This is not only one of the best R&B covers of a pop song you’ll ever hear, the guitar by Duane Allman is credited with giving birth to the entire Southern Rock genre. Wilson Pickett recorded it at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, where Allman was working as a session guitarist. It was Allman who suggested Pickett record “Hey Jude,” which Pickett thought absurd — the song was still topping the charts and didn’t seem to fit Pickett’s vocal style at all. When Allman taunted him for lacking the testicular fortitude to tackle the tune, Pickett responded by recording this in one take, with Allman answering his screams with his guitar. Unlike the original, this one fades out too soon. Muscle Shoals guitarist Jimmy Johnson said Southern Rock was born in that session.
When Eric Clapton heard the track, he said he immediately called Atlantic Records producer Ahmet Ertegun and wanted to know who the guitarist was. A year later Allman and Clapton were recording together as Derek and the Dominoes.
