"Mr. Big Stuff" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Jean Knight | ||||
from the album Mr. Big Stuff | ||||
B-side | "Why I Keep Living These Memories" | |||
Released | May 1971 | |||
Recorded | 1970 | |||
Studio | Malaco Studio, Jackson, Mississippi | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 2:27 | |||
Label | STX 1014 | |||
Songwriter(s) | Joseph Broussard Carrol Washington Ralph George Williams | |||
Producer(s) | Wardell Quezergue | |||
Jean Knight singles chronology | ||||
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Official audio | ||||
"Mr. Big Stuff" on YouTube |
"Mr. Big Stuff" is a song by American singer Jean Knight. The song was released in 1971 on the Stax label as a single from Knight's debut album of the same title, and became a big hit in the US, reaching No. 2 on Billboard Hot 100. The song was certified double platinum and was the No. 1 Soul Single of the year. [3]
"Mr. Big Stuff" was recorded in 1970 at Malaco Studio in Jackson, Mississippi, at the same session as "Groove Me" by King Floyd. Knight's single was released by Stax Records because of the persistence of Stax publisher Tim Whitsett; "Groove Me" by King Floyd, which Whitsett strongly urged Malaco to release, also became a hit. Both songs are defined by two bar, off-beat bass lines and tight arrangements by Wardell Quezergue. [4]
Released on Knight's 1971 debut album of the same title, it became a huge crossover hit. The song spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Soul Singles chart and peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart, behind "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" by The Bee Gees. [5] Billboard ranked it as the No. 18 song for 1971. The song went double platinum and was the No. 1 Soul Single of the year. [3]
Knight performed the song on Soul Train on December 11, 1971, during its first season. [6] "Mr. Big Stuff" became one of Stax Records' more popular and recognizable hits. It was featured in the 2007 mini-series The Bronx Is Burning . It was nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance at the 1972 Grammy Awards.
The song is addressed to an egotistical man, nicknamed Mr. Big Stuff, by an indignant female narrator. The man, who has expensive cars and fancy clothes, breaks other girls' hearts. The narrator demands he act more maturely and return her love for him. This song features a backup female chorus intoning "Oh Yeah" once in the song's Intro, twice in the first verse, and twice in the third verse.
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom (BPI) [13] | Silver | 200,000‡ |
United States (RIAA) [14] | 2× Platinum | 2,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
No credits are listed for the Malaco studio musicians on the record. According to Rob Bowman's liner notes from the 1999 box set The Last Soul Company: Malaco, A Thirty Year Retrospective, the musicians for this session included:
During this time at Malaco, horn lines were typically played by saxophonist Hugh Garraway and trumpeter Peary Lomax.[ citation needed ]
Booker T. & the M.G.'s were an American instrumental R&B/funk band that was influential in shaping the sound of Southern soul and Memphis soul. The original members of the group were Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper (guitar), Lewie Steinberg (bass), and Al Jackson Jr. (drums). In the 1960s, as members of the Mar-Keys, the rotating slate of musicians that served as the house band of Stax Records, they played on hundreds of recordings by artists including Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Bill Withers, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Johnnie Taylor and Albert King. They also released instrumental records under their own name, including the 1962 hit single "Green Onions". As originators of the unique Stax sound, the group was one of the most prolific, respected, and imitated of its era.
Johnnie Harrison Taylor was an American recording artist and songwriter who performed a wide variety of genres, from blues, rhythm and blues, soul, and gospel to pop, doo-wop, and disco. He was initially successful at Stax Records with the number-one R&B hits "Who's Making Love" (1968), "Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone" (1971) and "I Believe in You " (1973), and reached number one on the US pop charts with "Disco Lady" in 1976.
Arzell J. "Z. Z." Hill was an American blues singer best known for his recordings in the 1970s and early 1980s, including his 1982 album for Malaco Records, Down Home, which stayed on the Billboard soul album chart for nearly two years. The track "Down Home Blues" has been called the best-known blues song of the 1980s. According to the Texas State Historical Association, Hill "devised a combination of blues and contemporary soul styling and helped to restore the blues to modern black consciousness."
James Carson Whitsett was an American keyboardist, songwriter, and record producer.
