{"id":20933,"date":"1988-07-14T11:00:00","date_gmt":"1988-07-14T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/?p=20933"},"modified":"2026-02-22T13:51:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T21:51:35","slug":"matr-wilson-pickett-and-bruce-springsteen-in-the-midnight-hour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/1988\/07\/14\/matr-wilson-pickett-and-bruce-springsteen-in-the-midnight-hour\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Midnight Hour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Forty years ago tonight, Bruce Springsteen said goodbye to 1980 with an appropriate cover for its final minutes.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"758\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tvQIxIQMB0g?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;In the Midnight Hour&#8221; might have been a well-timed audible, but it would be hard to believe that Bruce didn&#8217;t at least have it in the back of his mind that evening. After all, the E Street Band had already played it twice in recent months, starting with their first-ever performance in Milwaukee on October 14th.<\/p>\n<div id=\"v-If4eE6ah-1\" class=\"video-player\"><iframe title='VideoPress Video Player' aria-label='VideoPress Video Player' width='758' height='568' src='https:\/\/videopress.com\/embed\/If4eE6ah?hd=1&amp;cover=1&amp;loop=0&amp;autoPlay=0&amp;permalink=1&amp;muted=0&amp;controls=1&amp;playsinline=0&amp;useAverageColor=0&amp;preloadContent=metadata' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen data-resize-to-parent=\"true\" allow='clipboard-write'><\/iframe><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" src='https:\/\/s0.wp.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/video\/assets\/js\/next\/videopress-iframe.js'><\/script><\/div>\n<p>This one was indeed an audible&#8211;we can clearly hear the delay of game as the band scrambles to figure out the song.<\/p>\n<p>(In an interview with Dave Marsh a couple of weeks later, Steve recalled that Bruce &#8220;turned around and called &#8216;Midnight Hour&#8217; and we all just about fainted. Funky didn&#8217;t even believe we were doing it until about the second chorus.&#8221;)<\/p>\n<p>The E Street Band may not have played it before that night,\u00a0 but Bruce certainly had. In fact, he played it with Steel Mill exactly eleven years to the day prior to that famous Nassau Coliseum New Year&#8217;s Eve show.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In the Midnight Hour&#8221; was still a fairly new song at that point, released by the great Wilson Pickett only four years earlier in the summer of 1965.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"758\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rixhkdO_IdU?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;In the Midnight Hour&#8221; was Pickett&#8217;s greatest hit to date, topping the Billboard R&amp;B chart and crossing over to the Hot 100 to peak at #21. It&#8217;s considered one of the greatest Stax recordings and ranks #134 on <em>Rolling Stone&#8217;s<\/em> 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.<\/p>\n<p>Although Bruce wouldn&#8217;t play &#8220;In the Midnight Hour&#8221; at a proper E Street Band concert for more than three decades following that New Years Eve 1980 show, he played it frequently with just about everyone else, usually at surprise club appearances.<\/p>\n<p>(Bruce did play &#8220;In the Midnight Hour&#8221; live once during the intervening years, but it was with his 1992-93 touring band, along with guest-star Peter Wolf.)<\/p>\n<div id=\"v-oKcA8FZ4-1\" class=\"video-player\"><iframe title='VideoPress Video Player' aria-label='VideoPress Video Player' width='758' height='568' src='https:\/\/videopress.com\/embed\/oKcA8FZ4?hd=1&amp;cover=1&amp;loop=0&amp;autoPlay=0&amp;permalink=1&amp;muted=0&amp;controls=1&amp;playsinline=0&amp;useAverageColor=0&amp;preloadContent=metadata' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen data-resize-to-parent=\"true\" allow='clipboard-write'><\/iframe><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" src='https:\/\/s0.wp.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/video\/assets\/js\/next\/videopress-iframe.js'><\/script><\/div>\n<p>Over the years, Bruce has played &#8220;In the Midnight Hour&#8221; over two dozen times with about as many artists and bands, but I suspect that for Bruce, one of those occasions ranks above the others: the time he got to perform it with the original artist himself.<\/p>\n<p>That occasion was supposed to happen eight years earlier than it did, however. Wilson Pickett was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in January 1991, and Bruce was on-hand along with a host of other rock icons to pay tribute.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0 evening would undoubtedly have culminated in an all-star jam with Pickett that included &#8220;In the Midnight Hour,&#8221; but there was only one problem: Pickett&#8217;s flight was delayed due to fog, and he missed the entire event. (It was the start of a bad decade for the notoriously flawed Pickett.)<\/p>\n<p>Instead, John Fogerty, Chaka Khan, and Phoebe Snow traded lead vocals with Bruce (backed by Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Don Henley, and more) on &#8220;In the Midnight Hour.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"758\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/S3eEz680qYg?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>It was a great performance, but it couldn&#8217;t match the experience of Bruce and Wilson sharing a stage together. Bruce would have to wait another eight years, but that moment finally came at his own Hall of Fame inauguration in 1999.<\/p>\n<p>It was worth the wait.<\/p>\n<p>With no one else to share the spotlight but Wilson and Bruce (although Billy Joel joined Roy Bittan at the keyboards), the two legendary bandleaders tore up the stage with their trademark growls and provided one of the more memorable highlights of an evening that introduced to the public the reunited E Street Band).<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"758\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/K4w0kyYmYVo?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>The next time Bruce performed &#8220;In the Midnight Hour,&#8221; it would be in memory of Pickett, who passed away in January 2006.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re fortunate to have had that one-time-only pairing on one of rock&#8217;s iconic songs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bonus:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In May 1995, Bruce attended John Fogerty&#8217;s 50th birthday party at John&#8217;s house, where Bruce and John jammed for a set that included at least nine songs&#8211;a previously unknown gig (featuring a previously unknown Springsteen original) until actor John Stamos posted his home video from the evening earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a brief snippet of John and Bruce performing &#8220;In the Midnight Hour&#8221; together in John&#8217;s living room.