Jean Knight — most famous for her hit ‘Mr. Big Stuff’ — has died … this according to reports.
An unattributed press release purporting to be the soul singer and New Orleans native’s obituary is making the rounds online — and if it’s to be believed … it says JK passed away last Wednesday, although the circumstances surrounding her death are unclear for now.
Knight’s 1971 song is easily her biggest claim to fame, but it’s a huge contribution to music and pop culture. ‘Mr. Big Stuff’ not only performed incredibly well on the charts when it came out — including five weeks at #1 on the Billboard Soul Singles chart, and peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 — but it ended up being featured in numerous films and TV shows.
Just a handful of series that used ‘MBS’ … ‘Family Guy,’ ‘black-ish,’ ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,’ ‘Everwood’ and ‘The Deuce’ — just to name a few. On the movie front, it got played in Will Ferrell’s ‘Semi-Pro.’ Beyond that … the track got remixed/sampled a ton over the years.
Some of that notable acts who flipped this gem … Heavy D & The Boyz, Eazy-E, TLC, Queen Latifah, Everclear, Girl Talk, Beastie Boys and John Legend. ‘Mr. Big Stuff’ had also been covered a handful of times … famously by Precious Metal, Lyn Collins and many others.
Jean had recorded lots of other songs throughout her career … but none ever reached the success of ‘Big Stuff.’ Some of her other notable singles … “My Toot Toot,” “You Think You’re Hot Stuff,” “Carry On,” “Helping Man,” “Do Me,” “Jesse Joe (You Got to Go)” … and more.
She was 80.
RIP
