a quality compilation is still the best place to get started with The Wicked Pickett's raw but passionate music. Originally released in 1973 as a two-LP set, Wilson Pickett's Greatest Hits got an upgrade to CD in the mid-1980's, and while it's value has since been supplanted by the more efficient The Very Best Of Wilson Pickett and the more thorough A Man and a Half: The Best Of Wilson Pickett, this still pulls together twenty-four stellar performances from Pickett's glory days (including three recordings from his early group The Falcons). A few of the choices are not especially well advised - while not exactly awful, Pickett's versions of "Sugar, Sugar" and "You Keep Me Hanging On" may be best left to history - but can you really argue with an album that includes "Mustang Sally", "Land Of 1,000 Dances", "In The Midnight Hour", "Funky Broadway", and "634-5789 (Soulsville U.S.A.)"? Not the very best Pickett collection, but still a good one, and fine value for money if you should find it in a bargain bin. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi