JEAN KNIGHT

She was born Jean Caliste in New Orleans on January 26, 1943. Her father died in 1953. After high school, she sang at her cousin’s barroom, Laura’s Place. In 1964, Knight recorded a demo. It was a cover version of Jackie Wilson’s “Doggin’ Around,” titled “Stop Doggin’ Me Around.” It caught the attention of producer Huey Meaux, who signed the young singer to his Tribe label. It was around this time that she adopted the professional name of “Jean Knight.” (She thought “Caliste” was too hard to pronounce.) She recorded four singles for Meaux that made some noise locally, but that was it. As the ‘60s drew to a close, Knight took a baking job in the cafeteria of Dominican College in New Orleans.

In 1970, Knight met songwriter Ralph Williams. Through his connections, she came in contact with producer Wardell Quezergue, for whom she would sing background on various sessions. On a Saturday in May, Quezergue brought Jean Knight, King Floyd, and several others acts to the Malaco Studios in Jackson, Mississippi, for a one-off session. Floyd recorded “Groove Me,” while Knight recorded “Mr. Big Stuff.” Each was a funky, mid-tempo jam with a loping New Orleans groove.

Initially, Querzegue couldn’t interest any label in his recordings. So Tommy Couch and Wolf Stevenson of Malaco formed a new imprint, Chimneyville, to release the King Floyd track. When it became a hit, Quezergue suddenly found his product in demand. He placed “Mr. Big Stuff” with Stax, the Memphis R&B powerhouse. In the summer of 1971, Jean Knight’s year-old recording spent five weeks at #1 on Billboard magazine’s Soul Singles chart and reached #2 in the pop market. (Keeping it off #1 was the Bee Gees’ “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?”) As Knight recalled years later, “It was unbelievable! I almost had to pinch myself to see if it was real. I went every place, all across the country, and just about every major city in the country.” She also performed the song on TV’s Soul Train.

Knight was less than thrilled with the soundalike follow-up, “You Think You’re Hot Stuff.” To quote the singer, “That song wasn’t my idea. When you’re a fresh star like that, it’s not much say you have. Everybody’s got everything programmed for you. Stax had a really good song for me called ‘Cold, Bold and Ready.’ It was hot and I was fired up to do that song; but Wardell said, ‘No,’ they had their own songs. It was a bad move.”

Knight charted on Stax with one additional single, “Carry On,” after which the hits stopped coming. Between that and Stax’s growing financial difficulties, Knight left the label and attended nursing school while gigging on the weekends. After Stax, she released commercially unsuccessful singles on imprints like Dial, Chelsea, Jetsream, and Open.

Knight’s musical prospects began to look up in 1981, when she met local producer Isaac Bolden, who signed her to his Soulin’ label. Together they wrote “You Got the Papers But I Got the Man,” which Bolden leased to Atlantic for national distribution. (It came out on the Cotillion subsidiary.) Soon, Jean Knight was touring regularly.

In 1985, she enjoyed her biggest hit in thirteen years with a sprightly version of Rockin’ Sidney’s zydeco number, “My Toot Toot.” (It even reached #3 in South Africa!) Two years later, Heavy D & The Boys made the R&B charts with a remake of “Mr. Big Stuff.” And Spike Lee made use of Knight’s original recording in his 1994 film, Crooklyn.

While she would not record again until 1997, Knight performed and toured all over the world. In 2003, she sang “Mr. Big Stuff” on the PBS-TV special, Soul Comes Home. And in 2007, she was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.

Jean Knight, 80, died on November 22, 2023.

Charted singles:

“Mr. Big Stuff” (1971) R&B #1 (5 weeks), Pop #2
“You Think You’re Hot Stuff” (1971) R&B #19, Pop #57
“Carry On” (1972) R&B #44
“You Got the Papers But I Got the Man” (1981) R&B #56
“My Toot Toot” (1985) R&B #59, Pop #50