King Floyd

King Floyd, the New Orleans soul singer most famed for his hit track "Groove Me," entered the world in the Crescent City on February 13, 1945, and grew up in the adjacent town of Kenner, Louisiana. During his early teens he sang on neighborhood corners, where he formed bonds with local players such as Earl King and Willie Tee. A pivotal introduction from New Orleans blues legend Mr. Google Eyes secured his first paid engagement at the Bourbon Street venue Sho-Bar in 1961, yet military service soon interrupted the promising start. After receiving his discharge from the army late in 1963, Floyd moved to New York City, where he signed with Shaw Artists and appeared regularly across Manhattan stages; he also began composing material, spurred by encouragement from Don Covay and J.J. Jackson. Roughly a year later he relocated to Los Angeles and struck up a friendship with fellow New Orleans transplant, composer/arranger Harold Battiste. Through Battiste he connected with DJ Buddy Keleen, who introduced him to the Original Sound label; the company released his first single, "Walkin' and Talkin'," in 1965. His debut album, the Battiste-arranged King Floyd: A Man in Love, appeared on Mercury’s Pulsar subsidiary in 1967, but it failed to register and, struggling to survive solely on songwriting income, Floyd returned to New Orleans in 1969.

Once home he became a family man and took a post-office position, yet within weeks he crossed paths with producer Wardell Quezerque, then employed at Malaco Records. On May 17, 1970, the pair traveled to Malaco’s Jackson, Mississippi, facility and recorded "Groove Me" in a single take during the same session that produced another Quezerque blockbuster, Jean Knight’s "Mr. Big Stuff." Floyd had written the song while employed at an East L.A. box factory as a tribute to a young college student on the staff; he intended to present her the lyrics the morning she suddenly resigned, after which he never saw her again. With Quezerque’s guidance he shaped the number into a deeply funky, percolating groove positioned between the finest work of James Brown and Otis Redding. Ironically, the track first surfaced on Malaco’s Chimneyville subsidiary merely as the B-side to Floyd’s soulful "What Our Love Needs." Only after New Orleans DJ George Vinnett turned the record over did "Groove Me" attract serious notice; as it became a local sensation, Atlantic secured national distribution rights. The single climbed to the top of the Billboard R&B charts, reached number six on the pop charts, and earned gold certification on Christmas Day of 1970. Floyd promptly left his civil-service post, embarked on a national tour, and returned to the R&B Top Ten early in 1971 with the follow-up "Got to Have Your Love," drawn from his self-titled Atlantic album.

Creative differences soon strained Floyd’s partnership with Quezerque, and later releases, among them the fine 1973 LP Think About It, drew scant interest. In an unexpected decision Atlantic extracted "Woman Don't Go Away" from the 1971 King Floyd album as a single, which received a gold record three years after its initial release. Atlantic’s arrangement with Malaco then concluded, prompting the latter to sign a new distribution pact with Miami-based TK; the label also assumed production duties for 1975’s Well Done, which contained the minor hit "I Feel Like Dynamite." Floyd parted ways with Malaco shortly thereafter and landed briefly with Mercury’s Dial subsidiary for the one-off single "Can You Dig It?"; simultaneously Malaco issued Body Language, a compilation of his previously unreleased material for the company. The rise of disco offered limited room for Floyd’s steadfastly Southern brand of soul, so in 1978 he moved back to Los Angeles hoping to revive his career and confront personal struggles. Three years later he returned to Kenner, where he arranged occasional local appearances and, in 1982, completed a month-long tour of South Africa. Over the next two decades Floyd moved in and out of the music business, ultimately delivering a fresh Malaco album, Old Skool Funk, in 2000.