Frederick Knight "I've Been Lonely For So Long" (1973 Stax)

Southern soul rarely if ever sounded so, so good. Simultaneously smooth and raw, “Lonely” has an immediacy that hits you where you live and then sticks around for a little while, taking up space on your sofa.
Frederick Knight’s catchy “I’ve Been Lonely for So Long” was a sizable RB hit on Stax in 1972, and he wrote and produced Anita Ward’s across-the-board smash “Ring My Bell” in 1979. Knight cut his own “I’ve Been Lonely for So Long” in Birmingham, Alabama with a seasoned southern soul crew behind him, and hit again in 1975 with “I Betcha Didn’t Know That.”
Mr. Knight uses his fine falsetto to best effect on the title song, which made it to #8 in the R&B charts in 1972. He also plays piano, organ, drums and percussion all over this self-produced 1973 Stax reissue. The album has plenty of fine songs. “ I Let A Chance Go By” is a wonderful mid-tempo look at regret and misery. Could it be a woman making Frederick so unhappy? Possibly. The vaguely doo-wopish ‘Now That I’ve Found You” is also worth a play or ten. Knight can manage funky, too, as he does on “Your Love’s All Over Me/ Take Me On Home Witcha/ Pick ‘Um Up, Put ‘Um Down”. His cover of ‘Someday We’ll Be Together” is great.
Frederick Knight was one of the many crooning Soul singers that signed to Stax. The title cut is a perfect example of his style with its light and catchy air led by Knight’s singing and the guitar. Trouble is in a similar vein. On the other hand, Friend and Lean On Me show a down home southern Soul feel to them, while ‘Take Me On Home Witcha” and “I Let My Change Go By” are more upbeat numbers. There’s also “Your Love’s All Over Me” and “Pick Um Up, Put Um Down” that get a little funky, especially the former track that has a little James Brown in it. Knight is even able to add his how style to the Motown song “Someday We’ll Be Together” that ends the album. The funky numbers are an added bonus, but it’s really the Soul of the record that holds its value. (The Vinyl Hound)Singer/keyboardist/songwriter/producer Frederick Knight (born in Birmingham, Alabama on August 15, 1944) registered three times on the national R&B charts, with one Billboard Pop Hot 100 cross-over in addition to one other on the Billboard Pop Hot 100 Bubble Under listings. Finding them all in one quality CD is, however, impossible, likely because they involve 3 different labels.

As a recording artist, Knight cut Throw The Switch for Mercury in 1970 but it never was released. He then recorded Have A Little Mercy (On Me) and Sauerkraut for Bill Lowery's Atlanta-based 1-2-3 Records that same year, but despite a distribution arrangement with the giant Capitol, it went nowhere when paired as 1-2-3 P-1724. Two years later he hooked up with the Memphis-based Stax Records, now owned by Al Bell, and in his first release took a song he had co-written called I've Been Lonely For Too Long to # 8 R&B/# 27 Hot 100 in the April-June stretch of 1972 as Stax 0117 b/w a cover of the Bill Withers hit Lean On Me. A month later another of his co-compositions, Trouble, just missed the Hot 100 at # 102 Bubble Under as Stax 0139 b/w his self-penned Friend.

All that earned him the 1973 album "I've Been Lonely Too Long" (Stax STS-3011) which is what you see here converted to CD format in 1991. All 4 sides of those two chart entries are included, as are both sides of the failed This Is My Song Of Love To You b/w Take Me On Home Witcha as Stax 0167 (both sides again co-written/written by Knight). In April 1974, Stax combined another album track, I Let My Chance Go By, with a new cut, Suzy (written by Knight) as Stax 0201, but it too failed to create national interest. Musicians/vocalists heard on the album are lead/rhythm guitarist Jesse Carr, rhythm guitarist Jerry Weaver, acoustic guitarist Glen Wood, baritone saxophonist Ronnie Eades, tenor saxophonists Aaron Varnell (also percussionist) and Harvey Thompson, trumpeter Harrison Calloway, bassists Aaron Varnell, Randy Carmichael and Jesse Boyce, pianist/organist Herbert Ivey (in addition to Knight himself), drummers Eddie Massey, Freeman Brown and, again, Knight himself, and backing vocalists Aaron Varnell, The Excavations and Sam Dees.

In June, Knight was switched to the Stax subsidiary, Truth Records, for the release of Passing Thru b/w Sometimes Storm (Truth TRA-3202) which flopped, but in March-April 1975 he made it to # 27 R&B with I Betcha Didn't Know That as Truth TRA-3216 b/w Let's Make A Deal. That was followed by the failed I Wanna Play With You b/w I Miss You as Truth TRA-3228. Knight had a hand, or wrote, all 6 sides. By this time Stax was on shaky ground, and after the label folded Knight and his friend Clinton Harris launched their own Juana Records, and from 1976 to 1982 Frederick wrote for and produced the 7 charting sides registered by The Controllers, a quartet from his native Alabama, as well as the two by Anita Ward, including her monster # 1 Pop (2 weeks) and # 1 R&B (5 weeks) Ring My Bell.

He also released 4 of his own, only one of which, a cover of the Barry Manilow Pop hit The Old Songs, managed to chart at # 74 R&B in Nov 1981 b/w Bundle Of Love as Juana 3700. The 3 that failed were Sit Down On You Love b/w Staying Power (Juana 3415 in 1978), Let Me Wring Your Bell Again b/w When It Ain't Right With My Baby (Juana 1948 in 1980), and You're The Best Thing In My Life b/w When Will Love Need Me? (Juana 1300 in 1982). Knight co-wrote or wrote them all except You're The Best Thing In My Life and The Old Songs. (The Soul Detective)

trax:

01 i've been lonely for so long 02 this is my song of love to you 03 take me on home witcha 04 friend 05 i let my chance go by 06 your love's all over me 07 pick'um up put'um down 08 now that i've found you 09 lean on me 10 trouble 11 someday we'll be together

...Many Thanks To Jillem For The Share! served by Gyro1966...