Learn to Dance to Wilson Pickett’s “Land of 1000 Dances”

Do the watusi, mashed potato, and more to Wilson Pickett’s “Land of 1000 Dances!” Learn the moves mentioned in the song with White’s Creek High School dance instructor Danielle Blackmon and students from Metro Nashville Public Schools. Pause the video at any time to get more practice with your new moves.

Recorded at FAME Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, “Land of 1000 Dances” is recognized as one of Wilson Pickett’s greatest hits. The song, which debuted on July 30, 1966, spent eleven weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, climbing all the way to number six.

Pickett first came to FAME in 1966 after having recorded his breakthrough pop and R&B hits at the Stax studio in Memphis. The studio switch was a choice made by Atlantic producer Jerry Wexler. "The word was blowing North about this funky little studio in a place called Muscle Shoals, so I took Wilson Pickett down there,” Wexler told Hit Parader in 1970, “It was just incredible. The musicians were out of sight, [playing with] raw feeling."

On his first day there in May 1966, Pickett was a bit confused by what Rick Hall and the all-white Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section at FAME Studio could offer. Yet once they were settled and began recording the riotous "Land of 1000 Dances," the singer knew he was in the right place.

Learn more about Wilson Pickett, Muscle Shoals, and more in the educational curriculum created to support the exhibit, Muscle Shoals: Low Rhythm Rising, at the Museum’s free Teacher Resource Portal: https://teach.countrymusichalloffame….

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