Stax

Frederick Knight’s first encounter with Stax wasn’t as promising as some who gelled with the label right off the bat. In fact, when he came to Stax with tapes in hand in hopes of a recording deal, according to Rob Bowman’s Soulsville, U.S.A., he “got the runaround” and ended up sleeping for a couple of nights in the bus station. Undeterred, Knight returned to his native Alabama, began serving an apprenticeship at Sounds of Birmingham Studio, and kept writing songs. He would send the tapes to Tim Whitsett at Stax’s East Memphis Music, who would reply back to Knight that he was close but just not quite there. Knight then recorded a song at the Birmingham studio one evening using only a slide guitar player and a stand-in drummer who recorded the percussion on a bar stool with a two-by-four plank. Sounds of Birmingham owner shopped the song to Polydor and Atlantic Records, who turned it down, and to Stax Records, where Jim Stewart knew it would be a hit. Stax released the song, “I’ve Been Lonely for So Long,” and it became one of the label’s biggest hits, charting in the top ten on the R&B charts and number 27 on the pop charts in 1972.

Knight went on to record, produce, and write, penning the mega-successful 1979 hit “Ring My Bell” for Memphis schoolteacher and singer Anita Ward.