Another one of those all-time, stone-cold soul classics that hit the charts during 1966 - Wilson Pickett’s ‘Land of a Thousand Dances’. It peaked at #22 on the UK charts during this week, and had also been #6 on the US Billboard Hot 100 charts, and was his third #1 on the R&B charts.
The song was written and originally recorded by Chris Kenner in 1962, when it reached #77. It was covered by other acts, but Pickett's was the most successful. It was also the biggest hit of his own career (this was his tenth single release since his debut in 1962). It was another Muscle Shoals special, full of gritty vocals and pounding beat, and that legendary 'na-na-na-na-na' hook, which was not in the original song and came about by happy accident when Frankie 'Cannibal' Garcia, lead singer of Cannibal and the Headhunters, forgot the lyrics during a performance (his group's version of this song reached #30 in 1965).
