The “Golden Hits Of The 70s”
Main MenuConcept Refinement The Author..Wayne JancikGolden Age Of The 50sGolden Age Of The 60s1970s and There After
AMII STEWART
KNOCK ON WOOD
(Eddie Floyd, Steve Cropper)
Ariola 7736
No. 1 April 21, 1979
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“I’ve never bought a disco record in my life,” Amii Stewart told Record Mirror’s Paul Sexton. “And I don’t
want to buy one. When I go home and close the door, I don’t want my brains to be blown out.” A peculiar
comment indeed, considering that Amii’s “Knock on Wood,” her one and only international chart-topper,
was one of the hottest disco disks of 1979.
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Amy Stewart was born in 1956 in Washington, DC, the daughter of a top-secret Pentagon man. As a child,
she was given music and dance lessons. She attended Howard University, but left to work with the D.C.
Repertory Dance Company, where she studied ballet and modern dance. In 1975, she joined the Miami
cast of Bubbling Brown Sugar and, soon after, the Broadway cast. Amii also appeared in The Return of
the Pink Panther (1975), King Kong (1976), and the Muhammad Ali story, The Greatest (1977).
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Stewart’s big break–that is, music break–came in 1977, when one of her old dance instructors, bringing
Bubbling Brown Sugar to London, picked Amii to not only join him as assistant director but also play one
of the lead roles. The part offered Amii the opportunity to show off her vocal abilities on “I Got It Bad”
and the title tune. Sitting in the audience one night was songwriter/producer Barry Leng, who was
looking for a female to cut a demo on a tune that he and his associate Simon May had written. Amii
agreed to give the song a whirl. The demo turned out so well that Leng and May walked the tape into the
offices of Hansa Productions. “You Really Touched My Heart” was released, and sold fairly well in
Europe.
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Peter Meisel, Hansa’s part-owner and controller, suggested that Amii remake one of his ’60s favorites,
Eddie Floyd’s “Knock on Wood,” for her next single. Disco or not, Stewart initially seemed to like the
idea. “Pete went in and did the track,” Stewart told Blues & Soul, “and when I heard it, I just flipped out!
In fact, I asked him what I was supposed to sing since the track sounded so good just as it was.”
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The disk was a knockout with both pop (#1) and R & B (#6) audiences worldwide. An altered, appended,
and equally discofied remake of the Doors’ classic “Light My Fire/137 Disco Heaven” (#69; R&B: #36,
1979) followed, and sold fairly well. A year later, Amii dueted with JOHNNY BRISTOL on a reworking of
Mary Wells/the Temptations'”My Guy/My Girl” (#63; R&B: #76, 1980), which was a moderate success.
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In 1984, Amii had a Top 10 in the U.K. with “Friends.” ‘The track is totally different from anything I’ve
ever done, thank God,” Stewart told Record Mirror. “You can’t spend your life singing songs like ‘Knock
on Wood.”‘ The following year, however, Amii’s “Knock on Wood” was remixed and recharting in
England. A few more albums have been issued, with limited success.
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