When Jean Knight first hit the scene, she found immediate success with her number two hit single, Mr. Big Stuff. Minor success followed with additional singles, and Knight was poised to be one of the newest and hottest acts emerging on the 1970's R&B scene. However, disagreements with her label Stax, ultimately derailed this when her contract was terminated.
Though she would go on to release music through minor labels,she was unable to recreate the success of her fist hit, and wouldn't release a second full follow up album until 1981's Keep It Comin' on Cotillion Records. The record would fail to chart or produce any hits. It would be four more years before she returned to the studio, this time under the Mirage label, to record and release 1985's My Toot Toot.
The title track would prove to be a minor hit for Knight, reaching number fifty on the Billboard. It would also be her last charting song for the remainder of her career. Playing through it My Toot Toot, the album, it feels very dated for 1985. They overall synthpop sound feels years behind, in comparison to the music of that year. None of this is helped by the multiple covers of yesteryear which fill it. Knight even provides a revision of her hit, Mr. Big Stuff, which while certainly modernized, fails in comparison to the original.
The conundrum here is that while it sounds dated, it's still solid. What it lacks in hits, it makes up for in familiarity, and a comfortable sound which has long since been missing from music. It stands in the middle of the 80's era to say, "Hey, don't forget about where all of this came from." It's nice, and overall, I grabbed pretty much every track for my shuffle.
As for Jean, while she wouldn't release another album for twelve years, 1997's Shaki de Boo-Tee, she would fill her time in between by touring the world. She'd release a final album, Queen, in 1999, but again remain active touring until her death in 2023.
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS April 24, 1982 |
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