King Floyd (February 13, 1945 – March 6, 2006) – Body English (1976)
The title track to Floyd's 1977 LP, this superb disco-funk jam was written by Bobby Marchan and co-produced by Malaco co-owners Tommy Couch and Wolf Stephenson.
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King Floyd was a New Orleans singer/songwriter best known for writing and recording his classic #1 R&B hit “Groove Me.”
King Floyd III was born in New Orleans and sang in bars on Bourbon Street when he was starting out as a singer. In the early sixties, the guitarist Barbara Lynn’s renown as a songwriter inspired him to begin writing his own songs. Lynn had recorded her first single “You’ll Lose A Good Thing” at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Recording Studio in New Orleans. She wrote the song herself and it topped the R&B charts in 1962.
After serving in the army, Floyd went to California, where he wrote what later became “Groove Me” as a poem. He planned to give it to a coed he had a crush on who worked with him at a box factory in East L.A., since he was too shy to ask her out. But after he wrote it, she never came back to work. “Man, I’d sure like to meet her one day just to thank her,” Floyd said in 1999.
Floyd went to work for the Post Office after returning to New Orleans in 1969. The next year, in May, 1970 he was persuaded by legendary producer/arranger Wardell Quezergue to join several other artists on a trip to Malaco Studios in Jackson, Mississippi. There, Floyd recorded “Groove Me.” During the same sessions, Jean Knight also recorded her future hit “Mr. Big Stuff.”
The tracks by Floyd and Knight were initially rejected by Stax and Atlantic after being submitted for distribution. In response, Malaco put out Floyd’s single on its own Chimneyville label. “Groove Me” was released as the B-side to Floyd’s “What Our Love Needs.” But DJ’s in New Orleans began playing “Groove Me,” and it became a local hit. Then Atlantic reversed its decision and picked up national distribution, and the record exploded.
“Groove Me” reached #1 on the Billboard Soul chart over four non-consecutive weeks in early 1971, and crossed over to the white pop charts, making it to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100. The record went gold and sold over one million copies. Floyd was able to quit his post office job and tour nationally, pursuing his musical career full time.
He released two albums on Atlantic’s subsidiary labels, his self-titled debut in 1971 on Cotillion and Think About it (1973) on ATCO. Floyd continued releasing records throughout the seventies, almost all of them on Chimneyville, but could never come close to the success of “Groove Me.”
Which is not to say some of his subsequent records weren’t great. In 1974, Floyd dropped the very funky single “I Feel Like Dynamite,” co-written and produced by Elijah Walker. It was a regional hit but wasn’t promoted enough to break nationally. The song was included on his Well Done (1975) LP released the following year on Chimneyville.
In 1976, he wrote the superb “Hey Baby (I'm Rappin' To You)” which was produced and arranged by Quezergue.
Floyd’s amazing disco funk jam “Body English” was also released in 1976. It was written by New Orleans singer/songwriter and drag queen performer Bobby Marchan, and produced by James Stroud and Malaco co-owners Tommy Couch and Wolf Stephenson.
The single went to #25 R&B, Floyd’s highest chart entry in years. It became the title track to his next album, Body English (1977), which was also a Chimneyville Records release, and the last record he would put out that decade.
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