Though few details are available, various US music sites are reporting the death, at age 72 of soul man ROBERT KNIGHT.
Best known for his hits ‘Everlasting Love’ and ‘Love On A Mountain Top’, Knight was born Robert Pebbles in Franklin, Tennessee in 1945. His first foray into the music biz was with a group, The Paramounts who recorded for Dot records. Contractual difficulties forced the group to split and Knight/Peebles went on to study chemistry at Tennessee State University, though he also joined the Fairlanes vocal trio.
In 1967 an exec from Rising Sons Records saw the Fairlanes at university concert and, impressed with Peebles/Knight, offered him a solo contract and his first record – ‘Everlasting Love’ became a top 20 hit in the US where it had competition from a version by Carl Carlton. In the UK it was covered by The Love Affair and that version rose to no. 1 on the UK pop charts
Knight enjoyed two further US hits – ‘Blessed Are The Lonely’ and ‘Isn’t It Lonely Together’ but in the UK his ‘Love On A Mountain Top’ became a, top 10 hit after regular exposure on the Northern soul scene; that success encouraged his label to reissue his version of ‘Everlasting Love’ and the gamble paid off; it became a top 20 hit.
Musically little is heard of Robert Knight after his recording of ‘Better Get Ready For Love’ in 1974. Reference works tell us that his most recent jobs were as a lab technician and grounds man at Tennessee’s Vanderbilt University.