<\/p>\n<div id=\"v-MvJaPHIS-1\" class=\"video-player\"><iframe title='VideoPress Video Player' aria-label='VideoPress Video Player' width='758' height='426' src='https:\/\/videopress.com\/embed\/MvJaPHIS?hd=1&amp;cover=1&amp;loop=0&amp;autoPlay=0&amp;permalink=1&amp;muted=0&amp;controls=1&amp;playsinline=0&amp;useAverageColor=0&amp;preloadContent=metadata' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen data-resize-to-parent=\"true\" allow='clipboard-write'><\/iframe><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" src='https:\/\/s0.wp.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/video\/assets\/js\/next\/videopress-iframe.js'><\/script><\/div>\n<p>Happy new year, everyone&#8211;we made it!<\/p>\n<p><strong>In the Midnight Hour<br \/>\nFirst performed:<\/strong> December 31, 1969 (Big Sur, CA)<br \/>\n<strong>Last performed:<\/strong> January 17, 2020 (Wellington, FL)<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 December 31, 2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One time only: Bruce joins forces with the legendary Wilson Pickett on Pickett&#8217;s iconic hit, &#8220;In the Midnight Hour.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,3612,5],"tags":[532,530],"class_list":["post-20933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cover-me","category-great","category-meeting-across-the-river","tag-in-the-midnight-hour","tag-wilson-pickett"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/admin-ajax-19.jpg?fit=1192%2C1200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9w3Lk-5rD","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":61113,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/14\/kingdom-of-days-october-14-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":20933,"position":0},"title":"Kingdom of Days: October 14","author":"Ken","date":"October 14, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"On this date: Arcade Fire makes a memorable guest appearance, Bruce plays his first-ever show in Argentina, and the European Rising Tour kicks off. Video and more highlights inside.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Kingdom of Days&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Kingdom of Days","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/kingdom-of-days\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/bs091014_01.jpg?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/bs091014_01.jpg?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/bs091014_01.jpg?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/bs091014_01.jpg?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18906,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/15\/cover-me-southside-johnny-walking-through-midnight\/","url_meta":{"origin":20933,"position":1},"title":"RotD\/Cover Me, Southside Johnny: Walking Through Midnight","author":"Ken","date":"June 15, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the more under-the-radar Southside Johnny\/Bruce Springsteen collaborations, \"Walking Through Midnight\" closed Southside's first solo album in 1988.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cover Me&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cover Me","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/cover-me\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/slowdance.jpg?fit=500%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":927,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/1988\/07\/13\/matr-bruce-springsteen-joe-ely-and-alejandro-escovedo-midnight-train\/","url_meta":{"origin":20933,"position":2},"title":"Midnight Train","author":"Ken","date":"July 13, 1988","format":false,"excerpt":"From SxSW 2012: Bruce joins his Texas buddies Joe Ely and Alejandro Escovedo for The Flatlanders' \"Midnight Train.\"","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cover Me&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cover Me","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/cover-me\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/flat.jpg?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/flat.jpg?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/flat.jpg?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/flat.jpg?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":55544,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/05\/kingdom-of-days-january-5-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":20933,"position":3},"title":"January 5","author":"Ken","date":"January 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Today in Springsteen history: two notable births (one human, one vinyl) and one rebirth.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Kingdom of Days&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Kingdom of Days","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/kingdom-of-days\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/greetings.jpg?fit=1200%2C1193&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/greetings.jpg?fit=1200%2C1193&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/greetings.jpg?fit=1200%2C1193&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/greetings.jpg?fit=1200%2C1193&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/greetings.jpg?fit=1200%2C1193&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3488,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/14\/cover-me-634-5789-soulsville-u-s-a\/","url_meta":{"origin":20933,"position":4},"title":"Cover Me: 634-5789 (Soulsville, U.S.A.)","author":"Ken","date":"August 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Whenever Bruce goes to Soulsville, U.S.A., there's gonna be a party. Check out some great performances of this Stax classic.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cover Me&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cover Me","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/cover-me\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/634-e1534120173459.jpg?fit=500%2C495&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":57024,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/09\/kingdom-of-days-june-9-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":20933,"position":5},"title":"June 9","author":"Ken","date":"June 9, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"On this date: Bruce Springsteen signs his first contract with Columbia Records and begins assembling the E Street Band! 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