Track This: Wilson Pickett's "Cole, Cooke, & Redding."
This lesser-known Wilson Pickett song is a eulogy to lost friends and fellow entertainers that influenced him. The 1970 song is the b-side to a fun, yet lightweight cover of the Archies's "Sugar, Sugar. "Cole, Cooke, & Redding" has a slower southern soul vibe than many of his big hits and is fairly reminiscent of Redding's sound. The thoughtful lyrics and music riff on Dion's "Abraham, Martin, and John,"a tribute to Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, and Robert Kennedy that Dion recorded in 1968 in a more upbeat manner. Dick Holler wrote the original song in reaction to the deaths of King and Robert Kennedy and is given song-writing credit for this one. Pickett transforms the song in his inimitable style to remember these lost musical greats, referencing their lyrics and songs. In remembrance, he mentions the last thing they told him in song; for example, Sam Cooke tells him "that a change was gonna come," then...