🎵 12" SotW Amii Stewart: "Knock On Wood" b/w "When You Are Beautiful" (Ariola Records AR 9000)

Amii Stewart
"Knock On Wood" b/w "When You Are Beautiful"

Ariola Records AR 9000
Released 1978

A1: Knock On Wood / 6:10 ("Long Disco")
B1: When You Are Beautiful / 3:44

"Knock On Wood" is a remake of the Eddie Floyd hit on Stax Records.

https://www.discogs.com/release/138761-Amii-Stewart-Knock-On-Wood

Original Eddie Floyd version:

 

[AM Matt]

Heard Amii Stewart "Knock On Wood" on TV's "Soul Train" (on record) in early 1979 (edited version)!!! Also Otis Redding duet with Carla Thomas did the song (from the album "King & Queen") in 1966.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

That was one of my favorite songs to play when I was dance DJ'ing. Everyone liked it. I usually just played the single version though -- I didn't do beatmatching, I played a whole range of sounds from rock to disco and inbetween. So I didn't have a lot of use for the 12" versions of anything.

I always WANTED to try the beatmatching thing but didn't have the high-end turntables required to do it. Nowadays with computers it'd probably be easy.

 

[Rudy]

I used to make cassettes with two turntables, and one of them was a direct drive with speed control--it didn't take much to try and beat match, but I had more fun putting the same song on both turntables and tweaking the speed ever so slightly to get a wild phasey effect.

Clubs me and my buddy went to always played the 12-inch singles, and the radio station I listened to always played them as well, so that was my preferred format. Other than they always sounded so good, since the level could be cut higher. That and the 12-inch versions usually had better mixes, back when the "name" engineers were mixing these singles. Bob Clearmountain, Tom Moulton, etc.

I always wonder what happened to Amii Stewart. A quick glance showed she had additional records, but on our stations (and like on the charts), she never had another big hit.

 

[KentTeffeteller]

Love this classic! Note, the USA release is faster tempo than the German Hansa original is. I own both 45 RPM singles. A favorite disco 45 of mine. Note: It's now "Knock On Particleboard" as Wood got too expensive!!

 

[Another Son]

I liked the sound that Amii Stewart’s first producer came up with for her, for her first few records. I liked the strident drum sound, Amii’s yell / shriek and her warmer, softer tones.

I got her first four singles when they came out and then bought a number of later albums.

I thought that Amii Stewart would have been much more successful and had a much longer career in the US. Her main career has been in Europe, although it also lasted in the UK for quite a while.

I think something that might have killed off her career in the US was that pretty much all of her early singles were remakes of big hits from the 60s by other artists - ‘Knock on Wood’ by Eddie Floyd, ‘Light my Fire’ by The Doors, ‘My Guy’ by Mary Wells, ‘Where Did Our Love Go?’ by The Supremes, ‘The Letter’ by The Box Tops and, later, ‘Great Balls of Fire’ by Jerry Lee Lewis. Actually, I liked all of these, but I think people saw her as just a remake artist who stuck to a formula.

‘Friends’ was one of Amii’s best singles, along with ‘Don’t Be So Shy’, ‘It’s Fantasy’, ‘Computer Love’, ‘Don’t Stop Pushin’’, ‘Dusty Road’ and ‘Working Late Tonight’, (which is quite quirky); also ‘Time is Tight’, created with Giorgio Moroder, (Donna Summer’s first producer), which is good, but sounds a bit unfinished.

I think it’s a shame that Amii Stewart wasn’t provided consistently with high quality, original material but she still has a very enjoyable back-catalogue. And I’m afraid that her political message song, ‘This Generation’, didn’t turn out to be true.