One of Stax Records' biggest hits, "Knock On Wood" soared to the top of the charts when it was released by soul legend Eddie Floyd in 1967. Floyd and Stax guitarist Steve Cropper wrote the bulk of the track, but according to Floyd, a then-24-year-old Isaac Hayes made a significant contribution as well.
"The song's bridge [hums the memorable, escalating horn arrangement] was done by Isaac," Floyd says. "He just happened to be in the studio when we were recording, and he came up with that. When we heard it, we were like, 'Yes! That sounds like music from a soap opera!' We were knocked out by it."
Floyd, who at age 73 has just released a superb new album titled Eddie Floyd Loves You, says "Knock on Wood" was also representative of how he and Cropper worked together. Holed up in a room at the tiny Lorraine Motel in Memphis (the same hotel where Martin Luther King, Jr. was later shot), the two came up with a melody inspired by some of Cropper's previous work.
"That intro is actually the intro to Wilson Pickett's 'In the Midnight Hour,' only it's turned around backwards," Floyd explains. "Only Steve could have thought to do that. He turned the chords around, using the song he had originally done with Pickett, and it all came together."
The lyrics proved a bit more problematic.
"We had that little melody," Floyd continues, "but we were having trouble coming up with the words. Suddenly it began thundering and lightning. Having grown up in Alabama, I told Steve, 'You know, the thunder here isn't quite as loud as it is where I grew up.' I told him how my brother and I used to hide under the bed during thunderstorms. Steve said, 'That's it! It's like thunder. Lightning. The way she loves me is frightening.' I put that in the melody, and it worked."
Floyd goes on to explain that the idea for the "knocks" in the song came on the same morning that Hayes came up with the bridge arrangement.
"Steve got the [session] guys locked into the groove," he says. "We were doing the song, and somehow we fitted the words 'knock on wood' into the tempo. The drummer, Al Jackson, said 'Let's put a break in it.' He told everyone to stop playing on the word 'knock,' and then he put them in there."
"Knock On Wood" was first offered to Otis Redding, but Atlantic Records honcho Jerry Wexler felt the song was better suited to Floyd himself. Stax president Jim Stewart at first resisted, but several months later, when the single at last saw the light of day, it became an instant smash. Later, artists ranging from David Bowie to Count Basie to Amii Stewart covered the song.
"I like Eric Clapton's," Floyd says, when asked which version is his favorite. "It was played all the time on Miami Vice. And I like Bowie's version too. When David did the song, in 1974, he came into Memphis and called up Stax and asked me to come down to see his show. I had to go out of town, unfortunately, but I like his version too. I also like Amy Stewart's version. I like them all."