I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but here it is: I, like many music listeners, spent far too many years believing Eddie Floyd's classic, "Knock on Wood," was recorded by Wilson Pickett. Now hold on for a second; before you accuse me of a lack of R&B credibility and storm away, the fact is, my embarrassingly long-lived mistake wasn't too far off the mark.
Anchored by a hard-driving horn refrain and that chunky, funky Steve Cropper guitar, "Knock on Wood" is a dead ringer for the powerful, earthy brand of soul that Wicked Pickett made famous. Floyd's vocals clearly hail from a similar school. Strident, half-shouted, and tuneful (but without the subtle nuances of, say, Otis Redding), the Eddie Floyd of "Knock on Wood" represents Southern Soul at its raw-power peak. They say Stax president Jim Stewart even delayed the release of the single by a year because he felt it sounded too much like Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour." Combine that story with the persistent rumors that Floyd's biggest hit was originally written for Otis, and you've got a song which officially lives in history despite, not because of, its singer.
Never mind that a cursory glance at the rest of Floyd's career as singer and songwriter will reveal a surprisingly wide range of soul stylings beyond "Wood." Such is the man's nature — always a groomsman, never a groom.
Perhaps part of the reason for Floyd's consignment to the Stax/Volt sidelines has to do with his career's late bloom. Though he was musically active as early as 1955, when he co-founded R&B combo The Falcons in his then-hometown of Detroit, the veteran performer didn't really make his presence felt as a solo artist until 1966 with the release of (you guessed it) "Knock on Wood."
Before then, he cut his teeth as a staff songwriter and producer for Stax Records, penning "Comfort Me" by Carla Thomas, among other hits. But the Stax to which Floyd arrived was a label at the absolute peak of its powers, with all of its biggest-name stars — the Otises, the Booker T's, the Sams and Daves — firmly ensconced. It would be difficult for anyone, even a singer as phenomenal as Eddie Floyd, to make a name for himself among such legendary artists. For that matter, the sheer breadth of material he recorded during his tenure at the label couldn't have helped, either. Artists like Pickett, and even the more well-rounded Redding, could be pegged down to a specific and identifiable style. But Floyd recorded a little bit of everything: gospel-infused shouters, Northern-style ballads, and even material that verged into the realms of funk and rock'n'roll.
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