Eddie Floyd

Soul singer/songwriter Eddie Floyd scored one of the defining hits of the Memphis soul sound with "Knock on Wood," a number one R&B smash that typified the Stax house style at its grittiest. Floyd was born in Montgomery, AL, in 1935, but grew up in Detroit, where his uncle Robert West owned a couple of record labels, including Lupine. In 1955, Floyd co-founded the seminal proto-soul group The Falcons, who eventually scored a major R&B hit with "You're So Fine" in 1959 (with Joe Stubbs, later of The Contours and 100 Proof Aged In Soul, as lead singer). After Stubbs' departure, Floyd spent a brief period as The Falcons' lead singer, until Wilson Pickett joined up. Now recording for West's Lupine imprint, The Falcons and Pickett cut their second undisputed classic, the gospel-inflected ballad "I Found a Love," in 1962. Pickett subsequently went solo, and The Falcons broke up in 1963.



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