Veteran soul singer Wilson Pickett died last night of a heart attack in Virginia at the age of 64.
Pickett - an Alabama native famed for his trademark screams, flaming delivery and flamboyant costumes - performed on a regular basis until about a year ago, when he began suffering from health problems, said his manager.
Wilson Pickett plays at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 2001
Dubbed "Wicked" Wilson Pickett by Jerry Wexler, the co-founder of Atlantic Records, where he enjoyed his greatest success, Pickett was one of the leading exponents of the hard-edged Memphis sound, a grittier alternative to the pop singles being churned out by Motown Records in Detroit.
Known for such hits as Mustang Sallyand In the Midnight Hour, he often recorded with the house band of Memphis-based Stax Records, Booker T and the MGs.
His long string of hits during the 1960s also included the R&B chart-toppers 634-5789, Land of 1,000 Dances, and Funky Broadway.
"We've lost a giant, we've lost a legend, we've lost a man who created his own charisma and made it work around the world," soul singer Solomon Burke, a close friend of Pickett's, said.
In the Midnight Hourwas his breakthrough hit, transforming the relative unknown into a soul sensation almost overnight in 1965. Pickett co-wrote the tune with MGs guitarist Steve Cropper in about an hour, and it spent a week atop the R&B singles chart in August of that year.