Monday, June 19, 2017

Monday Music "Knock on wood" by Amii Stewart

I am going back to the 70's, I shock people when I say that I like Disco. I always liked the beat, the flashy lights and it was a good way to end what I called the "Gutter Decade", the ending of Nanny State 1.0 A.K.A. Jimmy Carter's administration.

Amy Paulette "Amii" Stewart (born January 29, 1956) is an American disco/soul/dance-pop singer most famous for her hit disco record cover of Eddie Floyd's "Knock on Wood". Stewart is the stepsister of actress-singer Miquel Brown and aunt to Brown's actress-singer daughter Sinitta.

Amy Stewart was born 9th out of 11 children. Her father, Joseph Stewart II, signed her up for singing and dancing lessons in 1960, when she was four. There already was an Amy Stewart registered with Actor's Equity, so she changed the spelling of her name to Amii. She began attending Howard University in Washington but soon left to work with the D.C. Repertory Dance Company, studying ballet and modern dance. Before being signed to Ariola Records, Stewart was in the touring company of the stage production Bubbling Brown Sugar in 1975, firstly in Miami, then Broadway, and eventually London's West End, where she met Barry Leng, a record producer for Hansa records.
At the end of 1977, "You Really Touched My Heart" a Leng/Simon May composition, produced by Leng, was Stewart's first recording. An album followed, which contained five Leng/May songs, one Leng/Morris song and three cover versions.
Her first single, a disco cover version of the 1966 Eddie Floyd hit "Knock on Wood" (Floyd/Cropper), reached number one in the U.S. in April 1979, and earned her a platinum record and a Grammy Award nomination. It also reached number 6 in the UK, and number 2 in Australia. In the same year,

The original Knock on Wood album in its entirety remains officially unreleased on compact disc, a semi-official release was issued in Russia in 1999 on AS4000. This release paired this album with the follow-up release Paradise Bird and one bonus track "My Guy, My Girl", and includes all original artwork.
The album was released as simply Amii Stewart in the UK.


2 comments:

  1. Ok. I am going to get in trouble going around the office singing knock knock on wood. LOL. Loved this song when it came out. Still has a jingle. Thanks for the history.

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  2. Remember it, and that is a truly BAD lip sync in that video... sigh

    ReplyDelete

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