Jean Audrey Knight was an American R&B and soul singer from New Orleans, Louisiana. Launching her professional career in the mid-1960s, Knight was best known for her 1971 hit single "Mr. Big Stuff", released by Stax Records.
James Milton Campbell Jr., better known as Little Milton, was an American blues singer and guitarist, best known for his number-one R&B single "We're Gonna Make It". His other hits include "Baby, I Love You", "Who's Cheating Who?", and "Grits Ain't Groceries ".
Van Allen Clinton McCoy was an American record producer, arranger, songwriter and singer. He is known for his 1975 internationally successful hit "The Hustle". He has approximately 700 song copyrights to his credit, and produced songs by such recording artists as Gladys Knight & the Pips, The Stylistics, Aretha Franklin, Brenda & the Tabulations, David Ruffin, Peaches & Herb, Lesley Gore, and Stacy Lattisaw.
Shirley Brown is an American R&B singer, best known for her million-selling single "Woman to Woman", which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1975.
Tim Whitsett was an American music publisher, musician, songwriter, producer, author, and consultant. He was a founding member of the Imperial Show Band, a popular 1960s American musical group.
King Floyd was a New Orleans soul singer, best known for his top 10 hit from 1970, "Groove Me".
Malaco Records is an American independent record label based in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, that has been the home of various major blues and gospel acts, such as Johnnie Taylor, Bobby Bland, Mel Waiters, Z. Z. Hill, Denise LaSalle, Latimore, Dorothy Moore, Little Milton, Shirley Brown, Tyrone Davis, Marvin Sease, and the Mississippi Mass Choir. It has received an historic marker issued by the Mississippi Blues Commission to commemorate its important place on the Mississippi Blues Trail.
Wardell Joseph Quezergue was an American composer, arranger, record producer and bandleader, known among New Orleans musicians as the "Creole Beethoven". Steeped in jazz, he was an influential musician whose work shaped the sound of New Orleans rhythm and blues, funk and pop music. His role as an arranger and producer kept him out of the spotlight and enabled him to enhance the careers of many. He was a staple of the New Orleans music scene and the recipient of an honorary doctorate in music.
"Theme from Shaft", written and recorded by Isaac Hayes in 1971, is the soul and funk-styled theme song to the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film Shaft. The theme was released as a single two months after the movie's soundtrack by Stax Records' Enterprise label. "Theme from Shaft" went to number two on the Billboard Soul Singles chart and to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States in November 1971, and number one in Canada in December. The song was also well received by adult audiences, reaching number six on Billboard's Easy Listening chart and number four in Canada. The song is considered by some to be one of the first disco songs.
"Have You Never Been Mellow" is a song recorded by British-Australian singer Olivia Newton-John for her 1975 fifth studio album of the same name. Written and produced by John Farrar, the song was released as the lead single from the album in January 1975.
Sheree Jeacocke is a Canadian singer-songwriter.
"Groove Me" is a song recorded by R&B singer King Floyd. Released from his eponymous album in late 1970, it was a crossover hit, spending four non-consecutive weeks at number-one on Billboard Soul chart and peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Mr. Big Stuff is the debut studio album recorded by American singer Jean Knight, released in 1971 on the Stax label.
"To Be a Lover" is a song written by William Bell and Booker T. Jones originally as "I Forgot to Be Your Lover", but best known as a cover by Billy Idol on his third studio album Whiplash Smile (1986). As the album's lead single, it became Idol's second top ten hit in the US, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 22 on the UK Singles Chart.
George Henry Jackson was an American blues, rhythm & blues, rock and soul songwriter and singer. His prominence was as a prolific and skilled songwriter; he wrote or co-wrote many hit songs for other musicians, including "Down Home Blues," "One Bad Apple", "Old Time Rock and Roll" and "The Only Way Is Up". As a southern soul singer he recorded fifteen singles between 1963 and 1985, with some success.
Thomas Lee Tate, known as Tommy Tate, was an American soul singer and songwriter, who had three hits on the R&B chart in the 1970s.
Jean Knight's eternally badass soul strut "Mr. Big Stuff" peaked at #2...
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