“Right Place, Wrong Time” by Dr. John

"Right Place, Wrong Time" led off In the Right Place, Dr. John's sixth album, in 1973, and it turned into the biggest hit single he ever had, climbing to number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 that summer and number six in Canada. Allen Toussaint produced and arranged it and is all over the track, on piano, electric piano, acoustic guitar, congas, tambourine and backing vocals. Around him, Art Neville's organ, Leo Nocentelli's guitar, George Porter, Jr.'s bass and Ziggy Modeliste's drums lock into a sly, rubber-legged funk-rock strut, David Spinozza takes the guitar solo and Gary Brown blows sax.

Dr. John wrote it, with a few lines chipped in by Bob Dylan, Bette Midler and Doug Sahm, and one of its verses handed Emerson, Lake & Palmer the title for Brain Salad Surgery. Arif Mardin and Jimmy Douglass mixed it for Atco.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.