What else could you entitle an Eddie Floyd biography? His signature song, from Stax Records in 1966 has long been a classic and Floyd was a major figure and the reason the label was so successful for a decade and a half. 

Naturally, Floyd sang gospel music growing up Alabama. True to the migration patterns of black folks back then, the family moved north to Washington and eventually Detroit. While in Detroit, Floyd help form the Falcons, a group which spring boarded the careers of the Wicked Wilson Pickett and Mack Rice, who became one hell on a songwriter. It was Stax’s business manager Al Bell who recruited Floyd—previously Bell as deejay Washington—to come Stax, not originally as an artist, but a songwriter. Bell’s hunch paid off handsomely and immediately, when teamed with Steve Cropper, the due penned “634-5789.” When it came time for Floyd to record, Cropper and Floyd brought in “Knock On Wood,” which cleverly included to intro to Pickett’s hit “In the Midnight Hour”—played backwards. 

Floyd’s Stax tenure also includes such hits as “Big Bird” and the rousing “Raise Your Hand.” Floyd entertainingly documents the hay days at Stax in the studio and on the road and also sometimes painfully the labels abrupt demise. Always a trooper, in the ashes of Stax, Floyd was able to go from strength to strength—and still is. It’s a good, well-researched personal memoir, one that if you’re into the sound, you’ll certainly enjoy reading.