![\"\"](\"http:\/\/stallonezone.com\/zone\/2023\/z112723rip_jean_knight.png\")
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Jean Knight, born Jean Caliste, November 22, 2023, of natural causes.\u00a0 Ms. Knight was 80.<\/p>\n
Jean Caliste began singing professionally after she graduated high school.\u00a0 In 1965, Ms. Caliste was signed to Jet Star\/Tribe records.\u00a0 At that point she changed her professional name to Jean Knight.\u00a0 With Jet Star.\/Tribe she released four singles.\u00a0 Although she attracted local attention, the records never took off nationally.\u00a0 Jean Knight began working as a baker to make ends meet.<\/p>\n
In 1970, songwriter Ralph Williams and record producer Wardell Quezergue heard some of Jean Knight’s songs.\u00a0 They brought her in to Malaco Studios for a recording session where she recorded Mr. Big Stuff<\/em>.\u00a0 The song was shopped to several record companies.\u00a0 It was rejected by everyone.\u00a0 Then in 1971, King Floyd’s hit Groove Me<\/em> went to #1 on the R&B charts. It was recorded at Malaco Studios.\u00a0 At that point the producer at Stax records remembered another song recorded at Malaco Studios.\u00a0 That song was Mr. Big Stuff<\/em>,<\/p>\n When Mr. Big Stuff<\/em> was released it shot to the top of the charts.\u00a0 It went to #2 on the pop charts and #1 on the R&B charts.\u00a0 It sold over two-million copies and was awarded gold and platinum status.\u00a0 The song was also nominated for a Grammy<\/em> award for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0Although Ms. Knight never had another major hit, she continued touring for years.<\/p>\n Mr. Big Stuff<\/em> is one of those songs that everyone knows the words to.\u00a0 Years after it was popular, I gave my best friend the nickname Big Stuff<\/em>.\u00a0 It gradually morphed into Big Time<\/em>.\u00a0 He’s sometimes still called that today when friends from our group get together.<\/p>\n Our thoughts and prayers go out to Jean Knight’s family, friends and fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jean Knight, born Jean Caliste, November 22, 2023, of natural causes.\u00a0 Ms. Knight was 80. Jean Caliste began singing professionally<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17,64,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebs","category-music","category-rip"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34643"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34644,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34643\/revisions\/34644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}