Better Knock... On Wood, Baby
An R&B classic gets a disco make-over
That psychedelic groove in your header gif is being sashayed and laid down by Amii Stewart for Knock On Wood. Thanks to YouTube channel UnionSquareMusic for providing the video:
Amii Stewart’s version of Knock on Wood, her first single release, reached #1 on the US Top 40 Music Charts on April 21, 1979, staying there for a single week before being knocked out the following week by Blondie’s Heart of Glass. Knock on Wood was her most successful hit, but she also gained further international fame with her remake of the Door’s Light My Fire which reached #5 on the UK Singles Chart in 1979, and with Friends in 1985 which peaked at #12 on the UK Singles Chart. Several other Stewart singles found success on European music charts throughout the 1980’s.
Knock on Wood was written by Eddie Floyd and Steve Cropper. It was first released in 1966 as an R&B single with Floyd on vocals. His version reached #28 on the Billboard Hot 100 and also spent a week at the #1 spot on the Soul Singles chart. The synergy between this R&B version, released 13 years earlier than Stewart’s disco version is an interesting one. As elaborated by Stereogum:
The relationship between soul music and disco is a fascinating one. Disco came out of soul. In the early days of disco, DJs in New York’s gay clubs would play fast, rhythmic soul songs, thus giving career boosts to people like ex-Temptation Eddie Kendricks. But disco evolved into its own thing, especially as the synthetic Giorgio Moroder/Pete Bellotte Euro-disco sound came in. It caught on with white audiences in a way that soul — or non-Motown soul, anyway — only rarely did. And by the time it reached its precarious popularity peak, disco was completely removed from soul […].
While Stewart’s version of Knock on Wood is considered a disco standard, the US music scene in the 1980’s had started to turn away from disco at a time when her career might have otherwise peaked. With her charting successes being better-received in Europe, Stewart moved to Italy in the mid-1980’s. There she became immersed in Italian language and culture. Since 2001, Stewart has acted as a goodwill ambassador for Unicef Italia, becoming involved in various musical projects to benefit the organization; several of these with friend and collaborator Ennnio Morricone. One such project was the single Love Song—which she sang in English, Italian, French and Spanish—released in 2006.
Sources and more info:
Stereogum: 'April 21, 1979: The Number Ones: Amii Stewart's "Knock on Wood"'
Top 40 Weekly.Com: US Top 40 Singles Week Ending April 21st, 1979