Chimneyville Album Discography
"Chimneyville" is the nickname for the city of Jackson, Mississippi. The name was coined
after Union forces under General Sherman burned the city to the ground in July, 1863, leaving only the
brick chimneys standing from what had once been elegant houses. The Chimneyville record label was a
subsidiary of Malaco Records, first distributed by Cotillion, then Atco, then TK. Malaco was started in
1962 as a booking agency in Jackson, Mississippi, by Mitchell Malouf, Tommy Couch, and Wolf
Stephenson. They also opened the Malaco recording studio in 1967, mostly recording local artists and
radio jingles, but licensed an album and a number of singles by Mississippi Fred McDowell to Capitol.
In 1970, New Orleans musician/producer/arranger Wardell Quezergue, who had a lengthy pedigree with New Orleans artists like Fats Domino and Professor Longhair, in addition to having been in Dave Bartholomew's band and the former owner of Nola Records ("Barefootin'" by Robert Parker), made Malaco an offer. He would bring artists up to Malaco to record, in exchange for the studio time and use of sessions musicians. Quezergue, known as "the Creole Beethoven" for his ability to arrange songs, brought a group of musicians (including King Floyd, Jean Knight, the Barons, and Bonnie & Sheila) to Jackson in May in a rented school bus. One of the songs recorded at this session was Jean Knight's "Mr. Big Stuff", and another, King Floyd's "Groove Me" (which was recorded in one take). The Malaco execs offered the songs to major R&B labels like Atlantic and Stax, but were turned down flat, the majors' A&R folks opining that the songs were "not commercial enough". In their frustration, Malaco started their own label, Chimneyville, and put out "What Our Love Needs"/"Groove Me" by King Floyd as their first single [Chimneyville 435]. "Groove Me" was originally the "B" side of the record, but it began being played in New Orleans by local deejay George Vinnet after he noticed the teenagers' reaction at his niece's party, and it took off. Atlantic belatedly and somewhat sheepishly called Malaco back and now agreed to distribute the record (and the Chimneyville label) through its Cotillion Records Division, and it went to #1 R&B and #6 pop. When "Groove Me" hit, Stax also reconsidered, and put out "Mr. Big Stuff" [Stax 0088], and it too made #1 R&B, reaching #2 pop. These hits put Malaco on the map.
King Floyd III was born in New Orleans and grew up in Kenner, a New Orleans suburb. As early as 1961
at the age of 16, he was playing in a bar on Bourbon Street starting his musical career, but this was
interrupted by a stint in the army. When he finished his army duty in November, 1963, he relocated to
New York, where he performed in clubs in Manhattan. After about a year in New York, he made his way
to Los Angeles, where in 1965 he recorded a single, "Walkin' and Thinkin'"/"Why Did She Leave Me" for
Art Laboe's Original Sound label [Original Sound 52]. In Los Angeles he met other New Orleans natives,
Harold Battiste and Mac "Dr. John" Rebennak. With Rebennack's co-writing and Battiste's arranging,
Floyd made some recordings for Mercury's Pulsar subsidiary which also resulted in an album in 1967,
A Man in Love [Pulsar AR-10602]. The album sold poorly (but after "Groove Me" hit, was reissued
by Motown's V.I.P. label as Heart of the Matter [V.I.P. VS-407]).
By September, 1969, at the age of 24, music was no longer making a living for him, and Floyd was working at a box factory in East Los Angeles. He became infatuated with a young college girl who worked on the floor near him, and wrote a poem for her. He was going to show it to her the next day, but she unexpectedly quit and he never saw her again. The poem was "Groove Me." Discouraged with everything, he moved back to New Orleans shortly after and went to work for the Post Office. Once in New Orleans, he crossed paths with Wardell Quezergue, who convinced him to record "Groove Me" using a funky arrangement, and convinced him to come with him to Jackson to record it at Malaco.
King Floyd became the best selling artist on Chimneyville, with sixteen singles (ten of which charted)
and four albums released on the label. Other top-40 R&B hits after "Groove Me" were "Baby Let Me Kiss
You" [Chimneyville 437, 3/71, #5 R&B/#29 pop], "Got to Have Your Lovin'" [Chimneyville 439, 8/71, #35
R&B/#101 pop], "Woman Don't Go Astray" [Chimneyville 443, 8/72, #3 R&B/#53 pop], and "I Feel Like
Dynamite" [Chimneyville 10202, 7/74, #35 R&B].
Other artists on Chimneyville included the Barons, Ltd., C.P. Love, Michael Hudson, Linda Gayle Harris, Jimmy Dobbins, Chuck Brooks, Dorothy Moore (before her big hit "Misty Blue" on Malaco), Billy Cee, Natural High, Willie Cobbs (noted blues singer who had the original of "You Don't Love Me" on Vee Jay in 1961), Joe Shanwell, the Fiestas, Sonny Crosby, the Invader Steel Band, Oba Watson, Frederick Knight, Fern Kinney, and McKinley Mitchell. None of these had chart success on Chimneyville except Dorothy Moore's duet with King Floyd ("We Can Love," Chimneyville 10207,10/75, #76 R&B) and McKinley Mitchell, whose "The End of the Rainbow" [Chimneyville 10219, 12/77, #71 R&B] was ironically the last chart record for the label.
