Robert Knight

Robert Knight's reputation will forever rest on his status as a one-hit wonder, yet that single achievement—the glowing 1967 chart-topper "Everlasting Love"—ranks among the era's most distinguished soul performances. Born April 24, 1945, in Franklin, Tennessee, he initially attracted attention as a member of the Paramounts, the harmony quintet he assembled with school friends in 1959. After the group signed with Dot Records the next year, they notched an R&B hit in 1961 with "Free Me." When later singles failed to connect, the Paramounts disbanded, prompting Dot to initiate breach-of-contract proceedings that effectively stalled Knight's recording career for roughly five years. During that interval he majored in chemistry at Tennessee State University, where he also launched a new vocal trio, the Fairlanes. While performing with them he caught the ear of Buzz Cason and Fred Foster, who promptly signed him to their fledgling Rising Sons label as a solo act. Cason and Mac Gayden then co-wrote "Everlasting Love," whose expansive arrangement and Knight's impassioned reading drove the single straight into the Top 20 on both the pop and R&B charts. In 1968 the British group Love Affair reached number one in the U.K. with their version, relegating Knight's original to the lower reaches of the American Top 40. At home he managed modest pop entries with "Blessed Are the Lonely" and "Isn't It Lonely Together," and in 1973 he climbed to the British Top Ten with "Love on a Mountain Top." Thereafter Knight largely stepped back from music, devoting himself instead to chemical research. He died at his Tennessee home in November 2017 at age 72. "Everlasting Love" has continued to thrive, spawning successful covers by Carl Carlton, Rex Smith/Rachel Sweet, and Gloria Estefan.