Wilson Pickett: In Philadelphia (Atlantic) and If You Need Me (Joy)

IT SEEMS AS if Wilson Pickett's been the number two soul singer ever since the term was coined. Ray Charles, James Brown, Otis Redding, and now James Brown again have each been acknowledged as the man best able to make us listen while their bodies spoke. And Pickett's always been there, just behind, somehow always lacking the inspiration to go in Front. Not that he hasn't had the confidence; that smokes out of the speakers all the way through In Philadelphia, and especially from the track called ‘International Playboy'.