"We didn't have enough money to press our suits," Wilson Pickett said in 1979 of his gospel-singing days in the Fifties with the Violinaires. By the mid-Sixties, Pickett was the most exciting soul singer in America, wearing sharkskin and racking up nonstop hits for Atlantic. These singles are, along with the rest of his best, all on the 1992 Rhino two-CD set, A Man and a Half: The Best of Wilson Pickett.

1. "I Found a Love" (The Falcons) (1962)

Co-founded by future Stax star Eddie Floyd, the Falcons were a Michigan vocal group with a lot of singles but no big hits until Pickett took the lead in this Top Ten R&B smash, originally on the Lu Pine label. His orgasmic hallelujahs mark the point where doo-wop and storefront-church song become Sixties soul.

2. "In the Midnight Hour" (1965)

His first two Atlantic releases flopped, so producer Jerry Wexler sent Pickett to the Stax studios in Memphis, where he cut and co-wrote (with guitarist Steve Cropper) this immortal stomp. The secret of its success: the way Pickett roars with fierce impatience against the delayed backbeat.

3. "634-5789 (Soulsville, U.S.A.)" (1966)

When Pickett first heard this Floyd-Cropper song, he called it "a piece of shit"; he and Floyd nearly came to blows. But the heated contrast of Pickett's bravado against the smooth groove and backing chirp of Patti Labelle and the Bluebelles made "634-5789" the hottest phone number in the land.

4. "Mustang Sally" (1966)

Mack Rice, another ex-Falcon, was on the Stax payroll when he wrote this warning to a runaround gal. But Pickett cut it in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where his rough, rusted vocals were right at home in the loose country funk there.

5. "I'm in Love" (1967)

Pickett's version of this Bobby Womack ballad is one of his greatest performances: screaming but disciplined joy in slow, unmistakably sexual motion.

6. "Hey Jude" (1968)

Pickett resisted doing this Beatles hit until Muscle Shoals session guitarist Duane Allman started picking and the rest of the band joined in. So did Pickett, who took the closing choruses to church and rewarded Allman's dynamic solo by nicknaming him "Skyman" ("He's always up, man . . . happy-go-lucky"), which later became "Skydog."

7. "Don't Knock My Love, Pt. 1" (1971)

Pickett's last Top Twenty hit was disco before there was a name for it: glossy, rolling funk that had Pickett ruling the groove with the same fight and fire he used to help invent soul.

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