r. Big Stuff" made an R&B singer from New Orleans named Jean Knight pretty big stuff in 1971. The song sold more than 2 million copies and became her biggest hit.

Debuting in the Billboard Top 40 on June 19, 1971, New Orleans soul songstress's "Mr. Big Stuff" rose to No. 2 on the pop chart for two weeks, after topping the R&B charts. It was taken from Knight's Mr. Big Stuff LP for Stax Records, which first charted on Aug. 21, 1971 and peaked No. 60 on the Hot 200 album chart. In 1990, Stax Records released the 16-track Jean Knight compilation Mr. Big Stuff, which included her biggest hit and other hits for the label, including "Think You're Hot Stuff" and "Carry On."

Born Jean Caliste on January 26, 1943, she started her career in local New Orleans clubs. Her first song, a cover of Jackie Wilson's "Doggin' Around," was recorded in 1965. The single had some top-notch instrumentalists backing it up; both Dr. John and Art Neville sat in on the session. She then formed a group called The Truetones for touring purposes before devoting herself full-time to studio work.

In 1970, thanks to some session work with arranger Wardell Quezerque, Jean was among several acts chosen to record some singles at the Malaco Studio in Jackson, Mississippi. Jean's effort was a song written by Joe Broussard, Ralph Williams, and Carrol Washington called "Mr. Big Stuff." Jean told author Rob Bowman for the book Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story Of Stax Records, "I really liked the lyrics of 'Mr. Big Stuff,' but it was an old-time melody. It was a sassy song but the way they had it sounding, it sounded sad, real sad. It just didn't go. I told them, 'Something's got to be done about this melody.' I knew enough about singing then to know that. This other songwriter, Albert Savoy, said, 'Well Jean, everybody know you to be sassy, you'll tell somebody off in a minute.' He said, 'Just get the attitude like you sacking a guy out.'... Believe it or not, I just read all the way through the song just like that. It was magic, it really was."

The song was offered to Stax Records, which politely passed. Other labels were also approached but with poor results. However, after another single recorded in the session, King Floyd's "Groove Me," reached the Billboard Top 10 on both the pop and R&B charts, Stax reconsidered taking on the Knight single. According to Jean it was a union that was meant to happen. She explained, "My faith had a lot to do with my success and how I happened to become affiliated with Stax. I had wanted to go with a big company where there weren't too many female vocalists, and Stax is both big and does not have many female vocalists."

"Mr. Big Stuff" repeated the formula of becoming both a pop and an R&B smash. Topping the R&B charts the single debuted at #92 on the pop charts and steadily climbed the Hot 100, ending up at #2 in its 12th chart week (behind The Bee Gees' "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart"). The song earned a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Song, and Jean received a nomination for Best Female R&B Performance. But her career couldn't reach those heights again. After bouncing around a number of labels, Knight finally emerged with a #50 hit called "My Toot Toot" in 1985. The following year, "Mr. Big Stuff" returned to the R&B charts in a rap version by Heavy D and the Boyz, which climbed to #60. The song was also used across films and covered many times, including in the 2005 movie Kinky Boots performed by soul singer Lyn Collins, and the 1994 Disney sports comedy-drama D2: The Mighty Ducks sung by Martha Wash.

Knight died of of natural causes on Nov. 22, 2023. She was 80. "[Jean] was the first person we appointed on the board when we took it over and we had a long relationship with her and she was just fabulous," said her friend and former Louisiana Music Commission director Bernie Cyrus. "She was always willing to get involved with good causes and help out." He continued: "'Mr. Big Stuff' -- it was just so universal. People remember it. And look, so many people covered it. But nobody did it like Jean."

- Christopher G. Feldman, The Billboard Book of No. 2 Singles, Billboard, 2000.

 

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